"West Side Story" (2021)

Ever since it became known that director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner were planning a remake of the 1961 Oscar winning film classic "West Side Story", I have been anxiously awaiting the release of this new version.  The COVID pandemic delayed its scheduled 2020 release to 2021, and today, I got to see it on a big screen in a dark movie theater.  It was wonderful.

Let's get the subject of remaking classic movies out of the way first.  I have written on this topic many times, and I think i made my feelings best known in this post from September, 2016.  Read it now to get my full opinion if you're interested, but in short, I have no problem with remakes if they are done right and with quality.  The presence of Speilberg and Kushner on the project assured, or should assure, movie lovers of that.

On to the movie.

Speilberg has kept "West Side Story" as a period piece, set in late 1950's era New York City as urban renewal is busting up neighborhoods in the name of  Robert Moses' idea of "progress."  You probably all know the story...gang/turf warfare between second and third generation Americans of Eastern European descent, the Jets, and first generation Puerto Rican immigrants, the Sharks....former Jets leader Tony falls in love with Maria, the sister of Sharks leader Bernardo...current Jet leadership wants Tony to come back to the gang to rumble with the Sharks and drive them out for good...Bernardo wants the Sharks to rumble to stake their claim to the neighborhood and, more specifically, to personally beat the shit out of Tony for daring to fall for his sister...tragedy ensues.  

Yes, Bill Shakespeare did this first back in the 17th century when he wrote "Romeo and Juliet", Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim took it to Broadway in 1957, and Robert Wise put it on screen in 1961.  All were brilliant, and Speilberg's 2021 version is AT LEAST as good, and probably better than the '61 film version.  It is sure to reap many Oscar nominations, and I hope that Speilberg can snag another Oscar for his mantel for directing his first musical film.

A nod to the actors in the lead roles:

Tony - Ansel Elgort

Maria - Rachel Zegler

Anita - Ariana DuBose

Bernardo -  David Alvarez

Riff - Mike Faist

Valentine - Rita Moreno

Elgort, Alvarez, and Faist all present  greater "street cred" as gang bangers than did Richard Beymer, George Chakiris, and Russ Tamblyn in the 1961 version. I can never be negative toward Natalie Wood, but I will give the nod to Zegler in this version because (a) she is authentically Latina, and (b) she did her own singing, unlike Wood in the prior film.  I will call it a draw between DuBose and the sixty years younger Rita Moreno as Anita.  And bringing the now 90 year old Moreno to play the owner of the drug store (she's Doc's widow in this version) was a master stroke by Spielberg.  She is tremendous.  Could she be the first person to receive an Oscar for playing different roles in two versions of the same movie?

Some other specific observations....

• The magnificent Bernstein/Sondheim music is still there.  Nothing taken out, nothing added.  If you tell me that these are the greatest lyrics ever written for a musical, I won't argue with you.
• Kushner gave Tony a back story.  We now know why he is working a steady job and trying to stay away from the gang life.
• The staging of "Tonight" as performed by Tony and Maria had me in tears.  Literally.  Lots of reasons for that, not the least of which were Zegler's and Elgort's singing and that it is just a beautiful song when heard in the context of the show.
• The dancing in this version was less balletic and more muscular (my God but that sounds pretentious on my part doesn't it?) than in the 1961 movie.  Made it more believable to me.  Particularly, the opening number, "When You're A Jet", and "Cool."
• Speilberg took "America" off of the rooftops and put it into the streets, and it was fabulous.  Led by DuBose and Alvarez, it was probably the best dance number in the show.

• The staging of the dance number in the gym, where Tony and Maria first meet, is almost identical to the original version, but you somehow feel closer to the action in this one.
• A fabulous presentation of "Tonight Quintet", maybe my favorite number in the play/movie, when the Jets, the Sharks, Anita, Tony, and Maria all sing about what is about to happen "tonight."
• The issues addressed in this show - immigration, prejudice, intolerance - are as relevant in 2021 as they were in 1957 and 1961, maybe even more so, and this version addresses those issues, but it doesn't bang you over the head with a hammer (as Hollywood sometimes tends to do) in doing so.
• A note to "Hamilton" fans.  Ariana DuBose played the role of The Bullet in the original Broadway production and the film version of  "Hamilton" that can be currently seen on the Disney+ streaming service.

I will tell you that if you refuse to see this movie because "there is no reason to remake" classic movies, you are being foolish and depriving yiouself of something really special.  If you do see it, and cannot bring yourself to admit that it is AT LEAST as good as, and perhaps even better than, the 1961 film, you just may have no soul.

"West Side Story" is the best movie that I have seen in 2021.  A full Four Stars from The Grandstander.

 

THIS Is Why You Do Movie Remakes

A few weeks ago, after seeing the movie "In The Heights" I made the comment on Facebook that seeing a great musical such as this had really put me in the mood and anxious to see the new version of "West Side Story" from director Steven Spielberg that will be released later this year. 

Well, as you might expect, this produced a whole bunch of comments along the lines of "I'll NEVER go see a remake of such a classic movie" or "Why are they doing this?" or "How can someone even THINK of tampering with such a classic?"  It was almost as if someone was painting a Groucho Marx mustache on the Mona Lisa.

I have written on the topic of movie remakes many times, most notably HERE and and on West Side Story specifically in this past post so I will not go chapter and verse today, but let me recount one incident from my vacation last week that brought home yet another reason WHY it is not necessarily a mortal sin to remake a classic movie.

In discussing "In The Heights" with our nieces Jennifer and Jill, both of whom are in the neighborhood of fifty years of age, and Jen's son Zach, 25, who is living in Los Angeles and working on a behind the cameras career in the film industry, Marilyn and I brought up Spielberg's upcoming "West Side Story."  None of them, it turns out, had ever seen the 1961 Academy Award winning "West Side Story"!  Oh, they know the story and many of the songs, but they had never seen this classic film, but they are planning on seeing the new version of this movie.

So there you have it.  A remake of a classic film exposes new generations of viewers to a classic piece, not only of American filmmaking, but of American theater.  And at our urging, each of them said that the release of this version will prompt them, either before or after, to see the 1961 version.  That alone is a good reason to remake a Classic.  Of course, the new version of such a film needs to be well done and of high quality, too, and with Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner working with such quality source material, who can doubt that 2021's "West Side Story" will be of high quality?

Those who dismiss it out of hand and refuse to see it, could be depriving themselves of a wonderful experience.

"West Side Story" Thoughts

This past Friday evening we watched the great movie "West Side Story" on TCM.  Now I happen to love "West Side Story". I have seen the movie countless times and have seen at least one professional stage production of this classic and, dare I say, groundbreaking American musical.  However, when watching it the other night, I found that it might be, well, I hesitate to use the word "dated", but a person under the age of thirty who is seeing this for the first time in 2018 might not take to it quite like theater audiences did in 1957 and movie audiences did in 1961.

You all know the story, but if you don't its original source material is William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", which was written and first staged in England back in 1597.  The setting is the west side of New York City and it involves juvenile gangs and delinquency, specifically turf warfare between white American kids (the Jets) and Puerto Rican kids (the Sharks) who have emigrated to America.  Trouble is always percolating between the rival Sharks and Jets, but it comes to a head when Tony, the former leader of the Jets who has left the gang to move onto adult things, falls in love with Maria, the younger sister of Sharks leader, Bernardo.  Trouble and tragedy ensue and are played out to the terrific score of Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein and fabulous choreography throughout.

The themes are timeless, but when you think of hard ass gang bangers here in 2018, you don't think of Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris and the rest of the cast doing ballet type movements and rousing dance numbers on the streets and rooftops of New York City.

 Beymer with Natalie Wood

Oscar winner Chakiris (center)

 Rita Moreno, another Oscar winner

 Tamblyn (L) and the Jets

When you're a Jet,

You're a Jet all the way....

What I am leading up to here (finally) is the fact that serious discussions are taking place in Hollywood to do a re-make of "West Side Story". Now I know that this will bring out screams and anguish along the lines of "How could they possibly think that remaking this Oscar winning classic is a good idea?  Why this verges on sacrilege!!!"

I have written on the subject of remakes before, and while I agree that some things just shouldn't be done ("Casablanca", for example), if a remake is done well and is good, and if it has something new to say or a different spin to put on a work, why not?  The names associated with this proposed remake of "West Side Story" are director Stephen Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner.  These are heavy hitters, folks, and their association with the project pretty much guarantees that this will not be a schlocky, fly-by-night production.  No one is talking about changing any of these wonderful songs, either, so I, for one, will look forward to seeing how Spielberg and Kushner will present this classic story.