Steven Spielberg has wanted to direct a musical for a long time. If you look at some of his films from the 70s and 80s, particularly 1941 and Temple of Doom (which opens with an elaborate musical sequence) he has a clear interest in the cinematic potential of music and dance. It’s also just one of the few genres in his now six-decade spanning career that he hasn’t tried yet, and Spielberg trying something new will always be exciting.
West Side Story seems a bit of an odd beast for him to choose though. Obviously it’s been done already, and the 1961 original is widely regarded as one of the best musicals of all time. It’s an extremely beloved model that his version would be immediately compared to. At the same time, if Spielberg had to remake a famous musical, West Side Story would probably be it -its’ youth angle and classical Hollywood romance seems to be in his wheelhouse of interest. And of course with the confidence of being penned by his recurring collaborator Tony Kushner -a guy who clearly knows his theatre- it’s maybe not such a bad idea after all.
I’ve missed Spielberg. It’s been so long and his last movie wasn’t terribly good. His coming back feels like something is right with the world again, especially with a movie like West Side Story in which he’s put in so much heart and joy -indeed it feels like his most passionate movie in many years. West Side Story like any great classic, didn’t need a remake. But Spielberg has pulled it off to the point it feels necessary -like this story deserved to be told again, and with actual Puerto Ricans this time.
The movie sticks to the familiar structure, but with very curious new choices in just about every scene. It opens, not on a skyline shot of New York, but a construction field in a neighbourhood that is being demolished by the city for the new Lincoln Centre. Right away, gentrification is front and centre, and a heavier realism to this 1950s New York is established. And then we meet the Jets, with their snapping fingers and greaser looks, far more imposing than they ever managed in the original film, that smooth Bernstein music right on their heels. Spielberg’s exceptional visual flare comes fast and hard with this first dance sequence as he shoots the exciting choreography with a potent energy and creative vivacity. It’s fun, the directing is versatile and the cinematography is excellent, and this goes for pretty much every dance sequence to follow, choreographed fantastically by Justin Peck. Even in using some of the same beats as the original film, each segment is played a little differently -the compositions are more interesting, the camera movement in tandem with the dancers is exhilarating. It feels like a genuine translation of dance from Broadway to the cinematic medium. I love Robert Wise and what he did for the movie musical, but Spielberg knows way better how to translate the music and motion of West Side Story cinematically.
Just look at what he does with one of the most famously catchy song sequences: “America”. He begins it on the fire escape outside the apartment of Anita (Ariana DeBose) and Bernardo (David Alvarez), where the former’s adulation of America is backed up by the varying immigrant neighbours. The song then transitions into the apartment building itself, with more women joining Anita as they make their way outside, where it reaches the crescendo, and proceeds to play out through their neighbourhood and into bustling city streets -a much greater scale with more visually thematic and symbolic resonance given the subject matter of the song than was ever achieved on a mere rooftop. Likewise, “I Feel Pretty” is expanded in scope and “Cool” is given a refreshed context and more elaborate choreography that makes it actually one of the musical highlights. Even intimate songs like “Maria” and “Tonight” have a lot more going on, staged with a beautiful use of environment and in full commitment to the numbers’ immense sense of feeling. In contrast, “Somewhere” is perhaps toned down from the original film, given over to the new character of Tony’s boss Valentina (Rita Moreno) –yet it works just as well.
Moreno’s appearance, stunt-casting though it may be, is wonderful, and broadens the world of the show rather nicely. She proves she’s still got it as far as her singing is concerned, and it’s paired with a marvellous gravitas. Moreno is also one of the only main cast members from the original movie whose performance is not topped by their equivalent here –not to knock DeBose, who is excellent and one of the movies’ great highlights. The presence of actual Latine performers is an advantage that can’t be understated. Alvarez is a genuinely convincing Bernardo and first-time actress Rachel Zegler makes for a mesmerizing Maria. She’s got a nice lilting singing voice and believably plays that love-struck sensitivity –difficult for a story as melodramatic as this one- with outright earnestness. Maybe the best stand-out though is Mike Faist as Riff, whose got an instant charisma, both in his acting and dancing, that outshines most of his co-stars. There’s a depth he brings to this character as well, who was the least interesting of the original films’ main players. Here, that status falls on Tony, despite Kushner’s best efforts to flesh him out as an ex-con looking to redeem his former life as a Jet. Perhaps in other hands it could work, but Ansel Elgort doesn’t make the best use of the material, turning in a performance that is okay (he’s helped along a lot by Spielberg’s direction), but way overshadowed by everybody around him.
Given the quality of the production work though, it hardly matters. Elgort’s mediocrity doesn’t keep the moment where Tony and Maria first lock eyes from being so sensationally paced and composed. The film just looks so sweet, draped in an exquisite sheen of gloriously rich lighting that makes each scene feel so tangible and warm –it’s an extension of the style built by Spielberg and regular cinematographer Janusz Kamiński over several films, but it hasn’t looked this good since maybe War Horse. And Spielberg doesn’t miss an opportunity for some good cinematic expressionism: that overhead shot ahead of the Rumble of the Jets and Sharks’ silhouettes meeting, or Tony singing his “Something’s Coming” number reflected in the water on the floor.
This West Side Story, though hardly more political than the original, would seem to strike at the heart of topical discourse. Gentrification, Americanization, classism are addressed, as well as the original’s themes of racism with more potency. It certainly strikes heftier now to see Lieutenant Schrank (Corey Stoll) profile and eject the Sharks from the scene of a fight, while attempting to level with the Jets. It’s likewise curious to see him disparage the Jets as essentially ‘white trash’ for their economic station, acknowledging both the inheritance of it while also suggesting the lie of an encompassing laziness in their inability to attain higher prospects. Little nuggets like these are dropped all throughout that paint a starker picture of New York life for immigrants and the disenfranchised in the 1950s. Tony lives in a hovel below Doc’s, Maria’s parents are not with her in America and her, Bernardo, and Anita’s apartment is in poor condition. Everything is just a little bit grittier, a little bit bleaker, more reflective of the socio-political realities these characters’ lives are set against.
There is a degree though to which Spielberg’s commitment to realism comes into conflict with the musical’s tone -most notably in the Rumble scene, played with greater intensity in the performances and filmmaking, but with the same slightly whimsical staccato notes. In the modernizing of the story, the tomboy character Anybodys has been made transgender (played by enby actor Iris Menas) -and yet they’re only notable insofar as being an outlet for the Jets’ transphobia and for desperately wanting to be a Jet themself in spite of this horrible treatment. The otherizing of Anybodys also feeds into the one song sequence of the piece I don’t think works, “Gee, Officer Krupke” -which comes on the heels of such foulness and yet is a comedy number meant to endear the Jets. Overall, the Jets are just made way more despicable in this version, which plays up their racism, entitlement, and attempted assault in the climax, to the point any humility afforded them by the ending is stripped bare.
Spielberg is something of an idealist, even where he must incorporate honest political commentary -the two don’t usually intersect. And yet there is something stirring nonetheless, if not in the narrative’s ending than in the way it is presented. One of his more contentious choices sees the Latin characters speak Spanish unsubtitled at points throughout the film -English speakers are not privy to exactly what they are saying, but it bestows an equal dignity that is in keeping with the story’s core message and spirit. And that of its’ four-hundred-year-old source.
2021’s West Side Story, arriving sixty years after the original, came within less than a month of the passing of its’ original lyricist, the great Stephen Sondheim. It’s a shame he couldn’t see it to wide release, but his enthusiasm was immense. You need only see it to know why.
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