The 1961 film adaptation of West Side Story is widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, let alone musical films. And while I definitely get everything that makes it so memorable (the choreography, the music, the reworking of classic Shakespeare), I wouldn’t say it’s among my favourite musical films out there. Sure, that could just be because I’m so accustomed to how much it’s influenced pop culture since its release that I’m not able to appreciate it as much on its own terms, but in my own defense, both the film and the original stage musical feel like dry runs for things that the creatives involved would end up perfecting later on.
As a grand big-screen musical directed by Robert Wise, it’s good… but it’s no Sound Of Music. As a musical with lyrics from theatre extraordinaire Stephen Sondheim (who tragically passed away earlier this year), it’s good… but it’s no Sweeney Todd or Into The Woods.
So, yeah, I’m already a little bit lukewarm on the original production as is… but I’ll be honest, I can at least understand why someone would try and remake the film today. As much as I can sympathise with how the Hays code really did a number on a lot of productions at the time through executive meddling and general BS to do with non-white romantic leads, having a film all about conflict between different racial cultures, while half of the cast is in full brownface, makes it difficult for that intent to ring through.
As such, remaking it at a time when… well, I won’t say that colorism is no longer a thing within the industry (and not just in Hollywood either), but at least when filmmakers are under less pressure to pull heavy makeup tactics, could help revive it for a new generation. Hell, even though Steven Spielberg somehow hasn’t made a musical before this, he’s done pretty much everything else under the sun, so he’s as good a choice as any to give it a crack. And it’s an attempt that seems to have worked out for the better, as it manages to keep everything that makes the original musical what it is, but with just enough modernisation to help translate it into a post-millennium film market.
For starters, the casting is pretty damn good. Ansel Elgort is quite plain as Tony (even considering what he’s working with), but he is easily balanced out by what had damn-well better be a career kickstarter for Rachel Zegler as María. Every moment she’s on-screen, especially after first meeting Tony, is just brimming with first love vibes that are surprisingly infectious. Part of my iffyness with the source material is due to… well, I prefer its own source material better in the original Romeo & Juliet, but with Zegler, I got some of that same pure splendour that had me fall in love with the play all those years ago. Everyone else is very well-cast, particularly Ariana DeBose as Anita, and Rita Moreno (the original Anita) returning as Valentina gives a particular scene here… well, it makes it hit even harder than it did originally. Oh, and getting non-binary actor Iris Menas to play Anybodys? That’s some king shit right there.
As for the presentation, I’d have to say that I prefer this over the 1961 version in quite a few areas. The fact that the Jets and Sharks come across like proper street thugs, rather than just the Broadway theatre kid version of such things, is the part that sticks out for me the most. But then there’s the set design, which really sells how run-down the West Side is and helps build up how poisonous of an environment it is for these young adults. Going with non-passing actors definitely helps with the racial conflict, but they also updated the role of the police, showing Corey Stoll’s Lieutenant Schrank as less of a neutral voice of reason and more as a direct instigator for what are, let’s be real, a street gang of white supremacists. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Janusz Kamiński’s cinematography, both for the musical scenes and the dramatic scenes, sticks to Spielberg’s recent love affair with muted colours, but when combined with the updated choreography from Justin Peck, he creates some suitably tight framing that both reinforces this as film as opposed to filmed theatre, and gives the dancing (which still looks amazing) just enough room to breathe within that frame. It gave me flashbacks to some of the more claustrophobic moments in Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, but only because this shows how to do that same idea right and at a consistent rate at that.
But even with the upgrades, this is still quite close to the previous film version, and in more ways than I was expecting. Despite it trying to flesh out the racism in the conflict between the Jets and the Sharks, it still feels thin and comes across as more than a little confused in regards to Puerto Ricans in mainland America. Writer Tony Kushner is an absolute gem in terms of playwriting, but when it comes to themes of racial prejudice (see: Lincoln), he doesn’t have as deft a grasp of the subject as, say, the gay experience in works like Angels In America.
The main romance feels pretty lopsided too, as Elgort is operating at about 50% at best, whereas Zegler is giving her all to how much this on-screen relationship means to her character. I could make a joke about how pretending to be attracted to Ansel Elgort isn’t the easiest thing to do nowadays, but it’s more an issue of his lack of commitment than hers. As a result, the tragic romance at the heart of the story doesn’t land with the punch it should, which is something I definitely can’t say about the 1961 version.
And yet… the part where this most resembles that first adaptation for me comes in me having the exact same realisation while watching it. I can see the flaws in it, I’m still holding pretty firmly to my own preferences regarding the subject matter and genre, and part of me feels weird watching it because of what I know about the real-world events surrounding it… but man, when it aims for the heartstrings, it still managed to hit mine. The struggle of both the Jets and the Sharks trying to make their lives and surroundings better than they left them, the macho-aggression that ends up being the far more hazardous aspect of their behaviour than even the racism, the pointlessness of every death and act of violence that takes place; the feels are as real as ever.
So, yeah, I know I’m pretty all over the place with this review, but I have a lot of conflicting feelings about this whole thing, both as adaptation and as its own creation. It’s a solid attempt, especially from a director that hasn’t done a musical film before, and I can at least understand the impulse to remake this particular cornerstone of film history, but in a year that has shown a wealth of variety when it comes to musical films (even ones directly inspired by West Side Story, like In The Heights), this ends up falling through the cracks. I don’t know if that’s more of an appraisal of just how good 2021 has been for musicals on the big screen, or if it’s just a further insult to the idea of making this film in the first place, but at the end of the day, it still does what it sets out to do: Entertain.
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