![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
West Side Story thoughts
So after a lot of hemming and hawing, I donated 20 bucks to the local nonprofit that serves sexual assault victims and went to see West Side Story and I loved it.
The usual scattered thoughts below the cut.
+ Kushner's script absolutely improves on the original. Putting the whole story against the backdrop of the razing of the Jets' neighborhood for the building of Lincoln Center was such a good idea, and the production design follows through with it, creating a kind of post-apocalyptic world for the characters to move through. It really underlines the fact that these kids are all the sweepings of the street--their homes are about to literally be swept away to create a fancy place for rich people. They have no hope and no future, which is both their own fault and the result of their environment.
+ This is contrasted with the newly Puerto Rican parts of town which are just as poor and grimy but are full of life and color and, well, industry. The bit with the Spanish-language sign hanging over the sign of what used to be an Irish pub was a little on-the-nose, but it's also probably a thing that happened often in that very literal way.
+ It also contrasts the way those who have privilege often give up when they don't feel that they have that privilege anymore. All the Puerto Rican kids have jobs; none of the Jet kids do. The Puerto Rican kids have plans for the future, all of them; the Jets care about nothing except keeping their turf and each other.
+ Obviously, the parallels with today are obvious. The filmmakers could have easily gone too heavy-handed with the parallels, but I think they managed to make it extremely relevant to our current racial/immigration moment without beating us over the heads with it. (Ymmv, of course. I can see some people thinking it was too heavy-handed.) The heartbreaking part is how little anything has changed.
+ A+++ casting. Truly. (With the caveat that--almost--everyone is too old to be playing the characters they play, but then that's the case with almost every version of Romeo and Juliet ever made.) Rachel Zegler is the Maria we deserve. Ariana DeBose and David Alvarez were not quite as incredible as Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, but then what two human beings ever could be? They were still so good and hats off to them.
+ The true standout for me was Mike Faist, who was out-of-this-world good as Riff. And I say that as a lifelong Russ Tamblyn fan. This Riff is a live wire, and you absolutely believe he's spoiling for a fight every single moment of his life and that he will indeed die young (as he himself tells us) because he's going to hurl himself into any available fight he comes across, and if he doesn't come across enough of them, he'll start them. We don't even need to know what his backstory is (though the film gestures at it more than the original did) because we know it's got to be brutal to produce a guy like him. And yet he's still sympathetic imo. Like I want to yell at him and smack him upside the head, but I also want him to pull out of the dive even though I know he's not going to.
+ Ansel Elgort was fine as Tony. I wonder if I would have liked his performance more if I didn't know about him as a person? I don't think he was quite on the level of the rest of the cast, but he does at least have a nice voice, which counts for a LOT with me.
+ Speaking of which: everybody could sing!!! This was not like many of the Hollywood musicals of the past decade or two where they cast for the big names and those big names are just not up to the music they've got. I kept waiting for sour notes from the leads, especially, and it just didn't happen. THANK GOD.
+ The score remains one of the greatest ever written. Lenny, I love you so much.
+ I feel like whoever conducted didn't imbue it with quite as much energy as the original but that could just be because my ear is so set to the original soundtrack.
+ The dancing was not quite as good as the Jerome Robbins original, but it was still very strong. It incorporated some of the most iconic stuff (the snapping and ballet moves from the intro, the cha-cha in the Dance at the Gym, etc.) but did new things with it. And you could actually see the dancing most of the time, which is my number one priority.
+ My main complaint was the "America" number. Don't get me wrong: it was good! But they turned it into much more of a set piece that incorporated more of the neighborhood, and although that was lovely, I am so in love with the original where it's literally just these insanely good dancers doing insanely good choreography and that's all. (When it comes to dancing, I just want to see the dancing. Like my favorite Infinite mv of all time is still the Be Mine dance mv where it's literally just the guys dancing in front of a plain wall. If the choreo's strong enough? That's all I need.)
+ The blocking of the Tonight scene where there's always something in between Maria and Tony, something separating them? Not at all subtle but then no one ever called Spielberg sublety, and more importantLy: it works.
+ They moved some of the songs around and it worked!!! Having Tony sing Cool to Riff while trying to get him to call off the rumble was such a good move!!!
+ There were pluses and minuses of moving I Feel Pretty to after the rumble. On the one hand, it kind of interrupts the tide of emotion; on the other hand, the idea that Maria's singing this giddy, joyful song while her world has already been shattered and she doesn't even know it yet...devastating.
+ Tony has a backstory in this film and it's a really good one that really works and gives some real weight to the fact that he's pulled back from the Jets. It also makes his inevitable descent into violence that much more tragic. You know that's not what he wants.
+ LOVELOVELOVE that they created a character just for Rita Moreno. Love that. So much.
+ Also love that they let her sing Somewhere. By giving her that song instead of Tony and Maria, it becomes not just a specific song about these two kids and their impossible love, but a song about everyone who's ever wanted more than the world of systemic oppression allows them.
+ This Tony and this Riff are exes. No question. Like, past Riffs and Tonys I've seen have some homoerotic subtext, but I never believed they fucked. These two fucked and it was everything to Riff and while Tony definitely loved Riff, it was more of a comfort friendship thing to him. Like he was never in love in the same way. So he doesn't understand why Riff is like this now.
+ Tons more Spanish, thank God. The songs all remain in English, but the Puerto Rican characters speak Spanish to each other and when they do speak English to each other, there's a believable reason (Anita wants them to practice).
+ CHINO IS A REAL CHARACTER. And I like him. I was rooting for him even though I knew what he'd end up doing. Such a good move.
+ The rumble is much more graphically violent than the original. This is not a complaint, but I won't lie: I closed my eyes during a lot of it.
+ I sometimes felt like the direction was too busy. Too many closeups, etc. Not enough that it affects the quality of the movie, but enough to be noticeable. But perhaps it will grow on me.
+ Unlike the original film, which feels claustrophobic since it never moves out of the space of a few blocks (read: a few sets), this remake is aware of and occasionally visits the other parts of New York. Which I think loses a biiiit of the claustrophobia but substitutes the realization of how small the kids' world is and how petty it is to be fighting over this tiny bit of street.
+ There's this scene where Riff has bought a gun and the Jets are running around in the rubble of demolished buildings shouting "Pow! Pow!" like little kids playing superhero and it's so good. Just: yes.
+ I loved that Graziella and the other white girl protested when the Jets started attacking Anita.
+ They didn't do well in letting us connect names with faces. Other than Baby John and Anybodys (who are obvious from one look), I couldn't tell you which of the actors were playing which of the Jet characters, and I couldn't tell you any of the Sharks' names. But they made Anybodys explicitly trans so that's something!
+ The scene where Maria is getting up the morning after the Tonight scene with Tony incorporated some of the music from the Symphonic Dances and I can't remember if that's in the original or not, but it was so good and did I mention that I love Leonard Bernstein with all of my heart? And that's him at his Copland-y-est, so obviously I love it.
+ This is a remake that loves and honors the original. The fabric pieces Anita has over the window create the colored glass look in a really great way. The credits reference the original while taking the premise a step further. I missed Anita's purple dress from the gym dance scene but I loved that we got Maria's white one with the red belt. Since I love and honor the original, that meant a lot to me.
+ And yes, I absolutely stayed through the entire credits to listen to the music. And then listened to the original film soundtrack on the way home. And promptly downloaded the new soundtrack as soon as I got home and am listening to it now. LENNY.
The usual scattered thoughts below the cut.
+ Kushner's script absolutely improves on the original. Putting the whole story against the backdrop of the razing of the Jets' neighborhood for the building of Lincoln Center was such a good idea, and the production design follows through with it, creating a kind of post-apocalyptic world for the characters to move through. It really underlines the fact that these kids are all the sweepings of the street--their homes are about to literally be swept away to create a fancy place for rich people. They have no hope and no future, which is both their own fault and the result of their environment.
+ This is contrasted with the newly Puerto Rican parts of town which are just as poor and grimy but are full of life and color and, well, industry. The bit with the Spanish-language sign hanging over the sign of what used to be an Irish pub was a little on-the-nose, but it's also probably a thing that happened often in that very literal way.
+ It also contrasts the way those who have privilege often give up when they don't feel that they have that privilege anymore. All the Puerto Rican kids have jobs; none of the Jet kids do. The Puerto Rican kids have plans for the future, all of them; the Jets care about nothing except keeping their turf and each other.
+ Obviously, the parallels with today are obvious. The filmmakers could have easily gone too heavy-handed with the parallels, but I think they managed to make it extremely relevant to our current racial/immigration moment without beating us over the heads with it. (Ymmv, of course. I can see some people thinking it was too heavy-handed.) The heartbreaking part is how little anything has changed.
+ A+++ casting. Truly. (With the caveat that--almost--everyone is too old to be playing the characters they play, but then that's the case with almost every version of Romeo and Juliet ever made.) Rachel Zegler is the Maria we deserve. Ariana DeBose and David Alvarez were not quite as incredible as Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, but then what two human beings ever could be? They were still so good and hats off to them.
+ The true standout for me was Mike Faist, who was out-of-this-world good as Riff. And I say that as a lifelong Russ Tamblyn fan. This Riff is a live wire, and you absolutely believe he's spoiling for a fight every single moment of his life and that he will indeed die young (as he himself tells us) because he's going to hurl himself into any available fight he comes across, and if he doesn't come across enough of them, he'll start them. We don't even need to know what his backstory is (though the film gestures at it more than the original did) because we know it's got to be brutal to produce a guy like him. And yet he's still sympathetic imo. Like I want to yell at him and smack him upside the head, but I also want him to pull out of the dive even though I know he's not going to.
+ Ansel Elgort was fine as Tony. I wonder if I would have liked his performance more if I didn't know about him as a person? I don't think he was quite on the level of the rest of the cast, but he does at least have a nice voice, which counts for a LOT with me.
+ Speaking of which: everybody could sing!!! This was not like many of the Hollywood musicals of the past decade or two where they cast for the big names and those big names are just not up to the music they've got. I kept waiting for sour notes from the leads, especially, and it just didn't happen. THANK GOD.
+ The score remains one of the greatest ever written. Lenny, I love you so much.
+ I feel like whoever conducted didn't imbue it with quite as much energy as the original but that could just be because my ear is so set to the original soundtrack.
+ The dancing was not quite as good as the Jerome Robbins original, but it was still very strong. It incorporated some of the most iconic stuff (the snapping and ballet moves from the intro, the cha-cha in the Dance at the Gym, etc.) but did new things with it. And you could actually see the dancing most of the time, which is my number one priority.
+ My main complaint was the "America" number. Don't get me wrong: it was good! But they turned it into much more of a set piece that incorporated more of the neighborhood, and although that was lovely, I am so in love with the original where it's literally just these insanely good dancers doing insanely good choreography and that's all. (When it comes to dancing, I just want to see the dancing. Like my favorite Infinite mv of all time is still the Be Mine dance mv where it's literally just the guys dancing in front of a plain wall. If the choreo's strong enough? That's all I need.)
+ The blocking of the Tonight scene where there's always something in between Maria and Tony, something separating them? Not at all subtle but then no one ever called Spielberg sublety, and more importantLy: it works.
+ They moved some of the songs around and it worked!!! Having Tony sing Cool to Riff while trying to get him to call off the rumble was such a good move!!!
+ There were pluses and minuses of moving I Feel Pretty to after the rumble. On the one hand, it kind of interrupts the tide of emotion; on the other hand, the idea that Maria's singing this giddy, joyful song while her world has already been shattered and she doesn't even know it yet...devastating.
+ Tony has a backstory in this film and it's a really good one that really works and gives some real weight to the fact that he's pulled back from the Jets. It also makes his inevitable descent into violence that much more tragic. You know that's not what he wants.
+ LOVELOVELOVE that they created a character just for Rita Moreno. Love that. So much.
+ Also love that they let her sing Somewhere. By giving her that song instead of Tony and Maria, it becomes not just a specific song about these two kids and their impossible love, but a song about everyone who's ever wanted more than the world of systemic oppression allows them.
+ This Tony and this Riff are exes. No question. Like, past Riffs and Tonys I've seen have some homoerotic subtext, but I never believed they fucked. These two fucked and it was everything to Riff and while Tony definitely loved Riff, it was more of a comfort friendship thing to him. Like he was never in love in the same way. So he doesn't understand why Riff is like this now.
+ Tons more Spanish, thank God. The songs all remain in English, but the Puerto Rican characters speak Spanish to each other and when they do speak English to each other, there's a believable reason (Anita wants them to practice).
+ CHINO IS A REAL CHARACTER. And I like him. I was rooting for him even though I knew what he'd end up doing. Such a good move.
+ The rumble is much more graphically violent than the original. This is not a complaint, but I won't lie: I closed my eyes during a lot of it.
+ I sometimes felt like the direction was too busy. Too many closeups, etc. Not enough that it affects the quality of the movie, but enough to be noticeable. But perhaps it will grow on me.
+ Unlike the original film, which feels claustrophobic since it never moves out of the space of a few blocks (read: a few sets), this remake is aware of and occasionally visits the other parts of New York. Which I think loses a biiiit of the claustrophobia but substitutes the realization of how small the kids' world is and how petty it is to be fighting over this tiny bit of street.
+ There's this scene where Riff has bought a gun and the Jets are running around in the rubble of demolished buildings shouting "Pow! Pow!" like little kids playing superhero and it's so good. Just: yes.
+ I loved that Graziella and the other white girl protested when the Jets started attacking Anita.
+ They didn't do well in letting us connect names with faces. Other than Baby John and Anybodys (who are obvious from one look), I couldn't tell you which of the actors were playing which of the Jet characters, and I couldn't tell you any of the Sharks' names. But they made Anybodys explicitly trans so that's something!
+ The scene where Maria is getting up the morning after the Tonight scene with Tony incorporated some of the music from the Symphonic Dances and I can't remember if that's in the original or not, but it was so good and did I mention that I love Leonard Bernstein with all of my heart? And that's him at his Copland-y-est, so obviously I love it.
+ This is a remake that loves and honors the original. The fabric pieces Anita has over the window create the colored glass look in a really great way. The credits reference the original while taking the premise a step further. I missed Anita's purple dress from the gym dance scene but I loved that we got Maria's white one with the red belt. Since I love and honor the original, that meant a lot to me.
+ And yes, I absolutely stayed through the entire credits to listen to the music. And then listened to the original film soundtrack on the way home. And promptly downloaded the new soundtrack as soon as I got home and am listening to it now. LENNY.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
They have no hope and no future, which is both their own fault and the result of their environment.
I really liked that this is not either/or, but both/and. Because that strikes me as very true to rl.
Mike Faist as Riff: so very true. It's a completely different interpretation from Russ Tamblyn - whom I've also loved -, and it really gets under your skin. Btw, someone told me that Kushner gave all of the actors lengthy backstories for their characters, whether or not these made it into the script, so he did have Riff's whole life written out.
Chino: yes, this! Until this movie, I hadn't realised how much of a plot device he usually comes across as. (To be fair, that's true of Count Paris in R & J as well.)
"I feel pretty" - though didn't the original stage play already put it past rumble? I seem to remember it this way from the 2016 Salzburg production I saw. (Which because of its central concept - old Maria remembering her life - did a good twist with this song, since Cecilia Bartoli as older Maria sang with amusement and compassion for her younger self, looking back - i.e. in the sense of "this is me, so joyful at this moment".)
no subject
Absolutely. Like, the white kids probably do have horrible lives--neglect, abuse, etc. But this is still 50s America, and they have substantial advantages over the Puerto Rican kids, and they refuse to acknowledge that.
Btw, someone told me that Kushner gave all of the actors lengthy backstories for their characters, whether or not these made it into the script, so he did have Riff's whole life written out.
Love that! Even though we got enough of what we needed, I'm sure that was a huge boon to the actors.
"I feel pretty" - though didn't the original stage play already put it past rumble?
I've only seen the stage play once, so I don't remember. My familiarity is entirely with the first film.
no subject
The bar is SO LOW and yet… the American movie musical industry is in shambles.
I am so glad you enjoyed this!
no subject
Seriously wondering: are the British and Australian movie industries doing better?
Thank you!
Sorry, sorry! I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you about British/Australian movies, and it's because for some reason I thought I was replying to Ronni! Ignore that part!!!
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject