Steven Spielberg's West Side Story

py2006 · 26-04-2021 7:48pm #1

I remember reading about this, didn't realise it was coming out already. First musical for aul Steven too.

An adaptation of the 1957 musical, West Side Story explores forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Taelr72RHZ8

jasonb · 26-04-2021 8:01pm

Oh, don't know how I feel about this, hadn't heard of it until know. West Side Story is *the* classic take on Romeo & Juliet.

branie2 · 27-04-2021 2:20pm

I hope it's great

branie2 · 27-04-2021 2:24pm

Maria's party dress - like the one Natalie Wood wore in the original

pixelburp · 27-04-2021 2:32pm

Strange decision - or at least, it seems strange to me at first blush - for Spielberg to not only take a swing at a musical at this stage in his career, but to remake a hallowed entry at that.

branie2 · 27-04-2021 2:50pm

I wonder if the songs will be in the original order as in the broadway version - in the 1961 film, Gee Officer came before the rumble, and Cool after it.

jasonb · 27-04-2021 6:49pm

After my initial reaction I've read up about this and it seems like they aim to be truer to the initial Broadway play than the film. It'll be interesting to see it, but going up against such a classic it's going to have to knock it out of the park to be considered a success. However, Spielberg clearly knows what he's doing and obviously the source material is excellent, so it could be amazing.

Wedwood · 27-04-2021 11:43pm

I’ve seen all of Spielberg’s movies over the years and the only real misfire was his comedy ‘1941’ starring John Belushi. (Crystal Skull has its detractors but it’s still a critical and financial hit)

You could split his career into two halves, the movies he made up to Saving Private Ryan in 1998 and everything he made afterwards. There’s very few movies in the second part of his career that I would rate over his first half. I’m not suggesting they are bad movies, but he doesn’t knock it out of the park like he did in the 70s/80’s/90’s.

That said, I’m looking forward to seeing his unexpected take on what you could describe as movie royalty. There aren’t too many remakes of classic movies that compare well with the originals. (Eg Psycho, King Kong, Ben-Hur)

The Black Oil · 28-04-2021 9:00am

Presumably, Ansel Elgort won't be involved much in the promotion, given the allegations against him last year.

johnny_ultimate · 28-04-2021 9:07am

Given the trailer conforms to modern expectations and includes a slow, moody piano version of a recognisable song... I'm just angry it wasn't a slow, moody piano version of Gee, Officer Krupke.

28-04-2021 9:11am

Wedwood wrote: »

I’ve seen all of Spielberg’s movies over the years and the only real misfire was his comedy ‘1941’ starring John Belushi. (Crystal Skull has its detractors but it’s still a critical and financial hit)

You could split his career into two halves, the movies he made up to Saving Private Ryan in 1998 and everything he made afterwards. There’s very few movies in the second part of his career that I would rate over his first half. I’m not suggesting they are bad movies, but he doesn’t knock it out of the park like he did in the 70s/80’s/90’s.

That said, I’m looking forward to seeing his unexpected take on what you could describe as movie royalty. There aren’t too many remakes of classic movies that compare well with the originals. (Eg Psycho, King Kong, Ben-Hur)

He stopped directing after 1998, that was when Senor Spielbergo took over

pixelburp · 28-04-2021 9:24am

Spielberg's latter-day work seems to shuttle from sombre, solid "grown-up" films like Bridge of Spies or The Post, and flaccid blockbusters like Ready Player One or The BFG. His heart hasn't seemed in these bigger productions, maybe. more enjoying his scaled back work - so to take on the biggest musical in modern times seems brave.

IMO, 2011's Tintin is possibly an underrated entry in his late-career work; dunno whether it was just the relatively unknown IP - or how his friend Robert Zemeckis caused a huge backlash against "realistic" CGI - but either way, the film deserves more praise than it got.

As to the rest of his post "Ryan" work? War of the Worlds is fantastic, and arguably the best adaptation of the original material; Catch Me if You can is distilled cinematic fun and eminently re-watchable; while AI was his most enigmatic and complex work in years. The coldness of Kubricks script clashing with Spielberg's constant desire to ramp up the heart.

johnny_ultimate · 28-04-2021 9:45am

Spielberg has a lot of forgettable and misguided fare in the 2010s particularly (and Ready Player One is IMO quite a nadir in that regard). But I would suggest the double bill of Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can in one year was the man firing on all cylinders still (I'd take both films over most of his often sickly sentimental 'prestige' fare), with scattered good to great films for the rest of that decade.

pixelburp · 28-04-2021 10:00am

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Spielberg has a lot of forgettable and misguided fare in the 2010s particularly (and Ready Player One is IMO quite a nadir in that regard). But I would suggest the double bill of Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can in one year was the man firing on all cylinders still (I'd take both films over most of his often sickly sentimental 'prestige' fare), with scattered good to great films for the rest of that decade.

Minority Report is a great movie, as long as you quieten the part of your brain that tries to work out the time-travel logic once the credits roll. Especially once the twists and truths come out in the last act; cos IIRC, the entire structure of the plot fails significant smell tests once you apply the smallest amounts of "wait, if X happened, then that means Y..."

Sad Professor · 28-04-2021 10:26am

Agree about Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can, both among his best.

Re: Tintin, I am suspicious of live action directors who direct animated films and always assume that there's an lowly credited animation director doing most of the actual work.

Anyway it's been a while since I was excited for a Spielberg film and this is no exception.

MfMan · 28-04-2021 10:33am

Because Minority Report and 'Catch Me..' star the gurners Cruise and LDC, I can't take them seriously among Spielberg's cannon. A.I one of his most underrated I feel.

quickbeam · 28-04-2021 11:47am

The Black Oil wrote: »

Presumably, Ansel Elgort won't be involved much in the promotion, given the allegations against him last year.

I certainly hope that wouldn't prevent him from being involved in promotion.

Sad Professor · 19-09-2021 2:24pm

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5GJLwWiYSg

Need a Username · 19-09-2021 7:18pm

Anytime there is remake there are people complaining (justifiably) for various reasons.

This thread is the first place I’ve seen comments against this film.

Empire even had a complaint in their report about Disney’s Flight of the Navigator remake while further down the page no such comments in an article about this movie.

As to why Spielberg is remaking a solid gold classic? Probably because the original is good that he thinks this increases his chance for an award. That seems to be all he is interested in.

pixelburp · 19-09-2021 7:30pm

Has Spielberg made a musical ? Could simply be the case he never has and thought f*ck it, I wanna try while I still can. He has touched every other genre at this stage. They're vaguely back in fashion too, so probably figured he would meet less resistance.

py2006 · 20-09-2021 4:19pm

It looks stunning I have to say, as in the cinematography

20-09-2021 4:33pm

While the original was made long before I was dreamed up, it was the version we all grew up with- but I do get the attempt at a remake in that many many younger people will never sit down to watch the original -it’s not shown on TV that much and anyway younger people don’t watch TV like older people did- in fact there’s a whole rake of Hollywood classic movies from the 1940s onwards that just won’t interest people who grew up with CGI and great production values- they just won’t have the patience for an outdated looking film

I think this brings a great story to a new generation of viewers who may never have watched the original so that can’t be too bad- can it?

conorhal · 21-09-2021 11:25am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117912444#Comment_117912444

He's always aspired to make a musical, so much so that he turned the opening of Temple of Doom into a Busby Berkeley inspired big stage musical number of 'Anything Goes'. People often forget just how wierd it is that an Indiana Jones movie opens with a fantasy musical number, just because the director fancied making one.

expectationlost · 21-09-2021 1:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117911025#Comment_117911025

very little dancing in that trailer, which was the stand out in the original I guess he going more for the story.

Agent Coulson · 21-09-2021 2:33pm

Looks stunning, Keeping the signing and dancing for the actual film by the looks of it.

Great to see Rita Moreno in it who rarely gets mentioned when the lists of the greatest actors are talked about.

p to the e · 23-09-2021 4:50pm

Having a slightly older sister I grew up watching and enjoying musicals of all types (Grease 2 being a guilty pleasure) but I just never liked West Side Story. I never got the love for it and am baffled that it's judged a classic. This new version looks beautiful thanks to Spielbergo working with his frequent collaborator Janusz Kamiński. I remember previously saying how I loved his work on Saving Private Ryan and someone saying he was basically a hack copying other people's ideas/motifs. Well hopefully this converts the unconverted.

As a note I read that a recent Broadway version cut the song "I feel pretty" because reasons so I wonder if it's removed from this.

JP Liz V1 · 10-12-2021 4:32am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117018558#Comment_117018558

As the star I assume he has to promote it

gmisk · 10-12-2021 4:12pm

I saw this morning.

I loved every minute of it.....there are a lot of minutes! It's a long film, but it looks gorgeous and I loved the staging of the songs. If you don't like musicals this isn't for you.

Elgort has a really good voice (I had only heard him sing a dance song with Don diablo before) bags of charisma as well.

Rachel Zegler wow.

gmisk · 10-12-2021 4:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919243#Comment_117919243

There is plenty of dancing in the actual film

Steven Spielberg's West Side Story

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