Okay, so I've been rewatching the (really fantastic) DVD documentary about the making of the movie, which includes much about the creative process for the Broadway show as well as the film adaptation.
I must admit, I'm getting senile. LOL I had some of it right, but some of it wrong, so I want to set the record straight in this thread, and add a few things I noted while viewing it again.
Robbins rehearsed with the film cast for three months before they shot anything. Three months!!! All of the numbers were choreographed for the movie by Robbins and his assistants, long before the cameras rolled.
Including the entire reworking of the "America" number to add in the Shark boys.
The reason "Cool" was broken up and rehearsed and filmed in sections was because the dancers kept getting injured. So they would work on part of it, then stop, and pick it up again later. During the filming, Baby John (Eliot Field) came down with pneumonia. The set was extremely hot because of the low metal ceiling holding all the heat in (something like 115 degrees), and then it was very cold outside, whenever they stopped and took a break. He became very ill and shot the number with full-blown pneumonia. At one point, he collapsed, and they rushed him to the hospital.
The reason Robbins was fired (and barred from the set!) was because he would never "print" anything. He kept wanting to refilm every shot. He was never satisfied with anything he shot as a director.
All of the actors knew something was going to have to happen, but they were all (according to Moreno) devastated when he was fired.
Both Wise AND Robbins were there during the filming of the opening sequences. All of it. Wise helped with some camera angles and discussions of how everything should flow, so it wasn't a Robbins-only direction, but Wise was entirely letting Robbins take the lead for this extended opening sequence. Wise offered suggestions but stayed out of his way.
Sondheim says he ALWAYS wanted "Cool" and "Krupke" to swap places in the show. He complained about it a lot during the creation of the Broadway play. He didn't think the Jets would sing a comedy number, out on the open streets, just after being in a serious rumble and witnessing two murders.
It was Ernest Lehman, the (terrific) screenplay writer who decided to switch the numbers in the film to build the tension, and Robbins went directly to Sondheim and told him that he finally got his wish!
Robbins was fired the day they began filming the Dance at the Gym. And all of the Broadway creative team flew out from NYC and showed up that first day to wish him well and see how things were going (Hal Prince, Sondheim, etc.). Nobody wanted to talk about why Jerry Robbins wasn't on the set.
Robert Wise personally called Jerry back, in post-production, to supervise the editing of the scenes that he had worked on. It was in his original contract that he would have that right to oversee the editing of his scenes. And even though he had been fired and the contract was void, it was Wise who decided to honor it anyway. They spent ten days together, without the studio's knowledge, editing those scenes.
And it was Wise who brought Jerry out to the Academy Awards. The studio didn't do it. Wise did.
So, PJ, even Robert Wise agrees with you that this film wouldn't be what it is without his directorial and conceptual contributions.
I dig Robert Wise. Genius film director. With or without Robbins.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
