West Side Story

Okay, so this one time at band camp...

No, stop, sit back down. It was a joke start to the story. Despite the fact that most of my memories of the original West Side Story film do, in fact, associate it with my time in high school marching band, I don't actually recall watching it at band camp.

Doesn't mean I didn't, though. See, when I was growing up West Side Story was one of the movies that my family liked well enough to watch more than once, but not well enough to actually buy (back when buying movies was actually kinda a big commitment). But every 18 months or so we'd rent it on a Friday night and watch it. Prior to high school I'd probably seen it two or three times, that I remembered anyhow. And then in my Sophomore year of marching band we did a field show that consisted of musical arrangements from West Side Story, and that year alone I probably watched the movie six or seven times. More than doubling my exposure to it.

And then I haven't watched it since. See, I respect West Side Story. I'd even go so far as to say I like it. But it's a drama, a tragedy even, and if there's one thing that's remarkably well-documented regarding my taste in movies on the blog, it's that I tend to lean heavily toward heart-warming stories. Not sure if you've noticed, but West Side Story... ain't that. So my context going into the Stephen Spielberg version of the show wasn't super deep. I recalled some songs, due primarily to that marching band show I referenced earlier, and a few of the main story beats, though that's as much down to the fact that I've read Romeo and Juliet as it is to my previous exposure to West Side Story. 

I knew generally what I was getting is what I'm saying, but there were wide gaps in my expectations.

And Spielberg managed to slot a lot of unexpected goodness into those gaps. There was a lot of service to fans of classic musical film-making, but everything was also tastefully modernized in terms of production value, such that both my internal ten-year-old and my internal cane-wielding porch-sitter were pleased. Shots were framed with an eye to story-telling detail, while not shying away from softly lighting an actor's eyes during a moment of emotional height. The choreography was grand and screen-spanning in its synchronicity, while also feeling expressive and modern in a way that 50's musicals never managed. It worked extremely well for me as a total package, and coming out the other end I feel pretty good about my conclusion.

Spielberg has given us the best version of West Side Story you can get for modern audiences. That doesn't mean the original is worse; just that if you're younger than, say, 40, the new one will probably feel better.

And honestly that's kinda what I think needed to happen here. This sort of proves the timelessness of the story. Nothing about this needed to be "updated" or "fixed", it stands on its own and communicates the same messages now as it did when it was first conceived. That means adding the context of class and racial divides common in the United States to the general statements about conflict posited by the tragedy that inspired it, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Which, and I really cannot make it through this review without stressing heavily, is not a romance story. At all. Neither Romeo nor Juliet is a role-model for romance. Everything about that story is intended as a cautionary tale, not a blueprint. The same holds true for West Side Story.

So the movie is good then. The best version of this story for modern audiences, I would say. Particular strong points include Rachel Zegler (Maria) and Ariana DeBose (Anita) for both their musical and acting chops. And heck, let's just say it, DeBose is a true triple-threat in the classic silver-screen sense; a world class performer in song, acting, and dance. Mike Faist as Riff and David Alvarez as Bernardo were similarly impressive in their roles, and the rest of the cast falls below them on a range from "excellent" down to "really good". It was lovely to see all of the roles portraying people of color played by people of color, and a special shout-out to Rita Moreno as Valentina. She was the only person of color playing a person of color in the 1961 version of West Side Story as Anita, and that was a super fun detail to have in my head for this viewing. Also, she absolutely killed it on Somewhere.

And on top of all that the musical arrangements were stellar, the performances engaging, the set dressing outstanding, and the effects absolutely seamless. The bright hues of the clothing and the world set this apart from... well, basically everything else in Hollywood these days, and I super appreciated that. Frankly, I can't think of anything to really complain about, other than that it took so long for this to show up on Disney Plus. And did you know this is the first musical Spielberg has ever directed?

Don't know why, that just seems weird to me.