Steven Spielberg's WEST SIDE STORY - News & Discussion Thread- Page 74

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 12/17/21 at 2:36pm

One great thing this new version did is put a spotlight on the long-gone neighborhood of San Juan Hill and has stirred a re-examination of what it means to be a migrant in this country and the systemic racism that still prevails to this day. 

I was interested in seeing if Lincoln Center acknowledged its complicated history and was very surprised to find that in June of 2020 it did and has made a commitment to rectify the wrongs of the past:

Today, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts commits to:

-Telling the story of Lincoln Center from our beginning, in its truth. The displacement of Indigenous, Black, and Latinx families that took place prior to the construction of our campus is abhorrent. We may never know its full impact on those dispossessed of the land on which Lincoln Center sits. But only by acknowledging this history can we begin to confront the racism from which our institution has benefited.

-Presenting artists and points of view that better reflect the City of New York. We will do this, in part, by establishing commissioning funds specifically to center the voices of artists that have been underrepresented on our campus.

-Dismantling structures across Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts that foster inequity and replacing with practices that promote true inclusivity. This includes empowering staff to understand how to identify and constructively address racism within their job functions and department.

We will communicate consistently with you, our community, about how we're holding ourselves accountable in the coming days, months, and years.

 

Acknowledging the History of San Juan Hill. The 1956 Lincoln Square Development plan that led to the establishment of Lincoln Center was one of many “urban renewal” programs across the country rooted in systemic racism. It displaced a thriving and culturally rich community of more than 7,000 families and 800 businesses, including the largest Black and brown population in New York at the time. We are working with artists, technologists, historians, social justice advocates, and former residents of San Juan Hill to accurately document and understand our origins. As a first step, we are working to make our archives publicly available for research and as a resource for artistic projects.  

In the coming months, we will work to bring the story of San Juan Hill to life using augmented reality, meaningfully telling the stories of the generations of families and communities that resided on the 16 acres we now call home. Through an app on your mobile device, you will be able to see these stories happen at various points around campus, peeling back the layers of time and physical space to experience events, people, objects, and buildings that once occupied our campus. We plan to install a permanent placard on-campus that acknowledges this land first belonged to the Indigenous Lenape peoples, ensuring transparency of the complete history of the land on which our institution resides. We also recognized the Lenape during a ceremony at the public launch of Restart Stages, and expect this work to be ongoing. 

[Huss417]

Posted: 12/17/21 at 2:40pm

Was looking to go back to see it over Christmas but it looks like the last day in my local cinema is 12/21.

[Itonlytakesajourney]

Posted: 12/17/21 at 11:35pm

Just came back from the cinema and wow, was that excellent. The performances -from everyone in the cast and I mean that- as well as the orchestrations, choreography, directing and cinematography, and just the general understanding and yet slight reinterpretation of the entire show; everything was extremely good. I especially loved how they did Cool; the song makes a lot of sense with Tony and feels much more intense and personal that way. Other standout scenes were America, A Boy Like That/I Have a Love (which made me tear up in my seat….Ariana DeBose is a marvel), Mambo, and Tonight/the Tonight quintet. But really I enjoyed every scene from beginning to end, I’m very pleased that I genuinely liked the movie as much as I did. 
 
The whole thing just gives WSS the authenticity it sometimes felt was lacking in the past. I’ll always love the original film, and its visual aesthetic is something that can’t be beat no matter how gorgeous Spielberg made his version look, but this movie truly encapsulates what WSS is about and builds upon that in ways the former never did. I felt a much greater emotional connection to what was going on; which can’t only be attributed to the more nitty gritty elements but also to the heart I could tell the movie was made with. Spielberg has a respect for the material that shines through in the final product; I hope he’ll get to do another musical or two in his career because he clearly knocked it out of the park with this one.

[Trish2]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 12:30pm

Oucha Magoucha!

 

per FORBES

Friday Box Office: ‘Nightmare Alley’ Bombs As ‘West Side Story’ Tumbles 74%

"Meanwhile, last week’s “coulda/woulda/shoulda/didn’t” biggie West Side Story got understandably kneecapped in weekend two. Steven Spielberg’s very good re-adaption of the 1957 Broadway play (which was adapted in 1961 into an Oscar-winning theatrical smash) earned just $1.063 million (-74%) on its second Friday, giving it a new $15.629 million eight-day domestic cume. We can expect a $3.5 million (-67%) weekend and a sad $18 million ten-day cume. This obviously isn’t getting Greatest Showman-like legs, for any number of reasons (a known quantity, no stars, longer, less family-friendly, no stars, post-release competition, a downer ending, etc.) and will end up playing closer to Cats ($27 million domestic). The Rachel Zegler/Ansel Elgort musical romance deserved better, but as Clint Eastwood famously said in Unforgiven, deserves got nothing to do with it."

 

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 1:59pm

Love the moronic comparisons of a pre-pandemic film release with a film released in a pandemic?  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why WEST SIDE STORY isn’t making crazy box office numbers. No film is. Some are making more money than others but zero film is making pre-pandemic box office earnings.  

[ARTc3]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 3:07pm

I just saw the new West Side Story film. I highly recommend watching the original and forgetting this version. Its a bore and some of the new choices are just awful. Tony Kushner's rewrite is criminal. Having Rita Moreno play the owner of their hangout, Doc's Pharmacy just made absolutely no sense. Having the Jets hanging their after the rumble was ludicrous.

It sounds good and the cast is amicable. The dancing is wonderful, but not nearly as 'tight' as the original. The cinematography is good – not great – but, the writing is just terrible.

I understand some of the 'woke' issues that the original struggled with, but it was just a far better film and for me more effective.

[Huss417]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 3:10pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "Love the moronic comparisons of a pre-pandemic film release with a film released in a pandemic? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why WEST SIDE STORY isn’t making crazy box office numbers. No film is. Some are making more money than others but zero film is making pre-pandemic box office earnings."

Spiderman is setting records this weekend.

‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Scores 2nd Best Opening Day Of All Time With $121M, 3-Day Now Between $242M-$247M+ – Saturday Update

https://deadline.com/2021/12/spider-man-no-way-home-50m-preview-easily-pandemic-record-all-time-for-sony-100m-friday-likely-1234898486/

[herewegoabc]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 4:12pm

I saw the movie again last night, and the showing was completely sold out. I'm in a mid-size city, so it made me very happy. It wasn't anywhere close to sold out the other times I saw it, but I'm hoping this means it's picking up a little bit of word of mouth speed.

Updated On: 12/19/21 at 04:12 PM

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 4:25pm

Spider-Man doing well doesn’t mean all movies opening in pandemic are doing well. The second-place movie, a Disney film, made literally $120M less. So basically all non-Marvel movies are flopping.

[Huss417]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 4:29pm

HeyMrMusic said: "Spider-Man doing well doesn’t mean all movies opening in pandemic are doing well. The second-place movie, a Disney film, made literally $120M less. So basically all non-Marvel movies are flopping."

I was responding based on the comment that "zero film is making pre-pandemic box office earnings." Just pointing out that Spiderman is setting records.  I know overall the box office is terrible.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 4:49pm

Sorry, that wasn’t really in response to anyone in particular. These think pieces about WSS flopping have been a little much. The film industry as a whole has been floundering. Spider-Man is the exception.

I’m confident this movie will still do well at the year-end awards and citations. Rarely are the best-crafted movies also the movies that do well at the box office.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 6:17pm

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 8:49pm

''Spider-Man: No Way Home'' is historically crushing EVERY movie in sight, not just ''West Side Story.'' Today's audiences LOVE superhero films. This ''Spider-Man'' movie is the 27th one in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Does anyone really believe a remake of a 60-year-old musical could compete with that? 

''Spider-Man'' is a phenomenal hit starring Tom Holland. But his non-''Spider-Man'' movies earlier this year were not so phenomenal. ''Chaos Walking'' rated only 21% at Rotten Tomatoes. And Entertainment Weekly calls his ''Cherry,'' on AppleTV, & ''Chaos Walking,'' among the worst movies of 2021.

Updated On: 12/18/21 at 08:49 PM

[South Florida]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 10:53pm

Meh!  This didn't need to be redone.

Why the change in who owns the hangout?

The dancing was great.  And the songs, of course.

There were new songs I didn't enjoy.  Everything that was changed was kind of lame except the choreographry, and how they showed the dancing disturbing traffic.  Thought that was a nice change.

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/18/21 at 11:19pm

New songs?  The only new addition was Bernardo singing that Puerto Rican anthem after the Prologue.  

[BWNUT]

Posted: 12/19/21 at 6:42am

This WSS was not made with box office glory in mind. It was born out of a true filmmaker’s love and passion for the art of cinema. Unlike the money grabbing blockbusters clogging the multiplexes nowadays.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/19/21 at 3:58pm

Woke up this morning to a (finally) negative Covid test so my quarantine is over and I beelined over to the movie theater across the street that I’ve been staring at these past ten days cooped up in this room. While I do some minor quibbles with a few things, overall I thought it was gorgeous and brilliant and everything I knew Spielberg could bring to it. 
 

As far as box office goes, it’s disappointing it’s not doing better but the films demographic is older and they’re not going outside of their homes for the most part right now. I’m sure it will be released for VOD in the next couple weeks and hopefully start to make some more cash from those homebound folks. 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 12/19/21 at 4:08pm

Wayman_Wong said: "''Spider-Man: No Way Home'' is historically crushing EVERY movie in sight, not just ''West Side Story.''Today's audiences LOVE superhero films. This ''Spider-Man'' movie is the 27th one in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Does anyone really believe a remake of a 60-year-old musical could compete with that?

Of course not. A lot more straight men than gay ones out there. Just spittin fax! 

 

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 12/20/21 at 1:46pm

Metacritic’s aggregated list of professional movie critics’ best of 2021 lists now has WSS tied at #4 (with The Worst Person in the World) behind #1 The Power of The Dog, #2 Drive My Car, & #3 Licorice Pizza. 

https://www.metacritic.com/feature/film-critics-pick-10-best-movies-of-2021

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 12/20/21 at 1:52pm

88 points is not the same as 85 points, just an FYI. 

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 12/20/21 at 2:01pm

I think West Side Story, while a classic, is a tough property to sell. I found the original film very boring and hard to get through. The dancing was electric and some of the songs are iconic but other than that I found it a slog. I believe it was groundbreaking at the time of its release. I’m not sure how well it holds up. 
 

I saw the Broadway revival twice (trying to catch Olivo with no luck) and found it a total snooze. 
 

I look forward to seeing the remake but I also believe it will inherently suffer from the source material. I appreciate the intention of Spielberg but I’m not sure this needed to be made. A lot of the attachment to WSS is sentimentality of older people and that doesn’t sell tickets. And although it makes people sad, young people don’t necessarily want to be introduced to the “classics.” They will discover it on their own if they want to. 
 

Euphoria is the type of thing young people are watching to reflect their angst and diversity, not WSS. If Olivia Rodrigo wrote a musical they would probably be more likely to see that. 

[Zamedy154]

Posted: 12/21/21 at 8:16pm

I just returned from a 3pm showing with my mom (she’s 73). We were the only ones in the theatre

My mom said she preferred the original and then went on to rave about the original screen Bernardo. 

I thought this movie was beautiful, even breathtaking at parts. We both loved Rita Moreno (how could you not). How great would it be for her to be nominated for an Oscar for this role?

I was worried about the long running time, but it never felt boring and to me it didn’t ‘feel’ like we sat there for almost three hours.

Why does this musical still work? The music. That music, those melodies, are among the greatest ever written. The orchestrations in “Mambo” and, of course, “America” give me chills. IMO, there isn’t a ‘clunker’ in the score. 
 

One question - did anyone notice two possible Easter eggs (nods) to the original Anita, Chita? I swear in the one scene where Tony is in a subway station, the word “Chita” was on the wall behind him as ‘graffiti.’ That got me thinking.. wouldn’t it be cool if they gave her a nod during America? And wouldn’t you know, during one part of the song they dance in front of a store sign that says “Rivera’s.” Anyone else notice these things? 

[¿Macavity?]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 8:22am

Saw this last night and really loved it. Don't have much to add that hasn't already been said. I wanted to point out that when Tony and Maria are down at the subway platform, the train screeches a faint minor 7th that resolves to a Major 6th - which, of course, makes up the first three notes of "Somewhere". I was blown away by the sneakiness of it! Well I googled it to double-check, and it was true. Even more interesting - forgive me, I'm not a New Yorker - is that that sound has actually occurred in NY subways since 1999.

Here's a recent bit from a Vulture article that explains it better than I can:

"...the subway sound popped up thanks to the introduction of the electronic R142 subway cars, first installed in 1999 and common on the 2, 4, and 5 lines by then. The gist of the electrical engineering at play seems to be that those cars run on an alternating current, and as they sync up with the direct current from the third rail to power their motors, the steel vibrates at frequencies that just so happen to recall Bernstein’s score."

Ridiculously clever of Spielberg, or whoever, to include it. 

[Musicnut82]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 9:48am

One question - did anyone notice two possible Easter eggs (nods) to the original Anita, Chita? I swear in the one scene where Tony is in a subway station, the word “Chita” was on the wall behind him as ‘graffiti.’ That got me thinking.. wouldn’t it be cool if they gave her a nod during America? And wouldn’t you know, during one part of the song they dance in front of a store sign that says “Rivera’s.” Anyone else notice these things?"

 

I didn't notice that but I did notice how the color pallete of the film changed during the end credits to match the 1961 film (vintage saturated red/orange against the brick wall buildings and staircases). I found that was a great touch.

 

[Musicnut82]

Posted: 12/22/21 at 9:58am

¿Macavity? said: "Saw this last night and really loved it. Don't have much to add that hasn't already been said. I wanted to point out that when Tony and Maria are down at the subway platform, the train screeches a faint minor 7th that resolves to a Major 6th - which, of course, makes up the first three notes of "Somewhere". I was blown away by the sneakiness of it! Well I googled it to double-check, and it was true. Even more interesting - forgive me, I'm not a New Yorker - is that that sound has actually occurred in NY subways since 1999.

Here's a recent bit from a Vulture article that explains it better than I can:

"...the subway sound popped up thanks to the introduction of the electronic R142 subway cars, first installed in 1999 and common on the 2, 4, and 5 lines by then. The gist of the electrical engineering at play seems to be that those cars run on an alternating current, and as they sync up with the direct current from the third rail to power their motors, the steel vibrates at frequencies that just so happen to recall Bernstein’s score."

Ridiculously clever of Spielberg, or whoever, to include it."

Wow, that brings Spielberg's "sneakiness" into a new level. Last time I remember him doing something remotely close to that was in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind when you can barely hear the 5 tones subtly playing during Roy's first UFO encounter scene at the railroad crossing.