‘West Side Story’ – Review
Bursting with colour, excitement, timeless love and big-screen blockbuster drama, legendary director Steven Spielberg brings unmatched passion to the timeless tale of West Side Story and crafts an utter cinematic event.
Teenagers Tony and Maria, despite having affiliations with rival street gangs, the Jets and Sharks, fall in love in 1950s New York City.
2021 has not been a very comfortable year and for many of us a trip to the cinema is something we could have only wished for. Well, now you’ll get your wish granted because Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg is here to invite you back to the cinema these holidays for the unprecedented cinematic event that is West Side Story. Bringing the classic stage show from Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurents to the big screen for an entirely new generation, Speilberg pours his boyhood passion and love for the source material into this project and it shows in every single frame of film. Everything about this movie comes together. Cast, production design, costuming, cinematography, hair & make-up, choreography and of course the music, and it’s a truly lively time out at the movies.
Helping Spielberg to bring West Side Story to the big screen is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner, who as a long time collaborator and friend of Spielberg has helped shape some of the best films of the past two decades including Munich and Lincoln. Together these two artists work to bring the stage show to the big screen and focus very much is on the stage show aspect of the story. Where some Hollywood musicals can just feel generic, Speilberg and Kushner have really worked hard to make this piece of cinema feel like it is a piece of Broadway come alive, both in construction and presentation and Kushner’s adaptation of the famed work strikes new ground for a contemporary audience. Themes of love, acceptance, new beginnings, prejudice and the American Dream abound throughout the narrative and are handled in such a way that feels completely in keeping with the original show, along with having a real relevance in our modern age.
As a cinematic experience, West Side Story is what the movie theatre was made for. Bright, colourful, and majestic, this is a film whose frames use up every bit of space of the canvas and Spielberg brings his unique hand for wonderment to this presentation. Capturing the energy, fashion and style of the mid-1950s with an elevated Hollywood sense of glamour and detail, Speilberg brings to life the frantic clash of worlds that exist between The Jets and The Sharks, and from its opening crane shot that takes you into the bowls of a broken New York City you’re hooked as an audience member. Music and dance combine to transport you back in time and you’re sure to groove in your seats. Of particular enjoyment for me was the film’s school gym dance and the classic ‘America’ performance. Both scenes are filled with lively dancing, a rousing score and dashing costuming, and these two moments for me truly capture the fun and energy of this timeless story.
Portraying the central characters of Tony and Maria are Ansel Elgort and newcomer Rachel Zegler, and both are pitch-perfect in their performances. Elgort gives Tony a true Paul Newman flair as a former bad boy who is looking for a way to do good in his life, while Zegler is a beautiful ingenue as Maria who truly captures the centre of the screen and whose voice and presence are utterly angelic. Both have excellent chemistry on screen together, and pay tribute to the classic performances of Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, but also make the characters their own. While staying true to the classic rendition of the production, there is also a very present feeling about their performances that leads into the modern.
Providing a key level of support to the film’s story are Ariana DeBose as Anita, David Alvarez as Bernardo and Mike Faist as Riff. DeBose brings spontaneity and flair to her role as the whipsmart and slightly diva-ish Anita. Alvarez on the other hand has the intensity and fire of a young Marlon Brando and makes a forcible presence on the screen as the volatile and hot-headed Bernado. Faist brings the production together with his turn as Jets gang leader Riff, who is so caught up in his own misplaced hate that he is fated to an early doom.
Finally bringing this cinematic presentation of West Side Story to a complete full-circle is the one and only Rita Moreno as Valentina. A triple-crown winning actress, Moreno is a stateswoman of the silver screen for the other actors with her performance here as Valentina, or simply Val as the teenagers of this neighbourhood refer to her as. As a maternal figure to Tony, she tries to guide him and Maria in the right direction, but sadly she can only look on as hate and injustice swirl around them and lead into the tragedy that lie at the heart of the story. Moreno has a grand presence in the film and her performance and spirit hold the attention of the audience whenever she appears on screen.
West Side Story is a lavish, big-screen production of Hollywood at its grandest and this is a film that the whole family will be mesmerized by. Bright and bold it speaks to the power of cinema to both move and entertain us and it is exactly the kind of film we need at this moment in time. Do not miss out on this one at the cinema, for it is a grand treat.
Image: Walt Disney Pictures
