Hollywood has enjoyed stunning success with musicals during the 1940s and 1950s with those enchanting dance-musicals of Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers and Judy Garland. The genre turned modern and socialized in the early 60s when Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins made West Side Story (1961)– the first adaptation of 1957 stage play of the same name. If you see, the 60s decade was ruled by Musicals with West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Sound Of Music and Oliver grabbing Oscar dolls and that set a new trend for this genre in Hollywood. The box office success was astonishing too, if you add 'Mary Poppins'. But Wise and Robbins' film was special because it dealt with social and cultural issues with a basic love story hanging around the evergreen formula of Romeo and Juliet. Mansoor Khan attempted an average Bollywood remake with Josh (2000). Now, after 60 years, we have the Musical Remake of that film and it's from a genius filmmaker like Steven Spielberg. Are you still waiting to check back your purchase? If yes, then you are a fool. Don't wait, purchase the ticket right now and enjoy this faithful recreation by the master director. Spielberg's West Side Story does not cheat with its origins and offers the same amount of quality (almost) with added spice, glamor and modern touch.West Side Story is a carbon copy of the 1961's film, or more of 1957's stage play. Teenagers Tony and María, despite having affiliations with rival street gangs, the Jets and Sharks, fall in love in 1950s New York City. The slum culture, personal rivalries and passionate love story everything fits in right size in this musical-dance film. What's new here is the boldness, modern-day sex appeal, exquisite dance numbers and appalling set designing. Even the cinematography is nowhere contrasting to its modernisation and you can notice that with those zoomed-in frames. One might feel disappointed to see that this screenplay has nothing new to offer from the 1961's film, to be frank, absolutely nothing at all. It lacks creativity there because you expect a modern day adaptation to have a few changes according to a new audience, but as we know the simple copy-paste is always a safer bet for any writer, right? However, you will be pleased to see engaging musical numbers and Spielberg's direction covering up those shortcomings.Ansel Elgort plays Toni and he's quite a tall thing, not just as a guy but as an actor too. This wasn't a soft character and him being a cheeky-handsome boy might have gone against its nature but Elgort saves it with his honest act. This is Rachel Zegler's feature film debut and she gets to portray the most important character of Maria. Never for a moment, it looked like she was acting in her debut film. Such a confident performance that you have to be told to accept the fact she is actually making her debut with this film. Even though she didn't look as pretty as Natalie Wood while performing on 'I Feel Pretty' (you just can't stop adoring Natalie in that song). The supporting cast is extremely supportive and literally had a blast out there. Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Rita Moreno and even small roles of Brian d'Arcy James and Corey Stoll have come out brilliantly. One of the biggest problems with the film is the Spanish dialogues (deliberate move i hear, but why?). Come on man, you need subtitles there (unless you know Spanish, fluently). It was okay in the beginning and even till the first half, but in the second half there were so many important scenes that are hurt by unrecognizable language. Had there been subtitles to understand those words, it would have been a GREAT GREAT help.Coming to the technical aspects, West Side Story is just terrific. The musical numbers are beautifully shot, edited and performed. Yes, few have gone to touch artificial levels and it does irritate but at the end of day, you know it's 2021 and not 1961. The same stuff would have been a wow factor then, but today, the cinema has come so ahead that even small small nuances like this can be noticed and talked about. That gun number featuring Toni, Riff and his gang is very much artificial, but you can enjoy it because this is what modern cinema means in today's times. Director Steven Spielberg's filmography is simply remarkable and not a single soul on this planet would disagree. He has delivered groundbreaking classics and blockbusters that aren't matched till date and now his first ever attempt in the Musical genre is nothing less than his several achievements of recent times. Yes, we miss that old Spielberg, those groundbreaking visual masterpieces but let's just see the other side of this. West Side Story is not better than 1961's version but it is a worthy adaptation for sure. Recently, the musical genre hasn't been served with excellent products except for that astonishing 'Hamilton' and this year we had 'In The Heights' too, but if there is anything best after that then West Side Story surely makes it in Top 3. Overall, Spielberg delivers a worthy adaptation as well as one of the finest musical-dance films of our times. Don't miss it!RATING - 4/5*
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West Side Story is a carbon copy of the 1961's film, or more of 1957's stage play. Teenagers Tony and María, despite having affiliations with rival street gangs, the Jets and Sharks, fall in love in 1950s New York City. The slum culture, personal rivalries and passionate love story everything fits in right size in this musical-dance film. What's new here is the boldness, modern-day sex appeal, exquisite dance numbers and appalling set designing. Even the cinematography is nowhere contrasting to its modernisation and you can notice that with those zoomed-in frames. One might feel disappointed to see that this screenplay has nothing new to offer from the 1961's film, to be frank, absolutely nothing at all. It lacks creativity there because you expect a modern day adaptation to have a few changes according to a new audience, but as we know the simple copy-paste is always a safer bet for any writer, right? However, you will be pleased to see engaging musical numbers and Spielberg's direction covering up those shortcomings./movietalkies/media/post_attachments/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/westside-rev-3.jpg "publive-image")
/movietalkies/media/post_attachments/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/westside-rev-4.jpg "publive-image")
Coming to the technical aspects, West Side Story is just terrific. The musical numbers are beautifully shot, edited and performed. Yes, few have gone to touch artificial levels and it does irritate but at the end of day, you know it's 2021 and not 1961. The same stuff would have been a wow factor then, but today, the cinema has come so ahead that even small small nuances like this can be noticed and talked about. That gun number featuring Toni, Riff and his gang is very much artificial, but you can enjoy it because this is what modern cinema means in today's times. Director Steven Spielberg's filmography is simply remarkable and not a single soul on this planet would disagree. He has delivered groundbreaking classics and blockbusters that aren't matched till date and now his first ever attempt in the Musical genre is nothing less than his several achievements of recent times. Yes, we miss that old Spielberg, those groundbreaking visual masterpieces but let's just see the other side of this. West Side Story is not better than 1961's version but it is a worthy adaptation for sure. Recently, the musical genre hasn't been served with excellent products except for that astonishing 'Hamilton' and this year we had 'In The Heights' too, but if there is anything best after that then West Side Story surely makes it in Top 3. Overall, Spielberg delivers a worthy adaptation as well as one of the finest musical-dance films of our times. Don't miss it!/movietalkies/media/post_attachments/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/westside-rev-6.jpg "publive-image")
RATING - 4/5*