So, for those who aren’t aware, Spielberg is remaking West Side Story and it has an official release date of 12/18/2020.
I’m a fan of the original, but I’m curious how others feel about this.
Can he handle a musical? He hasn’t done one previously, so this intrigues me.
How do fans of the original feel about this?
Quite frankly, as a devout fan of the old, original 1961 film version of West Side Story who's seen a couple of trailers and afew photographs from Spielberg's remake/reboot of the film version of West Side Story, I did not like what I saw, nor did I like some of the things that were pointed out about this newer film version of WSS.
For one thing, both the Jets and the Sharks themselves look too much like the newsy boys. Their girls looked more like wealthy suburban prep school girls that are dressed to the nines for partying around town than a bunch of gangsters' girlfriends.
Unlike the seamlessly combined on-location and sound stage scenes that were created by the late Borois Leven in the original 1961 film version of WSS, the backdrop scenes in the newer upcoming film version of WSS look far more like the tonier, wealthier parts of the city, rather than the impoverished, rough-and-rundown parts of the city.
The dancing seems way too hyped up for my liking, and the fact that the rumble is with piles and chains and even more violent than the rumble in the original 1961 film version of WSS, plus the Lt. Schrank and Officer Krupke in the original 1961 film version of West Side Story look far rougher and tougher than the Ofer Krupke and Lt. Schrank in the new 2021 film version,.
As a whole, the reboot/remake of the film version of West Side Story not only looks very overdone, and seems too bombastic, but it feels too heavy, unnatural, forced and wrong--and not at all like West Side Story--to me, anyway.
The stuff about Ansel Elgort ( an accused rapist who's groomed and even sexually assaulted underaged girls) has stiffened my resolve to vote my pocketbook and not go to see Spielberg's reboot/remake of the film version of West Side Story when it comes out. Being a woman who knows a number of women who've been sexually assaulted, I'm inclined to believe that the girl who accused Ansel Elgort of being a rapist was telling the truth.
The fact that there's profanity and much more violence involved in Spielberg's and Tony Kushner's upcoming film version of West Side Story also turns me off to seeing it, and so do a lot of the coloration of this movie.