West Side Story (2021)
Dec. 10th, 2021 09:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWatched it yesterday, with one lone other person in the cinema, since in Germany you currently don't have to be only vaccinated, you also have to have a negative test for the day in addition to this to visit museums, concerts, and movies. I loved it. Hats off to Spielberg and Tony Kushner and the entire creative team.
Now, the last time I watched West Side Story was a theatrical production at the Salzburg Festival in 2016, starring Cecilia Bartoli, and I have the movie on dvd . However, I'm not a musician, and while I have West Side Story (and Romeo & Juliet) opinions, I don't have a platonic ideal production. (This one won't be it, either.) With this said, here are my impressions:
Music: hearing Leonard Bernstein's glorious composition (and Sondheim's clever wordplay) in a cinema was a big reason why I didn't wait until this one got streamed. God knows when I'll be able to hear it live again, and it was wonderful. Now, one of my West Side Story opinions is that I think it's better if the cast aren't opera singers (Bartoli in the Salzburg production excepted). Yes, I did listen to the Bernstein-conducted cd, and while that sounds beautiful, the voices destroy any illusion that most of the cast are young people, which is kind of essential to me for the tragedy and urgency of the story. Which is why I thought this version, where the singing is good (no one's voice does what the movie version of Phantom of the Opera did with Gerald Butler massacring the Phantom) but in a human, not inhumanely perfect way was just right for me. There was also the extra poignancy of Sondheim's recent death hanging over it at some points. One thing I had been wondering about till the last trailer was whether the film would use the stage or the first film version of America, and had been desperately hoping for the later, and the last trailer showed a tiny excerpt of it, so I was already reassured on that count. (Because I much prefer movie!America with the far more biting - and more relevant now than ever - lyrics.) However, whoever did the German subtitles for this film had evidently just been lazy and gotten themselves a scriptbook for the German stage version of West Side Story, which meant that the subtitles for America were completely off. Tsk, subtitling people. Anyway, Spielberg's movie maintained another alteration from the 1961 film, which was the switching of "Officer Kruppke" and "Cool" in the order in which they're sung. (Stage versioni: first "Cool", then "Kruppke"; movie versions: the other way around.) However, the 2021 film changed the context for both, especially "Cool", which I'll get to in a moment when talking about the script, including who sings it, in a way I haven't seen in any other production, and I wonder whether it'll catch on. Who sings "Somewhere" is also changed, in a very poignant way, again, more to that in a moment, and the context and to whom Tony sings his first song.
Dancing: found the right balance between paying homage to Jerome Robbins' legendary choreography and doing its own thing, imo. One directorial choice I wasn't sure about was that by the time "America" ended, everyone around the Sharks and their girls noticed they were dancing and responded to it in-universe as something unusual happening, while other dancing numbers (like the opening) evidently happened in musical-world where dancing is nothing out of the ordinary. Pick one or the other, Spielberg, I say. Otoh, he and his long term director of cinematography used the camera so well along with the movements that I didn't really mind. As with every production, the outstanding dancers to remain in your mind are the ones playing Anita, Bernardo and Riff, though in this particular case for a quite different reason I'll add Chino.
Script: The different reason being that Kushner really did more than just tweaking some words in Arthur Laurents' original script. There's a lot additional character and background stuff, along with some ruthless pruning. (Gone are Maria and Bernardo's off stage parents, whose voices can be heard in the "Tonight" scene and who are referenced in dialogue a few times in the original version, but who never show up. Tony's equally off stage mother who is referened in dialogue between him and Riff, and him and Maria, also doesn't make the cut.) Chino is a case in point. When in the original the only thing you can say about him is that he's a bit shy, and then later he's at hand to shoot Tony in the finale, here while still a minor supporting character he has a personality and character moments to endear him to the audience. Unlike most of the Sharks, he can't dance, but he knows Maria wants to, and the moment when he knowingly takes the step to goofily start dancing, looking like a fool, so she can have her dance is awfully endearing, even Maria is charmed, and suddenly you can see them actually work out in another life time. Later, he has a moment with Tony (pre-rumble) that draws a parallel between them as the two sensible half outsiders to their respective gangs, which is mirrored fateful minutes later when Tony holds Riff's dead body in exactly the way Chino holds Bernardo's. Suddenly, Chino becoming a killer isn't a plot device but a tragedy of its own.
This is but one example of what Kushner did. His script also firmly addresses what Laurents' original script avoids, the fact that the old West Side was in the process of being torn down to make place for gentrification and the Lincoln Center at the time the story is set. Kushner's version incorporates this, big time, and so does Spielberg's opening which shows not the silhouette of Wise's film but the partially already destroyed houses and ruins. That the Jets and Sharks fight over territory that's diminishing by the day and in the process of being taken away from both becomes a plot point, and also comes up in the chatter of Maria's friends and colleagues leading up to "I Feel Pretty" when they talk about whether or not to accept the resettlement cheque (if you accept it, as one of them points out, you have to move at once).
Kushner's script also throws something into stark relief which is already there in the original but not highlighted. The Puertorican characters have jobs and work hard at them - Anita still does her sewing, but Maria and friends now work the late night cleaning shift at a department store. Bernardo is a boxer. Chino is a future accountant. Gang violence to them is something they see as a necessary evil/self defense, not the endgame. Whereas the Jets, with the exception of Tony don't have jobs, they have no hope or goal for a different future, they have resentment, with the gang being the endgame and the sole source of positive emotions along with the echo chamber of the negative ones. Riff here has a nihilistic streak a mile long beneath the cheerful veneer, and definitely suicidalness mixed into his recklessness. (Highlighted in an additional scene where he acquires the play's Chekovian gun that will later end up with Chino from adult hoodlums.) Which brings me to the recontextualization of "Cool" I mentioned earlier. In this film, Tony sings it to Riff in an attempt to talk him out of the rumble, having taken the gun from him. Riff's attempts to get the gun back mean he and Tony improvise a spontanous first mock and then increasingly serious almost-fight/dance, which does double duty as highlighting there's a reason Tony used to be co-leader of a streetfighting gang, and only the last section, when Riff has managed to get the gun and the other Jets have joined him, has them singing the song back at Tony in a reverse of its meaning. It's a fascinating new interpretation, which also accomplishes another first for me. Now, I've seen productions of Romeo and Juliet which lean into the homoeroticism of the Romeo and Mercutio friendship - Zeffirelli's movie comes to mind - and I have seen productions that avoid this altogether. But no previous production of West Side Story I've seen has shown Riff and Tony as anything other than buddies. Except this one. Eye of the beholder and all that, but to me, this new "Cool" was bursting with subtext and I wouldn't surprised if a new 'ship came out of it.
Another thing changed in Kushner's script is the reason why Tony basically has outgrown the Jets when the story starts. In Laurents' original version, he just has, he's ready for the adult life of job earning and, well, something new. In Kushner's script, he's actually on parole, having served one year in prison for the beating up and near-killing of another boy in the Jets' previous gang war. The realisation that he only didn't become a killer by the lucky survival of the guy in question and the awareness of what he's capable off is why he's determined not to be a Jet anymore. The job at the drugstore is his last chance, which he's very aware of. It's given to him by a new character, because Valentina - the role specifically written for Rita Moreno - isn't just female Doc, with unchanged lines. (All her dialogue with Tony is new.) In-universe, she's the widow of the dead owner of "Doc's Drugstore". She's also Puertorican while he wasn't. (In a way, she and her late husband are the life Tony and Maria will never have.) This gives her a perspective on the Jet/Shark feud and everything else which Doc in the original script, being a middle aged white man, just can't have, and so the script giving her the song "Somewhere" (which is placed just after she heard how the rumble turned out, and starts when she, shattered, rerturns to her store, sees the photo of her dead husband) isn't just because she's played by Rita Moreno but is entirely fitting in context (and heartbreaking).
Visuals: like I said, the way the camera moves with and around the cast is amazing. There are a few obvious show-off shots (the Jets meeting the Sharks for the rumble being one of them, which is why it's in the second trailer), and a lot more great details. For example, the entire "Tonight" scene between Tony and Maria keeps various elements of the fire stairways and balcony between them at nearly all points, which emphasizes the claustrophobia of their world and their need to burst out. That the West Side is in the process of being torn down makes for a war zone look in general, which means when we're at the nightly department store where Maria works in the cleaning crew, the luxury feels extra jarring. Some years back, when I saw Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, I was amused that all the American scenes were in bright colors, sunshine, whereas in Berlin it was greyness and bad/cold weather all around. Here, the grey ruins are in America istself while the bright primary colors are almost all associated with the immigrant characters and their surroundings.
In conclusion: loved it. The only negative review I've seen so far grumbled that Spielberg did a "safe nostalgia period piece" instead of letting Kushner update the script far more radically to the present day. To which I say, firstly, there is nothing nostalgic about the story told in this movie, and secondly, the contemporary relevance of it is obvious and a reason why no one would want to live in its era just because the petticoats look good. Now, would I be interested in a production which does try a contemporary setting (presumably not at the Lincoln Center but in some other part of NYC or the country), with different groups feuding? Sure. For example: Bring on the tale of Maryam from Iraq and Tony the US Southerner, why not? Meanwhile, though, I find this particular film something that was a moving, sometimes exhilarating and sometimes shattering viewing experience to me.
Now, the last time I watched West Side Story was a theatrical production at the Salzburg Festival in 2016, starring Cecilia Bartoli, and I have the movie on dvd . However, I'm not a musician, and while I have West Side Story (and Romeo & Juliet) opinions, I don't have a platonic ideal production. (This one won't be it, either.) With this said, here are my impressions:
Music: hearing Leonard Bernstein's glorious composition (and Sondheim's clever wordplay) in a cinema was a big reason why I didn't wait until this one got streamed. God knows when I'll be able to hear it live again, and it was wonderful. Now, one of my West Side Story opinions is that I think it's better if the cast aren't opera singers (Bartoli in the Salzburg production excepted). Yes, I did listen to the Bernstein-conducted cd, and while that sounds beautiful, the voices destroy any illusion that most of the cast are young people, which is kind of essential to me for the tragedy and urgency of the story. Which is why I thought this version, where the singing is good (no one's voice does what the movie version of Phantom of the Opera did with Gerald Butler massacring the Phantom) but in a human, not inhumanely perfect way was just right for me. There was also the extra poignancy of Sondheim's recent death hanging over it at some points. One thing I had been wondering about till the last trailer was whether the film would use the stage or the first film version of America, and had been desperately hoping for the later, and the last trailer showed a tiny excerpt of it, so I was already reassured on that count. (Because I much prefer movie!America with the far more biting - and more relevant now than ever - lyrics.) However, whoever did the German subtitles for this film had evidently just been lazy and gotten themselves a scriptbook for the German stage version of West Side Story, which meant that the subtitles for America were completely off. Tsk, subtitling people. Anyway, Spielberg's movie maintained another alteration from the 1961 film, which was the switching of "Officer Kruppke" and "Cool" in the order in which they're sung. (Stage versioni: first "Cool", then "Kruppke"; movie versions: the other way around.) However, the 2021 film changed the context for both, especially "Cool", which I'll get to in a moment when talking about the script, including who sings it, in a way I haven't seen in any other production, and I wonder whether it'll catch on. Who sings "Somewhere" is also changed, in a very poignant way, again, more to that in a moment, and the context and to whom Tony sings his first song.
Dancing: found the right balance between paying homage to Jerome Robbins' legendary choreography and doing its own thing, imo. One directorial choice I wasn't sure about was that by the time "America" ended, everyone around the Sharks and their girls noticed they were dancing and responded to it in-universe as something unusual happening, while other dancing numbers (like the opening) evidently happened in musical-world where dancing is nothing out of the ordinary. Pick one or the other, Spielberg, I say. Otoh, he and his long term director of cinematography used the camera so well along with the movements that I didn't really mind. As with every production, the outstanding dancers to remain in your mind are the ones playing Anita, Bernardo and Riff, though in this particular case for a quite different reason I'll add Chino.
Script: The different reason being that Kushner really did more than just tweaking some words in Arthur Laurents' original script. There's a lot additional character and background stuff, along with some ruthless pruning. (Gone are Maria and Bernardo's off stage parents, whose voices can be heard in the "Tonight" scene and who are referenced in dialogue a few times in the original version, but who never show up. Tony's equally off stage mother who is referened in dialogue between him and Riff, and him and Maria, also doesn't make the cut.) Chino is a case in point. When in the original the only thing you can say about him is that he's a bit shy, and then later he's at hand to shoot Tony in the finale, here while still a minor supporting character he has a personality and character moments to endear him to the audience. Unlike most of the Sharks, he can't dance, but he knows Maria wants to, and the moment when he knowingly takes the step to goofily start dancing, looking like a fool, so she can have her dance is awfully endearing, even Maria is charmed, and suddenly you can see them actually work out in another life time. Later, he has a moment with Tony (pre-rumble) that draws a parallel between them as the two sensible half outsiders to their respective gangs, which is mirrored fateful minutes later when Tony holds Riff's dead body in exactly the way Chino holds Bernardo's. Suddenly, Chino becoming a killer isn't a plot device but a tragedy of its own.
This is but one example of what Kushner did. His script also firmly addresses what Laurents' original script avoids, the fact that the old West Side was in the process of being torn down to make place for gentrification and the Lincoln Center at the time the story is set. Kushner's version incorporates this, big time, and so does Spielberg's opening which shows not the silhouette of Wise's film but the partially already destroyed houses and ruins. That the Jets and Sharks fight over territory that's diminishing by the day and in the process of being taken away from both becomes a plot point, and also comes up in the chatter of Maria's friends and colleagues leading up to "I Feel Pretty" when they talk about whether or not to accept the resettlement cheque (if you accept it, as one of them points out, you have to move at once).
Kushner's script also throws something into stark relief which is already there in the original but not highlighted. The Puertorican characters have jobs and work hard at them - Anita still does her sewing, but Maria and friends now work the late night cleaning shift at a department store. Bernardo is a boxer. Chino is a future accountant. Gang violence to them is something they see as a necessary evil/self defense, not the endgame. Whereas the Jets, with the exception of Tony don't have jobs, they have no hope or goal for a different future, they have resentment, with the gang being the endgame and the sole source of positive emotions along with the echo chamber of the negative ones. Riff here has a nihilistic streak a mile long beneath the cheerful veneer, and definitely suicidalness mixed into his recklessness. (Highlighted in an additional scene where he acquires the play's Chekovian gun that will later end up with Chino from adult hoodlums.) Which brings me to the recontextualization of "Cool" I mentioned earlier. In this film, Tony sings it to Riff in an attempt to talk him out of the rumble, having taken the gun from him. Riff's attempts to get the gun back mean he and Tony improvise a spontanous first mock and then increasingly serious almost-fight/dance, which does double duty as highlighting there's a reason Tony used to be co-leader of a streetfighting gang, and only the last section, when Riff has managed to get the gun and the other Jets have joined him, has them singing the song back at Tony in a reverse of its meaning. It's a fascinating new interpretation, which also accomplishes another first for me. Now, I've seen productions of Romeo and Juliet which lean into the homoeroticism of the Romeo and Mercutio friendship - Zeffirelli's movie comes to mind - and I have seen productions that avoid this altogether. But no previous production of West Side Story I've seen has shown Riff and Tony as anything other than buddies. Except this one. Eye of the beholder and all that, but to me, this new "Cool" was bursting with subtext and I wouldn't surprised if a new 'ship came out of it.
Another thing changed in Kushner's script is the reason why Tony basically has outgrown the Jets when the story starts. In Laurents' original version, he just has, he's ready for the adult life of job earning and, well, something new. In Kushner's script, he's actually on parole, having served one year in prison for the beating up and near-killing of another boy in the Jets' previous gang war. The realisation that he only didn't become a killer by the lucky survival of the guy in question and the awareness of what he's capable off is why he's determined not to be a Jet anymore. The job at the drugstore is his last chance, which he's very aware of. It's given to him by a new character, because Valentina - the role specifically written for Rita Moreno - isn't just female Doc, with unchanged lines. (All her dialogue with Tony is new.) In-universe, she's the widow of the dead owner of "Doc's Drugstore". She's also Puertorican while he wasn't. (In a way, she and her late husband are the life Tony and Maria will never have.) This gives her a perspective on the Jet/Shark feud and everything else which Doc in the original script, being a middle aged white man, just can't have, and so the script giving her the song "Somewhere" (which is placed just after she heard how the rumble turned out, and starts when she, shattered, rerturns to her store, sees the photo of her dead husband) isn't just because she's played by Rita Moreno but is entirely fitting in context (and heartbreaking).
Visuals: like I said, the way the camera moves with and around the cast is amazing. There are a few obvious show-off shots (the Jets meeting the Sharks for the rumble being one of them, which is why it's in the second trailer), and a lot more great details. For example, the entire "Tonight" scene between Tony and Maria keeps various elements of the fire stairways and balcony between them at nearly all points, which emphasizes the claustrophobia of their world and their need to burst out. That the West Side is in the process of being torn down makes for a war zone look in general, which means when we're at the nightly department store where Maria works in the cleaning crew, the luxury feels extra jarring. Some years back, when I saw Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, I was amused that all the American scenes were in bright colors, sunshine, whereas in Berlin it was greyness and bad/cold weather all around. Here, the grey ruins are in America istself while the bright primary colors are almost all associated with the immigrant characters and their surroundings.
In conclusion: loved it. The only negative review I've seen so far grumbled that Spielberg did a "safe nostalgia period piece" instead of letting Kushner update the script far more radically to the present day. To which I say, firstly, there is nothing nostalgic about the story told in this movie, and secondly, the contemporary relevance of it is obvious and a reason why no one would want to live in its era just because the petticoats look good. Now, would I be interested in a production which does try a contemporary setting (presumably not at the Lincoln Center but in some other part of NYC or the country), with different groups feuding? Sure. For example: Bring on the tale of Maryam from Iraq and Tony the US Southerner, why not? Meanwhile, though, I find this particular film something that was a moving, sometimes exhilarating and sometimes shattering viewing experience to me.
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Date: 2021-12-10 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2021-12-10 03:30 pm (UTC)One spoiler
Date: 2021-12-10 04:31 pm (UTC)Re: One spoiler
Date: 2022-01-07 09:49 pm (UTC)Re: One spoiler
Date: 2022-01-08 09:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-10 04:32 pm (UTC)AGREED.
Kushner's version incorporates this, big time, and so does Spielberg's opening which shows not the silhouette of Wise's film but the partially already destroyed houses and ruins. That the Jets and Sharks fight over territory that's diminishing by the day and in the process of being taken away from both becomes a plot point
Oooh, I love this!
Thanks so much for your thoughts! I'm really glad to hear it's so good. I'm still probably not going to see it in the theater for reasons but now I kind of wish I could!
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Date: 2021-12-11 07:17 am (UTC)Re: voices, in the special edition dvd of the 1961 movie I have, there are clips of undubbed footage showing the cast singing their past before the profession singers overdubbed them - which Natalie Wood especially was hurt by, since she had worked very hard to do right by Maria. The documentary intercuts both versions for Maria, Anita, Riff and Tony, and I had the impression that basically the actors were on a level of, say, the BTVS cast in Once More With Feeling (the musical episode), which is to say that while you wouldn't send them on a concert tour, they sing well and put a lot of character in their song interpretations. Now today the trend goes in the other direction - i.e. not hire professional singers but let the actors do it - which can go very wrong (again, Gerald Butler as the Phantom comes to mind, and I'm also not keen on Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd for reasons that have nothing to do with all the reveals in the last decade, it's because for this particular part, I do want someone on an operating level) - yet in general I think it's preferable if you have someone able to do both, the acting and the singing.
...which is yet another reason why I'm glad they gave "Somewhere" to Rita Moreno, who, after all, was dubbed in 1961 as well. She sings it beautifully.
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Date: 2021-12-13 08:24 pm (UTC)Yes, this is the thing I liked most about this particular production. Everyone sang well enough to not be distracting and were clearly cast on both their acting and singing skills.
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Date: 2021-12-11 04:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-11 06:58 am (UTC):boggles:
Has the reviewer ... ever seen the show? Any version of it? It's about racism and gang violence and rape and hate and ... safe? Nostalgia? Now, you can go harder on some of those things today than you could 60 years ago, but ... you couldn't make it a "safe nostalgic period piece" without cutting out about 3/4 of the plot.
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Date: 2021-12-11 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-12 03:55 pm (UTC)For some reason, I am just obsessed with the notion of Rita Moreno singing "Somewhere." It seems like it would be a gaping hole in the story, not to have it in its usual place, but also just so beautiful to give her such an iconic song when she was not done entirely right by in the original film. (Which came out the year I was born, and I am turning 60 shortly before the new year.)
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Date: 2021-12-14 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-12-25 06:51 am (UTC)Now, one of my West Side Story opinions is that I think it's better if the cast aren't opera singers (Bartoli in the Salzburg production excepted).
Yes, very much agree with this! Like you say, there's the age thing, but also for me there is honestly something of a... distancing to how opera singers sing. I mean, the technique is amazing and it's really neat that you can get that kind of timbre and volume to come out of a human throat, but because there's so much technique to it, it also to me often doesn't mimic the visceral "I can pretend this is someone speaking, only in music" that musical-singers can convey to me.
Dancing: heh, when I first watched the movie it took me a while to get used to dancing being normal in-universe (it doesn't bother me when watching a live musical because it's already in a highly stylized format).
I really like what you say about how everyone gets a backstory (and oof, your discusison of Chino makes me now sort of want a 5 things fic of lives Maria didn't live, that worked out). And Rita Moreno, wow! I'm really interested to see this, although the way things are going I may have to wait for streaming.
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Date: 2021-12-25 02:30 pm (UTC)That is very true. It's odd, I never had a problem with accepting dancing when watching a filmed musical. Perhaps that year kid!me spent learning ballet was of use after all!