Two old friends meet in the street:
First guy: “How’s your wife?”
Second guy, “Compared to what?”
I enjoyed, Spielberg’s West Side Story, partially because I love the music so much. It had been a long time since I saw the Robert Wise version. But I have watched that again and think it is noticeably and surprisingly superior to the new version.
The old version opens with a great panoramic view of new York tha better sets the stage for the competing groups. But it is the choreography of Jerome Robbins that excels. The dancing is more intimate and more compelling. For example, Robbins “America” is an intimate, exciting, dance between boyfriends and girlfriends on a roof in Manhattan. Spielberg’s removes the closeness and has them dancing all over Manhattan, even injecting politics into it. And children who appear for ten seconds and disappear.
Officer Krupke removes the fun and fantasy of the original and has the kids destroying a police station. And, by removing the intimacy of “Cool” and having them destroy a police station changes the meaning of the piece.
“I Feel Pretty” is a fin a joyous song that in the original comes before the rumble. Spielberg’s version comes after the death of two people, how joyous is that?
Rita Morena was, for me, the heart of the first movie and I did develop a movie crush on her. The new Anita is a talented actress, but I never felt that I wanted to even meet her. And that changes the focus of the movie. At one point Anita sings to Maria, “A boy liked that will kill your brother…and a boy who kills cannot love…). But it was her “boy” that first killed Riff. Yet, I sympathized with Rita, not the new one.
Rachel Zegler was a better choice that Natalie Wood. Zegler is Hispanic and Wood wasn’t and that does show. (Everything’s right in America, if you’re all white in America.”)
No end to West Side Story can be satisfying. And it is hard to modernize a period piece. I did enjoy the new version but sometimes the original is best.
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