'WEST Side Story' premiered as a stage production way back in 1957, before being adapted into the biggest box office hit of 1961 – winning 10 Academy Awards and inspiring generations of fans. The story has been revived on stages around the world in the decades since. But what does a remake have to offer audiences in 2021?
Quite a bit, actually.
Set in the Upper West Side of New York City in 1957, two rival gangs – The Jets, the sons and grandsons of European immigrants, and The Sharks, Spanish-speaking arrivals from Puerto Rico – clash over a rapidly changing neighbourhood that doesn’t have room for the both of them. Jets leader Riff (Mike Faist) and Sharks leader Bernardo (David Alvarez) arrange to have one last brawl to settle everything.
Complicating matters is a rapidly blooming romance between Tony (Ansel Elgort), a hesitant Jet who spent a year in prison and wants to turn a new leaf, and Maria (Rachel Zegler), a Puerto Rican girl who dreams of a bigger and brighter future for herself – who happens to be Bernardo’s little sister.
This clash of race, language, and cultures forms the dramatic backbone of the film, and for better or worse, is quite relevant in the US and many countries – including Malaysia. Can Tony and Maria’s love transcend the hatred between their peoples? Or are they doomed by forces outside of their control?
Now, while all this sounds quite serious, these themes and these conflicts are communicated through the power of song and dance. Whether it be with the tempered joy of ‘America’ about the good and bad of immigrating to the US, to the comical ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’ about being a juvenile delinquent with no future, or the show-stopping epic ‘Dance at the Gym’ – these sequences are marvels of choreography, confident camerawork and precise editing.
It should be no surprise that this remake is so well made, after all, it has behind it the best creative team that Hollywood and Broadway has to offer.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, one of the greatest directors in film history, with a script by Tony Kushner, one of the most eminent modern American playwrights, with music by legendary composer Leonard Bernstein, and songs written by the recently passed Broadway titan Stephen Sondheim. Frequent Spielberg collaborator, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski shot the movie.
Spielberg, a self-professed childhood fan of the musical, had been considering a remake to West Side Story for almost a decade – saw an opportunity to update how the story was told and introduce it to modern audiences. Despite his many hits, he also had not made a musical up to this point.
Having been made in an earlier time, when standards of representation were nearly non-existent, any update would have to address these shortcomings – and the film delivers. This isn’t just lip service to minority representation, but a way to showcase new and untapped potential – it’s also a way to be more honest about the story that’s being told.
The major standouts in the cast are newcomers Zegler, Alvarez and Ariana Debose (who plays Anita, Bernardo’s lover who’s also a big sister to Maria). The first two parts were played by white actors in the original, while the latter role landed Rita Moreno the first-ever Oscar for a Latin American actress.
Moreno, now a spry 89 years of age, has returned as a maternal pharmacy owner – one of the more notable changes from the original, where the character was a man. Here, she is a weary widow hoping for a better future, representing immigrants yearning for a place to belong to. She sings about this in the song 'Somewhere'.
Opposite Zegler as Maria, is Ansel Elgort as Tony. He is not a trained song and dance guy – understandably he is spared the more complicated dance numbers. He does a good job in his duets with Zegler and has a pleasant enough singing voice. His expressiveness in the dramatic moments leave a bit wanting, but ultimately his character and the romance is not that complicated.
The central love story is a naïve teen romance that is not really destined for success (maybe that’s just the cynic at heart speaking). What really heightens the drama is the class and racial tensions all around them.
Part and parcel of the race accurate casting of the Sharks with Puerto Rican/Hispanic actors is the pretty bold choice of having the Spanish-language dialogue be entirely unsubtitled. This plays into the expressiveness of musicals as you need to pay attention to their tone of voice and their facial expressions to understand the emotion being conveyed. It forces the audience to sit up and pay attention.
The other characters are also more interesting. The romantic tension between Anita and Bernardo is a lot more palpable. Faist as Jets leader Riff is fiery and charismatic, his Broadway pedigree kicking in during the complex dance sequences. The various gang members – though we don’t spend time with them as individuals – come alive when they get the spotlight.
Movies by their very nature are artificial, no matter how ‘realistic’ they strive to be. Musicals, with their elaborate song and dance sequences that spontaneously erupt out of nowhere, lean into this. We are watching performers fully committing sincerely without a hint of irony, which is a rarity in these cynical times we are living through.
The remake of West Side Story is in many ways a throwback to a bigger, bolder and more colourful time, but it also reminds us that racial tensions are not so easy to escape and that love can only take us so far. But there is beauty in the moments we have with each other. – The Vibes, December 10, 2021
