The new version of “West Side Story” directed by Steven Spielberg was officially released in North America today. It is exactly 60 years since the last version of the movie in 1961.
As a classic Broadway musical, “West Side Story” has been put on stage countless times all over the world, but this is the second time it has been adapted on screen.
This year there are a lot of Hollywood musicals, and the films adapted from musicals are especially concentrated and prolific.
“In the Heights”, “Tick, Tick… Boom”, “Dear Evan Hansen”, “Cinderella”, “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie”, “Come from Away” and other musicals that came out one after another, are almost all screen reproductions of the musical of the same name. .
Among them, the most anticipated one is undoubtedly Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” at the end of the year.
Whether it is a musical or an earlier movie version, “West Side Story” has undoubtedly become a classic.
It has a profound impact on Broadway and Hollywood, and it has also influenced a large wave of directors.
Why did Steven Spielberg, who challenged a musical for the first time, become so obsessed with this story and insist on bringing it to the screen again?
With Zhuyu ahead, it is worth looking forward to whether the Almighty Director can continue to write the brilliance of this classic IP.
Related Post: Spielberg’s “West Side Story” word-of-mouth ban is lifted: It’s a perfect remake!
As a milestone in the history of Broadway musicals, “West Side Story” has been performing continuously since it was staged in the United States in 1957.
It has won 7 awards including Tony Award and Laurence Olivier Awards.
Whether it is lyrics, music or choreography, “West Side Story” presents a new form of expression, which has aroused strong resonance in different regions.
Such a groundbreaking work condenses the hard work of three masters—Belarus assembly dancer Jerome Robbins, musician Leonard Bernstein, playwright Arthur Laurents, and the successful reference to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
Tracing back to the birth of this musical, as early as 1949, the trio’s idea of the play was the passionate love between an Italian Catholic boy and a Jewish girl in the east side of Manhattan, and they named it “West Side Story”. “.
But due to the first performance of works of the same subject, this story was shelved.
In the 1950s, due to the frequent occurrence of Latino ethnic violence, musician Bernstein wanted to move the background of the previous story to the Puerto Rican immigrant community.
So he restarted the production of the play and renamed it “West Side Story”.
In this way, the struggle between the two big families of “Romeo and Juliet” in Shakespeare’s play was moved to the West Side of Manhattan, New York, where they acted as two different ethnic groups and different street gangs.
The dispute between the “Sharks” formed by the Latin American ethnic group and the “Jets” formed by the locals, while retaining the tragic love story of two young people in Shakespeare’s play.
Therefore, this drama has always been known as the “American Gangster Version of Romeo and Juliet”.
Due to the focus on social issues such as ethnic conflicts and cultural conflicts at the time, coupled with the innovative presentation of the musical form of musical theatre: Choreographer Jerome Robbins harmoniously integrates modern drama, song and dance, and ballet. The film also contains rich and diverse musical elements.
The “West Side Story”, known as the “episode of the era,” became very popular after its launch.
The songs “Tonight”, “Maria”, “America”, “Somewhere” and so on in the play are also widely sung.
The musical’s great success promoted the film and television adaptation of “West Side Story”.
In 1961, Hollywood adapted it into a movie, which was directed by Robert Wise, the director who later produced “The Sound of Music”, and Jerome Robbins, the original musical choreographer of “West Side Story”.
Like the later “Sound of Music”, “West Side Story” eventually became the business card of Broadway and Hollywood’s amphibious drama.
“West Side Story” won 10 awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress at the 34th Oscars the following year.
Related Post: Due to the appearance of transgender characters, Spielberg’s “West Side Story” was banned from being shown in certain countries.
This record was not broken until the advent of “Titanic” in 1997, but in the field of musicals, there has not yet been a work that can win “West Side Story”.
“West Side Story” also opened another golden age of Hollywood musicals, and classic musicals such as “My Fair Lady”, “The Sound of Music” and “Oliver Twist” were born successively.
In addition, this is also the first film in which two directors cooperate to win the Oscar for Best Director.
The second double-director-directed film that won the Oscar for Best Director was “No Country for Old Men” by the Coen brothers in 2007.
Regarding this excellent screen adaptation, in addition to the guarantee of the original musical drama and the input and shooting of the original drama creation team, Jerome Robbins’ choreography is indispensable.
But at the same time, “West Side Story” has also made many breakthrough attempts in performance techniques, showing characteristics that are different from musicals.
The scene of “West Side Story” jumped out of the traditional studio and walked to Manhattan streets, sports fields and other places to shoot a lot of real scenes.
Many ballet action scenes are unfolded in a real environment.
Therefore, this film is also known as the originator of American “street musicals”, which provides a new way of expression for the creation of modern musicals.
In the film, Maria and Tony, a pair of tragic lovers, have a first date, and they talk to each other. The scene of them singing “Tonight” on the balcony railing of Maria’s house has become a classic.
The ambidextrous success of musicals and movies has allowed the songs in them to spread more widely. The soundtrack record of “West Side Story” has topped the best-selling movie soundtrack charts for decades.
These songs crossed the gap between musicals and popular culture, drove this film, and influenced generations of audiences.
The remarkable achievements of “West Side Story” on Broadway and Hollywood influenced the creation of a series of similar works afterwards, and it also influenced a large number of film directors.
It is hard to imagine that director Michael Bay, who likes bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bombing, is good at creating visual spectacles and exciting scenes, turned out to be a loyal fan of the movie “West Side Story”.
Earlier, in an interview, Michael Bay emphasized that “West Side Story” is the enlightenment of his director career and one of his favorite movies.
Michael Bay is good at using the different levels and motion trajectories of the characters and the environment to create a sense of blockbusters, and the mirroring and scheduling of the movie “West Side Story” has affected his image expression to a certain extent.
He once said that many of the singing and dancing scenes in “West Side Story” look “dynamic”, which may be the reason why he loves this film.
In addition to Michael Bay, director Steven Spielberg also has a deep attachment to “West Side Story” musicals and movies.
Steven Spielberg, born in 1946, once recalled, “When I was a child, “West Side Story” was the first popular music work that could be played at home, and it took me to escape from reality. This 1957 version of the Broadway musical album. , I fell in love with it instantly, and it has been tempting me to put it on the big screen ever since.”
In 2003, Steven Spielberg obtained the right to adapt the play.
In 2014, in a show, Steven Spielberg frankly “showed love”, “‘West Side Story” is one of my favorite Broadway musicals, one of the greatest musical literature in history, and the best in the history of musicals. The composer and lyrics, let’s put it this way, I have always been thinking about it.”
It can be seen that “West Side Story” has always been the favorite of this director. For him, the on-screen reproduction of this musical will be the realization of his childhood dream.
Steven Spielberg believes that the theme and story of this show are meaningful to every generation.
“Every disagreement can be repaired with love. In a sense, this is a story that will never go out of style, and we need to keep revisiting it.”
This is why Steven Spielberg, who has tried almost all types of movies, dedicated his musical debut to this work.
Especially with the continuous racial conflicts and increasing ethnic differences in the U.S., this subject matter can arouse the attention of Americans nowadays.
However, in the original work, the Puerto Rican descent represented by “Sharks” is portrayed as a fanatical image of wielding a switchblade.
Facing the issue of racial discrimination and the banner of “political correctness”, how the Steven Spielberg creative team can rationalize and adapt to avoid falling into racial disputes or other disturbances will be a big problem.
Recently, the new version of “West Side Story” has been banned in many countries in the Middle East and Gulf.
It is reported that it may be because the role of Anybodys in the film was adapted into a transgender character and played by queer actor Iris Menas, which failed local censorship.
From a certain angle, it shows the strength of the adaptation of the new version of “West Side Story”.
Regarding the new version of “West Side Story”, Tony Kushner, who worked with Steven Spielberg in “Munich” and “Lincoln”, wrote the script for the film.
It is reported that the story will be closer to the original musical than the 1961 version.
In “Baby Driver”, Ansel Elgort, the actor of the music-loving car god baby, will star in the white “Jets” Tony.
The heroine Maria is played by a 17-year-old female high school student Rachel Zegler. The Colombian girl was selected by 30,000 people and finally won the role.
In addition, Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the 1961 film version, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress with this film, and will play the corner store owner Tony works in the new version.
In addition to the film, she also served as the executive producer of the film.
At present, the media word-of-mouth ban of the film has been lifted. The freshness of rotten tomatoes in “West Side Story” is 94% (90 reviews), with a MetaCritic overall score of 86/100 (38 reviews), and its reputation has exploded.
Related Post: Spielberg’s “West Side Story” rating is lifted, and the film is locked in advance of the Oscar award with high scores?
Tickets for the Oscars of “West Side Story” are highly likely to have been locked.
It is worth looking forward to whether this 2 hours and 36 minutes song and dance film can continue to write the glory of the version 60 years ago.
Comparison of the leading actors in the old and new versions:
“Sharks” composed of Puerto Ricans in “West Side Story” has an impressive image of unrestrained enthusiasm.
What kind of existence does this immigrant ethnic group exist in the United States, and what kind of identity does Puerto Rico have in the United States?
As an autonomous state of the United States in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico is known as the “back garden of the United States.”
In a political sense, it is an unincorporated territory of the United States, and the referendum to merge into the United States has been going on, but has been unsuccessful.
From a cultural perspective, although it is currently an autonomous region of the United States, it is still a representative of Latin American culture.
Although the status is special, it does not affect this region with a population of only over 3 million to go international and become a mysterious island with a prolific superstar.
It has sent many big names to Hollywood, Broadway, and pop music circles.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
The 41-year-old all-around wizard Lin-Manuel Miranda is a composer, singer, actor, and screenwriter. His parents are Puerto Ricans. He is regarded as the second generation of Puerto Rican immigrants.
This year, his screen director debut “Tick, Tick… Boom” won a good reputation, and he also served as the producer of the musical “In the Heights”, and he also played a supporting role in the film.
In addition, he composed and dubbed the original song for the Hollywood family animation “Vivo”.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is undoubtedly the hottest music producer in Hollywood right now.
It is reported that in the 2009 rerun version of the musical “West Side Story”, Lin-Manuel Miranda served as the Spanish translator for Puerto Rico’s “Sharks”.
His translation corrected the sensitive culture and the stereotype of Puerto Ricans in the original work to some extent.
“Latin Queen” Jennifer Lopez
The sexy Latin queen Jennifer Lopez was born in New York, whose parents were immigrants from Puerto Rico.
As an actress, singer, TV producer, pop designer, and dancer, she is considered an influential Spanish artist in the United States.
Jennifer Lopez is also the first Latino actress to earn more than one million dollars.
Her representative films include “Hustlers”, “Second Act”, “Selena” and so on.
In February next year, she will also have a musical romance film “Marry Me” starring in her.
In the past six months or so, the hot relationship between Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck after they reunited has really attracted a lot of fans.
“Collector” Benicio Del Toro
Benicio Del Toro was born in 1967 in a family of lawyers in Santurce, Puerto Rico.
He was widely acclaimed for his role as the criminal Fenster in The Usual Suspects in 1995 and is well known to movie fans.
After that, he collaborated with many directors: Guy Ritchie “Snatch”, Steven Soderbergh “Traffic”, Alejandro González Iñárritu “21 Grams”, Denis Villeneuve “Sicario”, etc. He also played the role of “Collector” in MCU.
This year, Benicio and Soderbergh once again launched the crime film “No Sudden Move”, and also participated in Wes Anderson’s all-star blockbuster “The French Dispatch”.
This cooperation resource shows that Benicio’s excellent acting skills are favored.
Not only Hollywood, but the pop music scene is also full of Puerto Rican stars.
Ricky Martin, the “Latin Prince” who is remembered by the whole world in “The Cup of Life”, and Daddy Yankee, who became popular all over the world with the Divine Comedy “Despacito”, are also from Puerto Rico.
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