At this point in his career, Steven Spierlberg has arguably mastered the horror movie, sci-fi, adventure films, war movies, historical biopics, and a whole host of other genres. Why not try his hand at musicals? He’s done the occasional musical moment in his past work, perhaps most memorably with the opening credits scene for Temple of Doom. But why West Side Story? There’s already an Oscar winning version from 1961 that’s on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest American movies. I am, in general, wary of anyone trying to remake a movie that is already a beloved film, though that one does have a few questionable portrayals of Puerto Ricans as it is. But if anyone can pull this off, maybe Spielberg will be the one to do it, and he did bring back national treasure Rita Moreno, the only actual Puerto Rican from the first movie, for a prominent supporting role.
Then again, if Spielberg’s Maria at least sung all of her own songs, that automatically puts her a bit above the late Natalie Wood since she got an Oscar nomination for a movie where she spent most of her screentime lip syncing to someone else’s voice. Seriously, Wood’s actual voice was saved for spoken lines, and Maria doesn’t have that many…
As it is, Spielberg did this one right. I would even be tempted to say he made a better movie than the ’61 version, but I’ll elaborate on that a bit below. The story is the same as it has ever been: in a modern rewrite of Romeo and Juliet, rival street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, are constantly at each other’s throats. However, Jets founder Tony (Ansel Elgort), who left the gang at some point in the past, soon falls for Maria (Rachel Zegler), the sister of Shark leader Bernardo (David Alvarez). While Tony’s best friend and current gang leader Riff (Mike Faist) and Bernardo seem incapable or uninterested in preventing violence, a tentative romance between Tony and Maria throws a spanner into an already tenuous situation. About the only thing the two gangs can agree on is the cops are the enemy to both groups. Factor in as well that the Jets are more born-and-raised in the West Side while the Sharks all moved there from Puerto Rico, and there’s a lot of tension in the situation already. This is still West Side Story, and all the songs are there in the movie, even if they were shuffled around to different points.
Now, that’s the basic part of the story that comes from the original play. Spielberg, working off a script from previous collaborator Tony Kushner, decides to actually dig into these characters. Let’s face it: most classic musicals don’t exactly dig deeply into their characters, and West Side Story is no exception. I mean, I worked on a production of the show in college. It’s a musical I actually know pretty well. It’s a very basic story, and none of the characters get more than a little bit of a background. This version opts to do more, something I would argue actually increases the tragedy of what is to come. For one, the real enemy here is what I might call gentrification. The neighborhood is in the process of being bought up by the city and rebuilt into more expensive homes, one where Police Lt. Schrank (Corey Stoll) points out the Jets and their families will be pushed out while the Puerto Ricans will be the ones acting as doormen and the like. Spielberg uses plenty of shots of half-destroyed buildings, and the entire movie seems to have a portent of doom going on. There’s an undercurrent of violence, and while I never would normally think a street gang that bursts into ballet is all that dangerous, there’s something about the way the two gangs walk, en masse, down streets like they expect people to get out of their way, and people on the sidewalk always do.
Likewise, these characters get backgrounds and goals, making them more actual characters. Tony’s newfound pacifism comes after a short prison sentence. Bernardo is an amateur boxer who may just be trying to protect the women in his life whether they want it or not. His girlfriend Anita (Ariana DeBose) aspires to own a sewing shop. Maria, who I believe says she is 18 at one point making me wonder how old these characters are supposed to be, wants to live life on her own after caring for an older father for five years. Chino (Josh Andres Rivera) isn’t part of the Sharks, but he’s a quiet young man trying to work his way through school. Details like this actually make the story sadder in the end. This isn’t just a story where a couple characters die and one is heartbroken. It’s one where whole lives of what comes more across like real people are ruined by a feud that no one seems inclined to stop until it’s too late while the territory they’re all fighting over won’t even be around much longer.
Really, this is Speilberg using all the cinematic tricks he’s mastered over the years, and he does have a very old school Hollywood style of his own. That said, there was one small issue here: Ansen Elgort does not fit into this movie very well. I wouldn’t say he gives a bad performance. It’s fine in many ways, but he seems like someone who doesn’t really belong in this world at all. His style of acting would fit in better with a story that didn’t include a lot of singing and dancing. That said, I would be lying if I said this movie didn’t make me choke up a little as it wound down. Spielberg even gave Moreno, whose Valentina is apparently the widow to the original play/movie’s character of Doc, a very nice solo that expresses the sadness of the moment very effectively. Is it a surprise Steven Spielberg could make a great musical? Not in the slightest, and he sure as hell did here.
Grade: A
0 Comments