Spielberg’s West Side Story — Page 2

newintown said: ""I would love to see younger audiences become obsessed and interested in WSS."

The original can't inspire that?"

No I don't think so. I think the original is a great film, but very dated.

The original film is a classic, no doubt about that, but I do think an updated film version can provide something really interesting to watch even if it does not reach the heights of the original film. I'd like to see an actual Latina play Maria and maybe ramp up the romantic chemistry between her and Tony. And unfortunately, there are people who simply cannot watch older films and need HD quality video, updated filming techniques, etc.

"Updated?" Gangs fighting with knives in playgrounds hasn't been a "thing" in NYC for about 50 years.

West Side Story tells a particular story about a particular time and place. If that's "dated," that's what it is. "Updating" won't be an improvement, just something different.

If, however, Kushner and Spielberg created a new, contemporary musical about race relations and gun violence - that might be interesting.

Oy.

The "style" of filming? Have you seen La La Land, which pays homage to exactly that kind of style? Funny how that works.

I also love the HD video comment - West Side Story was filmed in 70mm and if you ever see a proper print of it projected that way it blows away HD video because - it's FILM, it's crystal clear and amazing. As to updated filming techniques? a) there are no new filming techniques - in one way or another they've all been done before. b) what do you want - fast editing? Shots of feet. Musical numbers shot in master shots from fourteen different angles and then assembled in the editing. Because nothing they would do today would top the Prologue of the film version - it's designed beautifully, cut perfectly, and choreographed and danced beautifully.

I'm not making the argument that everything old needs to be redone.

Some things age better than others. I don't think I new, updated version of West Side Story will take anything away from the original. If anything I think it IS a way to get younger viewers to go back and revisit the original.

Updated On: 1/25/18 at 04:25 PM

^^THIS.

I still doubt it will happen, but even if Spielberg does come through with a very fine remake - not unlike, say, Sydney Pollack's fine remake of Sabrina - it will evaporate with time and the original will endure.

If Spielberg is making a remake, and Kushner is on board, why NOT make some changes? Try things, go crazy but be respectful. The worst it can do is not live up to the original and fade into obscurity. If Spielberg just wants to refilm and restage the Jerome Robbins visionary production of the original, he wouldn't be bothering with this. We're going to see something new here, and I don't know if I'll love it, but I'm open to its existence.

The original isn't "dated," but it contains some things that are somewhat jarringly of their time in a way less-culturally-educated viewers might not be able to get behind. There's the brownface, for one. And then there's the fact that, for better or worse, the mere sound of the trained human singing voice has changed in sixty years. The use of dubbed vocals has led a few people I've seen the movie with to quip "they sound so much older than they look... and they already don't look like teens."

JustAnotherNewYorker said: "I love the original, and see no need for a remake

However, I do recall that in the original conception it was "Lower East Side Story". I'd be interested in *that*. Of course they're have to write new songs, but I'd certainly buy a ticket if they could find some talent to either write an entire new score or adapt/as to the original"

IIRC, the proposed East Side
Story dealt with Jews v.
Catholics (i.e. Eastern
European v. Western
European immigrants). The
creators decided the set-
ting was already dated by
the mid-1950s and ESS was
shelved until Robbins (I
think) got the idea of moving
to the West Side and Latinos
v. "Americans".

***

Confidential to darquegk:
"go crazy but be respect-
ful" is an oxymoron.

Updated On: 1/25/18 at 09:12 PM

What new film techniques were those. Go watch a Jacques Demy film and report back. Because that's what the "auteur" of La La Land was doing - Jacques Demy, just as he did in his first film (something about someone on a bench). Everything about La La Land was ripped off from far better films.

Agree 100% with this. And when I watch WSS today, I’m still blown away by some of the shots. The camera work is extremely impressive by any standards.

bk said: "ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "And speaking ofLa La Land, it was a homage but it also used new film techniques and invoked a style of camera movement that screams contemporary film today. And yes, there have been new techniques that have developed since 1961 and will be developed. Film, like all art, is always evolving. Learning from the classics, veering away, going back again, finding new ground, etc."

What new film techniques were those. Go watch a Jacques Demy film and report back. Because that's what the "auteur" of La La Land was doing - Jacques Demy, just as he did in his first film (something about someone on a bench). Everything about La La Land was ripped off from far better films.

"

I'm quite familiar with Jacques Demy and own the Criterion Collection blu-ray of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. I know LLL was paying homage to those films and others and was trying to invoke some old-style filmmaking, but you cannot tell me that LLL isn't also a product of the way film and the technology surrounding film has evolved in the 50 or so years since both West Side Story and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort came out. It's like when Todd Haynes was paying homage to Douglas Sirk and the 1950s melodramas with Far From Heaven. You can see the inspiration and where many of the creative decisions were coming from, but it also looked like a film from 2002 paying homage, not an actual 1950s film.

Updated On: 1/26/18 at 09:42 AM