Where to begin in 2022. Choices, so many choices! I think I’m hearing that West Side Story is a masterpiece, and must be seen on the big screen to soak in the colour and sound. So, West Side Story, I choose you! West Side Story tanked at the box office, which is unfortunate but not surprising, when you consider that that the majority of people that must adore the original are probably definitely worried about COVID-19, and won’t be venturing outside their homes unless they have to. And, well, I also have a pretty solid rule for these types of things, and that is, you don’t remake classics unless you have something new to say; remakes should be reserved for movies that didn’t work so well the first time, with an eye towards fixing them up. Yet, I only watched West Side Story for the first time last year, hearing of this Steven Spielberg remake in the works, and I do think there’s room for an update, with modern sensitivities – like, firstly, having Puerto Rican actors actually play the Puerto Ricans characters (!), and there’s a clear trans-character that could really shine in the modern day. You’d trust Spielberg to retain the joy and emotional turns of such a grand production, whilst adding in the appropriate reverence.
Living on a squalid town block on the west side, the Jets, a gang made up of restless white American youths, clash with the Sharks over territory; a rival gang made up of Puerto Rican immigrants. Jets leader Riff (Mike Faist) invites Tony (Ansel Elgort), a founding and former member of the Jets attempting to go straight, to a civilised dance at the school hall, where the Sharks will also be. There, Tony catches the eye of Maria (Rachel Zegler), a sister to Sharks leader Bernardo (David Alvarez), and the pair fall in love instantly. But the two star-crossed lovers can’t be together while their friends and family are fighting in the streets. Maria urges Tony to put an end to hostilities between the two sides, with their love providing a richly warm example for how all peoples can live alongside each other in America.
Well, teenagers make fan pages, to showcase their inspirations, and world-class filmmakers direct remakes, it seems. It takes less than five minutes to realise what we’re doing here; it’s clear that Steven Spielberg adores West Side Story and at times, to a relative novice like my myself, it appears as if he’s rebuilt it frame by frame. The colour saturation and composition are remarkably exact, as if this were a film of the 1960s; the set design and in-story dancing is replicated, if only beefed up or doubled to be more grandiose. But because Spielberg is who he is, I’d say the shot selection is markedly updated, bringing years of expertise to the project in a professional manner. If this movie has reached universal critical acclaim, then the majority of applause has had to have come at the accomplishment of replicating the visual tone of the Academy Award winning original movie, and is that so hard to do? I have my doubts. There’s a proven template, and whilst there may be technical tribulations, going backwards to go forwards, just like with Malignant, it’s a fairly redundant echo of the past, and just because it’s done well, does not make it necessarily a worthwhile exercise. For the first third, I didn’t feel like I saw anything new. And I think this West Side Story has some deep problems, associated with bringing sixty-year-old material into the modern day, and changing very little – I’ll go into that more later. Between the battle of immigrant musical films released in the 2021 calendar year, I’d have to give it to In the Heights; a movie that modernises the struggles and perspectives of the peoples of these communities, while West Side Story is playtime in the past. It’s literally been done, and whilst there’s nothing wrong with a love letter to your inspirations (power to Spielberg for the privilege to do it), I don’t know how much it’s impressive.
There might be more notable changes, especially concerning the script and story editing, but since I’m not a West Side Story aficionado, I don’t know. As it was, like, three women gasped in my theatre at the climax of the street fight, like this isn’t a sixty-year-old story (at least). Honestly, faced with watching West Side Story for the first time, I hope you’d opt for the 1961 version, if only for the chance to familiarise yourself with film history, with a decades-long legacy and an Academy Award for Best Picture in its back pocket. To this movie’s credit, I thought the reasons behind the gang warfare were much better highlighted, through the dialogue and characterisation of both Riff and Bernardo. Both actors were excellent; Mike Faist seemed born to be in this movie, reminding me of the devil-may-care enthusiasm of Ezra Miller in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, combined with a world-class dancer. (A quick side recommendation, regarding Riff; if you want to see this angle, a character living a depraved and rebellious life due to an awareness of a prospectless future, it’s fleshed out and done brilliantly by Jack O’Connell as Cook in the British TV show Skins 😙). I can also confirm that a couple of the song numbers have changed in locations and were fantastic, with Anita’s (Ariana DeBose) rendition of ‘America’ probably the best scene of the movie – she goes from ‘telling’ the boys what she likes about America on a rooftop, to ‘showing’ them, parading through the streets. Ariana DeBose is remarkable, on her way to a strong Supporting Actress nod in this year’s Slice Awards, for sure 😋. It may’ve helped I had a little background with Alyssa Greene from The Prom, but even then, DeBose had a certain charisma, and she unleashes her potential in West Side Story.
With all that said, West Side Story is basically the same. The lead character is still weak, and Ansel Elgort didn’t convince me of anything differently. He sure does sing like an old-school crooner though, a perfect voice for the part. West Side Story is still a rip-off of Romeo and Juliet, which is undeniable. The movie is at its most entertaining when it’s dealing with the gang’s rivalry and their place in America, and it’s like the movie knows that. I thought the movie maybe even turns away, or rolls it’s eyes, satirises Tony and Maria’s ‘love’; with Tony pissing off the neighbours as he galivants through the night singing about Maria, and how Maria feels exceptionally pretty in the store she’s meant to be cleaning, while several colleagues try to calm her down, wearing the same uniform. I don’t remember the original movie rubbing me against the grain on the matter of love, embracing the love-at-first-sight proposition wholeheartedly, where I think this one does not. And I feel the best example of this, actually, is staging the ‘I Feel Pretty’ song directly after two of our main characters have just died; Maria’s head is in the clouds whilst my audience mind was on more consequential matters – a really poor choice in story layout on Spielberg’s part in my opinion, if not deliberate. I’ve also developed a personal ear for soundtracks that I know I love and will listen to for an entire year, and the music of West Side Story has never been that, and nothing has changed, given this second chance.
But the biggest personal problem I see with West Side Story, concerns bringing dated material into the modern day. Watching an older movie, you can pass off questionable material by stating that times have changed. But with this, smaller examples like, Maria telling Tony to go away several times before he climbs her balcony anyway, not taking ‘no’ for an answer, can be passed over too, I suppose. But I don’t remember an attempted rape scene in the original; and the vile racist insults that come in the same scene hit more overtly in the modern day. Again, you really have to take into account modern sensitivities, and by accelerating the roughhousing scene in Doc’s bar where Anita is assaulted to its maximum brutality, is really at a detriment to the movie, I think, as these gang members are no longer sympathetically misguided, like the song ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’ suggests, but irredeemable. Then, less than 20 minutes later, we’re supposed to see that the boys have put their differences behind them and reconciled at the death of Tony. But no, not for me, as Spielberg has pushed it too far by making the boys attempted rapists – a big step beyond angry delinquents, poor from broken homes. I guess you could say that in 2022, this scene is sided with the horrible sentiment that ‘all men are rapists’, but how is that good for anyone? What’s next, remake Peter Pan and have the Lost Boys pin down Wendy on a pinball machine from The Accused? It’s not that far a stretch of a comparison in being disgusting. So, between the petty waring gangs, and the whirlwind romance (that includes Maria sleeping with Tony, minutes after her brother has just died), you quickly realise that there’s a lot going on between a large group of characters that are unlikable. This West Side Story is not for me.
I’m a little triggered, and disappointed. But yes, West Side Story is still worthy of a positive review, although the more I think about it, the less I’m happy about it (there’s also a greater story emphasis on bringing a gun to a pipe fight, when the forbidden knives have always been the height of tension originally, and are still the weapons featured in the climax of the big brawl). It’s Steven Spielberg, and there’s no doubt that this is a quality production. But I genuinely think it would be a travesty if this won Best Picture at the Academy Awards this year. And for as far as classic Spielberg can go, a legacy in his own name, this is old hat. A passion project from the heart, but not really crumbling the boundaries of originality or good taste.
3.5
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