West Side Story Review (1961 & 2021) (SPOILERS)

The Oscars are this weekend and I definitely have my major Oscars post coming soon, but before we do that I need to get my thoughts out on one of the nominees for best picture, that of “West Side Story.” This is a movie that I saw and enjoyed in theaters back in December, but I left with questions. Questions that revolved around me not having done my homework before going into the movie, meaning I had not seen the original 1961 movie that this was a remake of. A rather egregious oversight for someone like myself, but such is life sometimes. I have now rectified that wrong, spending a lot more time than I was planning on both movies, in order to nail down these thoughts in my brain.

Word of caution. This might come with some unpopular takes. Also word of caution. I will dive into spoilers for a 50-year-old movie, if you’re weird like me and haven’t seen it. Naturally there will also be spoilers for the three-month-old remake, which is slightly more of a serious warning. But for most people, there’s not a whole lot to spoil, all things considered. Just got to cover my bases here. And yeah, this is a double review with my thoughts on both movies intertwined together because that’s key to my overall thoughts. 

First off, I want to focus on the good behind both movies. Because this is a classic production for a reason. From a certain and understandable point of view, one might say that the most important part of a musical is the musical of it all. And there are few musicals out there that are more classic and more iconic than “West Side Story.” To the point where one like me watching for the first time at the end of last year might perk up and say, “Wait a minute, I know all of this music!” I think it speaks volumes about a musical that it is so ingrained in the culture that I knew the music very well without having seen the actual movie. Usually it takes me a bit to soak in a new musical and truly appreciate the songs in it. But in this case, I knew and loved the music already. It certainly didn’t feel like I was watching something for the first time. 

And certainly the credit for this goes to Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, who wrote the lyrics and music to the 1957 Broadway musical that debuted four years before the movie was released. I’m not a huge musical buff, but even I’m well aware Stephen Sondheim and it’s incredibly impressive when I look at all of his work and see how much of a master at his craft he was. His list of iconic music that he wrote for so many musicals is very long and very impressive. Every musical number in “West Side Story” is very good. The songs are very catchy. There’s a good variety to them. Their flow and placement in the production is well balanced. And to the movie’s credit, the original movie was very well cast in terms of getting talent on board who could sing these numbers in an impressive way, whether it be the actors themselves or vocal doubles who did the singing parts, which is certainly something I would be in favor of going back to. If you must have a certain actor playing the part, I would rather cast someone else to do the singing rather than trying to teach the non-singer how to sing. 

And to go along with the impressive singing in the movie, the dance choreography is very impressive. Every number is both entertaining and awe-inspiring.

“But Adam, are you talking about the 1961 movie or the 2021 movie when you are praising the music and dance?”

Yes. Both. Because both movies do an incredible job at this. However, if we’re comparing the two, one thing that I was especially impressed with when I went back and watched both movies is that this new movie takes what the original provided and improved on it. And that was one of the questions that I had after initially watching the new movie in theaters that was answered in a very positive way when I went back to do my homework on this. I was sufficiently thrilled and entertained by it all, but was it a necessary remake? And yeah, it was. The dance and choreography in Spielberg’s remake was a whole lot more breathtaking. The original was still very well done, but the sets felt more restricted. It had the feel of a stage production that was filmed, making it slightly less cinematic. And maybe that’s due to the restrictions of its time. But Spielberg definitely took advantage of the modern technology to make his version feel grand and epic. He makes use of the entire city rather than having a group of people dancing on a stage. And that’s what should happen in movie musicals. If I’m watching a stage production, I can suspend disbelief a bit. But if I’m watching a movie, it shouldn’t feel like I’m watching a stage production, if that makes sense. If you have the technology and ability to make your movie feel cinematic, take advantage of that.

Also to Spielberg’s credit, his movie is much improved when it comes to actual representation. Now back in 1961, perhaps there were different standards and different expectations, but very few people in that movie are actually Puerto Rican. Some are. But most are Americans playing Puerto Ricans, including our lead actress Natalie Wood, who plays Maria. And even among those few that are Puerto Rican, there’s a bit of a cringey practice they used that we call “brownfacing.” Rita Moreno, who plays Anita in the film, talked about how they put makeup on her to make her appear more brown so that she “looks” Puerto Rican. And she was one of the few who was actually Puerto Rican, so it was extremely unnecessary.

Again, maybe back in 1961 that wasn’t an issue in people’s minds. But definitely looking back in hindsight, that’s a major problem. And so it’s very nice to see new movie be authentic by casting actors who either are Puerto Rican, are of Puerto Rican descent, or at the very least are Latino. Wikipedia tells me that Rachel Zegler, who plays Maria, is of Colombian descent. Which is certainly better than Natalie Wood, an American born to Russian immigrant parents. Representation matters and the new movie deserves credit for proper representation. It even caters to the Spanish audience with some Spanish dialogue mixed in… without subtitles translating into English. We even turned on subtitles when I was watching with friends last night and when they were speaking Spanish, it said “(Speaking Spanish)” instead of telling us what they were saying. And I applauded that. I can infer based on context what was being said while appreciating the fact that the movie was geared to Puerto Ricans in more ways than one.

So yeah, with all of this said, I can genuinely say that Steven Spielberg took a classic, beloved film, one that was a winner of 10 Oscars, including best picture, and made a better version of it with quality representation, music that matches the quality of the original, and dance numbers that are more impressive and more cinematic.

The issues here comes with plot. And this is where sometimes hardcore musical fans sometimes get really upset at my analysis. It seems to me that many of them can be perfectly satisfied with excellent music and dance without caring too much about what’s happening with the plot. I care about both. And there are plenty of examples, even from movie musicals last year like “tick, tick… BOOM!” and “In the Heights,” that had a wonderful combination of great music and great plot. “West Side Story” falls quite a bit short on the plot category of things.

Specifically the issue comes with the lead romance. It’s bad. In both movies. I watched the new movie in December and loved most of it, but was concerned with the fact that there was absolutely no chemistry between Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. One of the worst on screen romances that I can remember. And it’s unfortunate because I love both of them individually. At least in regards to their acting performances. Both do their character justice and both of them can sing. But they just aren’t a very interesting couple and it makes the drama that happens between them really rocky and borderline cringey.

I thought maybe that this was a new movie problem. Maybe they got everything right in the new movie, but just happened to cast two leads that didn’t work together very well. And maybe that would be a ding on this one compared to the original. But nope. In the original movie, the lead couple of Tony and Maria are as equally uninteresting. Maybe they have a tad bit more chemistry, but not by a lot.

Now I know the opposing point of view to this. And it’s a valid argument. This story is a direct adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” a story that is centered around a doomed and rushed teen romance. One could say that story is tragic BECAUSE the romance isn’t great. Two kids from opposite factions of a war or a dispute falling in love in reckless fashion that’s more of a doomed infatuation rather than an honest love and built-up romance. And the forbidden love of it all makes them more reckless because no one wants them to fall in love, but they don’t care and start actively rebelling against their families’ wishes. Perhaps the real morals and themes behind it is not about the love and romance at all, but is more of a look on racism and the perhaps frustrating nature of people hating each other for no good reason and how that unjustified hatred and anger can lead to very unfortunate consequences that neither side intended.

To that point, “West Side Story” does a very good job of a painting a very dreary picture of how warring factions can destroy a happy society. There’s no reason for the Americans and the Puerto Ricans to hate each other so much, but the reckless nature of the gang violence leads heartbreak, death and murder. And again, to the new movie’s credit, Spielberg does a really good job of diving even deeper into characters like Tony and Riff, giving them extra depth and background that makes the movie’s finale even that much more tragic.

But still, I have a really hard time overlooking the fact that the romance is very cheesy and ridiculous. While I had not seen “West Side Story,” I am quite familiar with “Romeo and Juliet” and it’s made adaptations and various movies that are influenced by it. And I’ve seen many movies that follow the exact outline, yet still accomplish the themes of the story while portraying a romantic arc that is believable. My two quick examples out of many are “Titanic” and “Warm Bodies.” Both are inspired by “Romeo and Juliet.” “Warm Bodies” is even a direct parody of it. In “Titanic,” Jack and Rose have immediate chemistry and are a couple that I root for the whole movie. In “Warm Bodies,” even though it’s silly and comedic, there’s still a connection between R and Julie (note the unashamed parody, even in the names?). In the new “West Side Story,” Tony and Marie are making out behind the bleachers within seconds of meeting each other and are both talking about marriage the next day. And if I thought that was cheesy enough, the old movie is a whole lot worse with how they meet. Still at the dance, but I laughed out loud when they connected eyes and the whole room moved aside so that they could embrace and start kissing.

In the new movie, the next day Tony is asking Valentina, Rita Moreno’s character in the new film, how to say certain phrases in Spanish and she starts questioning him as to why he’s rushing into it. “Don’t you want to ask her out to coffee first?” And yes, everyone watching is on her side with how silly this whole thing is. And to fast forward to the end of the movie, Tony kills Maria’s brother, then immediately goes to Maria and that’s the moment they first make love in the movie. Seconds after he breaks the news to her that he just killed her brother. I don’t care who you are or what world you’re in, there is no situation where I believe it is the least bit realistic for you to immediately sleep with the guy seconds after learning he just killed your brother, especially when it’s a guy you just barely met for the first time 24 hours previously.

And such nonsense in both movies makes the tragedy of it all less impactful. If there was some way to fix the lead romance to make it seem realistic, then the ending of the two gangs just not being able to mend their hatred would really hit home and you would leave with heavy emotions after the deaths of Riff, Bernard, and Tony. But the cheesiness of it all makes the final act of the movie crash and burn in a way that’s more recklessly written than the rushed romance itself.

I don’t know exactly what Spielberg could’ve done to fix this in his movie, but he took a very flawed story and recreated the same issues. He made the movie more cinematic. He made the musical numbers more grand and epic. He gave Puerto Ricans some real representation. And all of that deserves to be applauded. But what he also did is take a badly written romance story and made it even worse. Maybe how it was initially written works for a 1961 movie. There’s a lot of old-fashioned, classic films where characters go from strangers to madly in love in record time, many of which skip the whole courting process altogether. And it was fine for its time. But if that was the acceptable thing in old movies, then doing a cut and paste for 2021 might not be the best idea. I think even small things like stretching the plot out for a few weeks or a month could’ve gone a long way into making it more believable. Like I’ve pointed out, “Romeo and Juliet” HAS been done in ways that make it more believable while still keeping the tragedy and the core of the story and themes in place. “West Side Story” is just not one of those adaptations where the romance works for me and I do think it cuts into the impact of the resolution.

And that is why I leave feeling a bit conflicted about the whole thing. If I focus just on the music and the dance, then the original film is incredible and classic. And it’s even more impressive that Spielberg made the better version of that. But what am I supposed to do when other elements of both movies are so bad that it’s entertaining to make fun of them with a group of people? “So bad it’s good” is not the label that belongs anywhere near an iconic musical, which is why I can’t give either a full pass.

As I said, in terms of movie musicals from 2021, both “tick, tick… BOOM!” and “In the Heights” are superior films than “West Side Story,” even if “West Side Story” has the edge on both when it comes to the actual music. Make of that what you will.