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.
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