West Side Story

[ISpyCobraKai]

Anyone seen it?
I absolutely loved it, loved, loved, loved it, and I thought I'd stay faithful to the original but I'm wavering.
I just saw the original in the cinema this summer too, seen it loads of times but never in the cinema.
Ansel Elgort, (Tony), reminded me of a young Patrick Swayze which is clearly no bad thing!
I didn't even miss Natalie Wood, and I love her, Splendour in the grass is ones of my favourites.
I feel unfaithful.
The one thing, and there really is only one, though it's a big one for me, is, "I feel pretty".
Completely, totally does not work where it is, I can see what they were trying to do, but for me it didn't work at all, I hated it.
It's a big thing, but in the overall film I can get over it. (In years to come I bet I rant about it)

@HollowTalk

Has anyone seen the recording sessions on the making of West Side Story by Bernstein? It's the opera version and it's on YouTube. Absolutely brilliant.

One hand, one heart finishes me off in that recording. One of the most moving recordings I’ve heard.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=aWbW-zi078U

Also absolutely loved it! Saw it on Christmas Eve and we've had the soundtrack on since!

I struggled to find a cinema that was showing it.

The showing we did go to was well attended

I loved it and thought it was faithful to the stage show.

I have never seen the original so don't have anything to compare it to however I thought it was brilliant (if a bit stagey and old fashioned but then the original material is 60+ years old)
Ariana debose was fantastic in a strong cast
I think it's sad that it's been considered a flop I do wonder who it's been made for though

Has it been branded a flop? No way! Was it the timing of the release you think?

@Puffalicious

Has it been branded a flop? No way! Was it the timing of the release you think?

I think so. Our local cinema had two showings only between Christmas and new year. Every other screen was taken up with Spider-Man. We wanted to see it with Dd before she returned to her university city and there were no suitable screenings.

I went today. It was good, but the original is amazing.

Anita was disappointing, America just wasn't a patch. Tony was the stand out for me, Maria wasn't a good enough actress, though her voice is beautiful. I too felt the end was rushed (though I cried as usual!) and I was expecting more sweeping camera angles from Spielberg, so I was disappointed by that.

I doubt I'll watch it again, I'll stick to the original, but I'm glad I went. I do wonder why it wasn't remade in a different era though - just seems pointless to make it almost the same, except for song placement and (worthy) padding.

I'm another who adores the original, but I thought the new one was amazing. Definitely one for the big screen, I think Spielberg did a fantastic job.

There were only 3 showings at my local cinema on the day we went, all at awkward times. Whereas Spiderman had a billion times all through the day. Seems like it's been overlooked, sadly. Not even hearing people talking about it irl.

I watched the original when it was on TV over Christmas and still think I preferred the new one. You can tell the new one was made with respect and love for the original. A shame few have seen it as it's lovely on the big screen.

It's been shown loads in my Cinema, and is still showing next week, nowhere near as much as Spiderman admittedly but still plenty of times.
Weirdly, they aren't currently listing any of the new films I'd like to see next week, and they are usually good at having them, also classic films, plus things like concert showings, ballet, opera and such.
I've wondered if its because of our restrictions here in Scotland, but that still doesn't make much sense

I've been thinking about it more today. I think it fell flat for me as Maria just doesn't seem truly in love with Tony - she laughs and makes fun of him in quite a juvenile way, so the end isn't believable.

62 year ago this month my Mum (now 80) saw the stage version.

It has remained her all time favourite production and her LP of West Side Story was one of her prized possessions.

She gave the LP to my dd (aged 16 who has bought a record player) for Christmas.

Last weekend dd and I took her to see the new film.

So emotional, such a fantastic thing to do together, for her it was perfect. Took her right back to the original.

We all loved it.

@DeckardK

I've been thinking about it more today. I think it fell flat for me as Maria just doesn't seem truly in love with Tony - she laughs and makes fun of him in quite a juvenile way, so the end isn't believable.

That's an interesting point actually, and I agree with you. I think they wanted to give Maria a bit more oomph, so they made her quite feisty and independent from the off, which doesn't really work when you're selling the idea of two idiot kids falling madly in love in one night.

The joy of Natalie Wood's performance is how deftly she portrays Maria's loss of optimistic innocence and how powerful her hate and anger is at the end. She makes it totally believable that it all happened in a day.

I think the film tried a bit too hard to be right-on.

Saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it. The cinema was fairly empty, quite a small screen but there was only about 12 ppl watching.
Haven't seen the original to compare.

I saw this today, the cinema has added an extra daily showing probably due to it doing well at the Golden Globes.
I haven't read any journalists' reviews as I wanted to make my mind up.

Thought it was extremely well done and I thought it so apt to locate it amongst the demolition sites which would shape modern day New York. Weirdly, so many buildings reminded me of Manchester in my childhood especially what is now the hipster Northern Quarter.
Did anyone else notice the Puerto Ricans were always dressed in shades of red and the others in blues? Presumably a nod to the American flag. After Maria chose Tony, despite the death of her brother, she wore a dress of dark blue.
Also, when Maria and Tony made their vows to each other, the location had a nod to renaissance Verona and the light through the stained glass windows was red and blue.
Agree with others that some characters are much more rounded than the film version.

Yes. I loved it.

It's my favourite musical. I loved the original film and have also seen it on the stage.

And I loved Spielberg's interpretation of it too, bringing it up to date with modern attitudes.

It has always been set on the West Side of New York (hence the name) but the sense of time and place comes across really well in the new film which it don't so much in the original.

I thought it was OK
I’ve never seen the original so can’t compare it, but I’d sort of like to go see if I get a different’vibe’ from it as it didn’t hit the button for me.
The cinematography was amazing though. Loved seeing nyc like that.

Just seen it tonight and thought it was fantastic. More character development, better acting and I thought the actors playing Maria and Tony had great chemistry. Grittier and less stagey than the original film. I wept buckets from One Hand One Heart onwards as you know it ends tragically.

I thought it was absolutely fantastic! Visually stunning, Spielberg's use of light and dark, shadows and colour was genious. Excellent characterisation made it very moving, voices and numbers like America and Tonight took my breath away.

I realised who the actor playing Anita reminded me of today: Alex Scott. I might go and see it again. The two films I've seen twice at the cinema were musicals. I may continue that tradition and see this again.

Just noticed this is streaming now on Disney+ ⭐ can't wait to see it again

I saw it on stage on my 16th birthday in 1960. My first real boyfriend, my first theatre show, I'll never forget it. i saw the film on my 3 day honeymoon in 1963. Different boy. I've seen it on vhf and dvd hundreds of times and watched it on tv recently. I always cry. I would love to see the new version, posters' opinions are very interesting.

Haven't seen it and don't intend to after the Ansel Elgort allegations. They were wrong to go ahead with the release with him starring in the film!

www.thecut.com/2022/01/ansel-elgort-sexual-assault-allegations-what-to-know.html