WEST SIDE STORY
*****
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenwriter: Tony Kushner, based on the stage play by Jerome Robbins and book by Arthur Laurents.
Principal cast:
Ansel Elgort
Rachel Zegler
Ariana DeBose
David Alvarez
Rita Moreno
Mike Faist
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 156 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2021.
Based on the famous 1957 stage musical that became a multi-Oscar winning film in 1961, this second celluloid version of West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg, is simply stunning. It is a reasonably faithful interpretation of Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s original movie and it reminds the audience just how fabulous the musical is and how it has stood the test of time. The wonderfully energetic dancing, originally choreographed by Robbins and reworked here by the New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck, is a standout feature of the film, as are, of course, Stephen Sondheim’s sublime lyrics and Leonard Bernstein’s beautiful music. Spielberg has resisted the temptation to update the action, keeping it firmly in the late 1950s, and he has cast Latino/a actors in the Puerto Rican roles. Adding to the authenticity is the fact that many of them break into Spanish occasionally and their speech isn’t subtitled; it’s a device that works well because it shows the audience just how culturally different the protagonists are and why they are so antagonistic to each other.
West Side Story opens on the future site of the Lincoln Centre. As Janusz Kaminski’s camera soars over and through the scene, a sign on a fence tells us that this slum removal is for urban renewal. The only problem is that two impoverished communities still live there, the largely Puerto Rican Latinos and the sons and daughters of the earlier wave of European migrants. These disparate groups are represented by two street gangs, the Jets (whites) and the Sharks (Latinos), made up of teenagers wholly committed to the destruction of the rival crew. The Jets hostility towards the Sharks is strictly racist; they’re kind of like the ‘we grew here, you flew here’ white mob that behaved so appallingly in the Cronulla riots in Australia some years ago. The Sharks resent the Jets for making their lives even more difficult than they already are as recent migrants speaking English as a second language. It has ever been thus.
In her first feature role, having mostly worked in television prior to this, Rachel Zegler, as the Puerto Rican María, is often filmed in close-up and her facial expressions convincingly reveal her emotions as she falls in love with Tony (Ansel Elgort, who audiences will remember from his starring role in 2017’s Baby Driver). He’s a founding member of the Jets but, after a stint ‘inside’, he wants to leave the gang life behind. The lovers are a perfect match but, as the situation deteriorates between the gangs - the Jets, headed by Tony’s mate Riff (Mike Faist), and the Sharks, led by Bernardo (David Alvarez), Maria’s elder brother - the tension rises. Rita Moreno (one of only three artists to be honoured with Academy, Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Peabody Awards) appears in the role of Valentina, a character that was not in the original film; her role in Spielberg’s version (she was Anita in the 1961 film) is based on the character of Doc, the drugstore owner. The scenes between her and Tony are crucial as they talk about life and Valentina sings, “There’s a place for us…” and claims that “life matters more than love”, to which Tony responds, “they are the same thing”.
The singing and dancing in West Side Story are sensational: Zegler and Elgort are terrific as the star-crossed lovers (based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) and Ariana DeBose almost steals the show as Anita. I suspect - and hope - that we’ll be seeing more of her in the future; she’s a triple threat, able to act, dance and sing equally well. Faist and Alvarez are also very good as the gang leaders committed to their fixed positions but gradually realising, deep down, that ‘urban renewal’ is going to affect them all equally negatively, regardless of their skin colour. Everything about this movie is sensational, as you’d expect from a master filmmaker like Spielberg: the mise en scène, cinematography, screenplay, editing and acting are flawless, and that’s before you consider the talents of Bernstein and Sondheim. Don’t miss it.
Screenwriter: Tony Kushner, based on the stage play by Jerome Robbins and book by Arthur Laurents.
Principal cast:
Ansel Elgort
Rachel Zegler
Ariana DeBose
David Alvarez
Rita Moreno
Mike Faist
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 156 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2021.
Based on the famous 1957 stage musical that became a multi-Oscar winning film in 1961, this second celluloid version of West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg, is simply stunning. It is a reasonably faithful interpretation of Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s original movie and it reminds the audience just how fabulous the musical is and how it has stood the test of time. The wonderfully energetic dancing, originally choreographed by Robbins and reworked here by the New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck, is a standout feature of the film, as are, of course, Stephen Sondheim’s sublime lyrics and Leonard Bernstein’s beautiful music. Spielberg has resisted the temptation to update the action, keeping it firmly in the late 1950s, and he has cast Latino/a actors in the Puerto Rican roles. Adding to the authenticity is the fact that many of them break into Spanish occasionally and their speech isn’t subtitled; it’s a device that works well because it shows the audience just how culturally different the protagonists are and why they are so antagonistic to each other.
West Side Story opens on the future site of the Lincoln Centre. As Janusz Kaminski’s camera soars over and through the scene, a sign on a fence tells us that this slum removal is for urban renewal. The only problem is that two impoverished communities still live there, the largely Puerto Rican Latinos and the sons and daughters of the earlier wave of European migrants. These disparate groups are represented by two street gangs, the Jets (whites) and the Sharks (Latinos), made up of teenagers wholly committed to the destruction of the rival crew. The Jets hostility towards the Sharks is strictly racist; they’re kind of like the ‘we grew here, you flew here’ white mob that behaved so appallingly in the Cronulla riots in Australia some years ago. The Sharks resent the Jets for making their lives even more difficult than they already are as recent migrants speaking English as a second language. It has ever been thus.
In her first feature role, having mostly worked in television prior to this, Rachel Zegler, as the Puerto Rican María, is often filmed in close-up and her facial expressions convincingly reveal her emotions as she falls in love with Tony (Ansel Elgort, who audiences will remember from his starring role in 2017’s Baby Driver). He’s a founding member of the Jets but, after a stint ‘inside’, he wants to leave the gang life behind. The lovers are a perfect match but, as the situation deteriorates between the gangs - the Jets, headed by Tony’s mate Riff (Mike Faist), and the Sharks, led by Bernardo (David Alvarez), Maria’s elder brother - the tension rises. Rita Moreno (one of only three artists to be honoured with Academy, Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Peabody Awards) appears in the role of Valentina, a character that was not in the original film; her role in Spielberg’s version (she was Anita in the 1961 film) is based on the character of Doc, the drugstore owner. The scenes between her and Tony are crucial as they talk about life and Valentina sings, “There’s a place for us…” and claims that “life matters more than love”, to which Tony responds, “they are the same thing”.
The singing and dancing in West Side Story are sensational: Zegler and Elgort are terrific as the star-crossed lovers (based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) and Ariana DeBose almost steals the show as Anita. I suspect - and hope - that we’ll be seeing more of her in the future; she’s a triple threat, able to act, dance and sing equally well. Faist and Alvarez are also very good as the gang leaders committed to their fixed positions but gradually realising, deep down, that ‘urban renewal’ is going to affect them all equally negatively, regardless of their skin colour. Everything about this movie is sensational, as you’d expect from a master filmmaker like Spielberg: the mise en scène, cinematography, screenplay, editing and acting are flawless, and that’s before you consider the talents of Bernstein and Sondheim. Don’t miss it.