Directed by:
Steven SpielbergScreenplay:
Tony KushnerCinematography:
Janusz KaminskiCast:
Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, David Alvarez, Ariana DeBose, Rita Moreno, Corey Stoll, Brian d'Arcy James, Maddie Ziegler, Mike Faist, Ana Isabelle (more)VOD (4)
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From producer and director Steven Spielberg, with a script by screenwriter and playwright Tony Kushner, comes West Side Story. An adaptation of the 1957 musical, the film tells the tale of forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. (Disney / Buena Vista)
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After seeing West Side Story, it occurs to me that this is turning out to be a great year for musicals. Unlike Annette, which exhibits a clash of different poetics, West Side Story is, in its basic outlines, a pure musical melodrama about love that does not distinguish between good and evil; only its lack of an overture and intermission prevent it from being perfect. Spielberg and Kushner did not radically alter the timeless story of the multiple characters, who are prevented by violence, poverty and racism from fulfilling their dreams of building something of value on the ruins in which they live. Rather, they just fleshed out Tony’s past, added one important character (stylishly played by Rita Moreno), made the female characters stronger and more active, changed the order of certain songs, and made the motifs particularly relevant for the present day (racial violence, immigrants vs. white trash, tradition vs. foreign cultural influences). In comparison with the 1961 adaptation, the cast is more diverse (no whites playing Puerto Ricans, plus a lot of deliberately un-subtitled Spanish lines), as is the ensemble of characters (which include a trans boy). The actors, particularly Ariana DeBose as Anita, are fantastic, and the way Spielberg (or rather Kaminski) uses colour to differentiate the characters and bring clarity to the scenes in which several of them appear at once is admirable. Together with the specific lighting, choice of locations and camera movements, the colours also help to define the feuding sub-worlds, whose conflicts (whether physically, when the Jets and Sharks rumble at midnight, or in a parallel cut) are the emotional highlights of the film. And emotion is plentiful in West Side Story. The version from the 1960s, to which I returned a few days ago, is a nice colouring book and I watched it mostly with detached appreciation. Spielberg's treatment, which adroitly dances between the reality of the gritty New York streets and stylisation in the mould of classic Hollywood musicals, absolutely captivated me from the mambo in the school gym (which, like latter-day America, is a great, colourful celebration of life) and I just continued to be carried away, thrilled and moved by it. That’s not even to mention the clear arrangement of the dance scenes, the smooth tempo changes and the brilliant rhythmisation achieved through in-camera editing, which is not surprising for a director who also shoots action and comedy scenes as musical numbers. 90%
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Well well well, so here we have the dueling of two 1960s teenage youth magazine clubs for the New York slums. One is Polish and the other is Puerto Rican immigrants, all of which kind of doesn't matter because this whole patch of heaven is going to be gentrified by an excavator in a few weeks. Into the mix, reformed delinquent Tony falls for the sister of the gang boss next door, but she's promised to a timid Puerto Rican, and together they plan to disappear, while the rival clubs finally want to give each other a decisive shake with an outcome that will finally settle who's going to be the boss of the neighborhood for the few days before the city lets the place get demolished to shit. All of this is watched by a transsexual from a hiding place. If that's not too many dogs for one rabbit, I don't know what is. I guess the musical is supposed to be able to handle all of this, because all these subplots and subplots are just to motivate those dance and singing parts that we're all surely looking forward to. The reality is that while the dancing parts are truly fabulous, the singing parts are total gulag. So we the film ends up split into two completely different parts: scenes that I could play over and over again, in which impossibly statuesque immigrants jump on anything in the vicinity, fight over a gun, and rebuild a police station in incredible choreography, and scenes where the protagonists rip the proverbial singing shirts off each other in horribly stupid and pathetic duets where the words don't even fit the melodies, but they're trying so vehemently to get the biggest end notes out of the actors, and they're all in unnecessary high notes. It's a pure 5 stars vs. 1 star conflict, so the rating could be budgeted according to how much running time any given scene takes up, but the singing ones number subjectively in the hundreds, and can only be endured by trying to discover where the subconscious motivation for a blowjob is encoded there. And then there are two other contradictory elements. On the good side are the fail-safe anamorphic lenses and the properly lubricated camera crane arms of the best choreographer of them all, Janusz Kaminski. However, his obsession with opposing lights has by now reached such a level that the gunfight scene ends up with two suns shining against each other. Oh, and on the dark side is Ansel Elgort, who I think will be an excellent character actor sometime after he turns 40, when that dramatic look of his can be combined with some sharper features and a more polished delivery. At the moment, unfortunately, he has no charisma. He comes across as a nerd who knows the script backwards from memory, went to singing school six days a week for two years, ate nothing but egg yolks for six months, but doesn't really bring any personality to the film. PS: Ironically, the most sympathetic character in the film is Krupke, the cop who has to keep an eye on those bunch of over-the-top demented dudes, be their angel cop at the dance, and they make fun of him all the time, even though he clearly has a never-voiced sympathy for them. Likewise, the film uncharacteristically defends the penal system because it revolves entirely around a character who has returned after a year in juvie actually reformed and wiser than the others. You wouldn't exactly expect a film like this to side with the system.
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Not having seen the original yet – shame on me – I approached Steven Spielberg's film with a clean slate, but at the same time I had certain expectations given the director's name and the load of Oscars the 1961 film won. At first, second, and indeed any other glance, it's a modern adaptation of the Romeo and Juliet love story, where instead of aristocratic families we have street gangs of rival nationalities who are momentarily at odds, with fatal consequences. Spielberg's artful direction, catchy musical and dance numbers and an all-around likeable cast make West Side Story an enjoyable film that's well suited to cinema screens. PS: Rita Moreno, hats off!
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Since the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Steven Spielberg has been waiting for his dream to come true and make a musical. And we waited with him, continually reassured by his impeccable sense of the fusion of image and music, that when it happened, it would be something. And finally, here’s West Side Story, And, of course, it is something. A firework of colourful directorial ideas that do not draw attention to themselves and, hand in hand with Bernstein's brilliant music, dance, rejoice, celebrate life and love for two and a half hours. A joy to look at, a joy to listen to. Any changes from the previous film are only for the better in my opinion, as many of the characters are more fleshed out and virtually no slightest plot line goes to waste. The biggest change is the Rita Moreno’s new character, but even she has her place in the plot, and is incredibly vital and sings like an angel at almost 90 years old. Ansel Elgort's acting reminded me immensely of a young Harrison Ford, his Tony is – again thanks to the script – much more interesting than Beymer's, and I think it was a great idea to put so many jokes in the song "Maria", even though it might seem that it doesn't fit. I hope we get to see Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose in future films because they are both adorable. This is certainly not the last time I’m watching West Side Story in the cinema.
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Compared to the original, this spectacular revival of the classic musical benefits from its outstanding modern rendering and is thus catchier and has a generally quicker pace. The actors are great and the song-and-dance sequences are phenomenal. And the songs – not only about love and celebration of life, but also about discrimination and violence – have not lost their power and relevance even after all these years. Furthermore, they are performed in service of this great film, which boldly matches the qualities of its predecessor, showing us that the motif of racial conflict still remains a relevant social issue today.
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Photo © 20th Century Studios / Amblin Entertainment
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