Film Review: West Side Story
Doubt Steven Spielberg at your own peril
Leave it to Steven Spielberg to spin a stage-to-screen retread into dazzling, cinematic gold. Pulling out all the stops of his meticulous craft, Spielberg - along with frequent collaborator Tony Kushner - have wrought a beautiful update to the legendary 1957 musical and its equally regarded 1961 film adaptation. 2021’s West Side Story wisely retains its original orchestrations while injecting depth into its conflicts and modern verve into its visuals, mining multiple star-making performances out of its sprawling cast. Minor spoilers ahead…
Is a remake of West Side Story necessary? The original 1961 stage-to-screen adaptation - despite its antiquated lens and whitewashed casting - remains the platinum standard for movie musicals. 60 years later, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ lush translation is still one of the most beautiful films ever made, perfectly capturing youth in revolt by pushing the boundaries of cinema; its 65mm Technicolor popping eyes, its vivid choreography captured in a way no movie had before. So, no, a remake of West Side Story isn’t really necessary, but Steven Spielberg - whose love for musicals has finally led him to direct one - makes a hell of a case for its existence, taking a gulp from a poisoned chalice and coming out the other side not only unscathed, but triumphant. A beautiful, modern update, 2021’s West Side Story traffics in a simple, visceral pleasure: watching a master filmmaker, at the top of his game, work his magic with a stunning cast that can sing, act, and dance.
Like any faithful adaptation, Spielberg’s West Side Story keeps much of its original bones and musculature intact. Still the Romeo and Juliet-inspired tale we all know and love, this new iteration once again finds the Montagues and Capulets supplanted by the mid-century New York gangs of the homegrown, Polish Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. Star-crossed lovers Tony (Ansel Elgort) and María (Rachel Zegler in a masterful debut), on opposite sides of tension-filled streets, fall in love at a dance and light a powder keg that eventually detonates into violence, tragedy, and heartbreak.
“…2021’s West Side Story traffics in a simple, visceral pleasure: watching a master filmmaker, at the top of his game, work his magic with a stunning cast that can sing, act, and dance.”
Spielberg, along with frequent writing partner Tony Kushner, just might be the only ones with the gall and ability to revitalize an American classic. This particular West Side Story’s modernization is a deft one, and it’s felt throughout all of its connective tissue. Where the 1961 version also ran with the themes of class, race, tribalism, and urban rot, it sat at the cusp of seismic change in the fabric of American prosperity. Spielberg’s vision, with distinct 2021 sensibilities, mixes elegy with its vibrancy - its city of decay more doleful, its race divides deeper and more felt. The ‘61 film jumps right into its prologue number, but Spielberg opens across a sea of rubble and demolition as the Jets crawl out like survivors of an apocalypse; the gliding camera surveys the crumbled landscape of detritus and wrecking balls before landing upon a beaming poster of what’s to be: the sparkling visage of the new Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. This new West Side Story is full of visual, Spielberg-ian depth-digging, glancing at a time long past.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Spielberg expounds his narrative: “This story is not only a product of its time, but that time has returned, and it’s returned with a kind of social fury. I really wanted to tell that Puerto Rican, Nuyorican experience of basically the migration to this country and the struggle to make a living, and to have children, and to battle against the obstacles of xenophobia and racial prejudice.” The film goes out of its way to right some of the original’s more glaring insensitivities. Where 1961’s West Side Story - from a wholly different era - glossed over its themes of race with brownface (Rita Moreno as Anita was the only Hispanic actress in the main cast) and a predominantly English-speaking script, this new version has a much more diverse roster, with much of its dialogue in Spanish.
“Spielberg’s vision, with distinct 2021 sensibilities, mixes elegy with vibrancy - its city of decay more doleful, its race divides deeper and more felt.”
West Side Story’s Spanish-speaking cast is given much depth and latitude, producing some of the film’s best performances. Ariana DeBose and David Alvarez are simply electric as the modern Anita and Bernardo, with DeBose given the meatiest upgrade for an absolutely knockout act; Rita Moreno, cleverly filling in for the Doc role as his widow, brings a quiet brand of gravitas tethered to the original film; but the biggest discovery of West Side Story remains the effervescent Rachel Zegler, a relative unknown plucked from a sea of 30,000 young actresses for the role of María. Doe-eyed and romantic with a paralyzing voice and an impressive emotive range, Zegler is a natural, magnetic lead in her first onscreen role. On the Jets side of things, Mike Faist gives Russ Tamblyn a run for his money with his take on Riff, bringing an in-over-his-head anxiousness that is wholly his own. All of these performances, unfortunately, contrast sharply with Ansel Elgort’s thankless Tony. Elgort - regardless of the pallor cast amidst his multiple sexual assault allegations - is outclassed at every turn. At this point, it’s almost tradition for West Side Story’s Tony role to be the dud of the production, but Elgort’s mostly-fine execution of his lines, lyrics, and dance pale deeply in comparison to those of his more charismatic cohorts.
West Side Story is dazzling spectacle in many ways that modern day musicals just aren’t anymore. A perfect marriage between Spielberg’s craft - aided by DP Janusz Kaminski - and Leonard Bernstein’s melodies and Stephen Sondheim’s lyricism, the film injects new cinematic life into its faithful orchestrations. For one thing, Spielberg - even as a newcomer to the musical genre - knows how to film dance; with a nimble camera as energized and alive as the production’s tireless dancers, West Side Story is always mining its scenes and numbers for dynamism. With every sweep of the lens, every twinkle in the eye captured mid-ballad, Spielberg calculates his shots for maximum impact - it’s a gorgeous-looking film, and an even more graceful eulogy for the late Sondheim.
West Side Story is everything a remake - or reimagining - should be: confident and contemplative, balancing nostalgia with a more challenging lens. The most common reactions, coming out of the theater and on social media, seem to be “I was so wrong,” or “I never should have doubted Steven Spielberg.” Nothing will ever truly compare to soaking in the 1961 film and its vitality for the first time, but Spielberg’s new West Side Story is the farthest cry from frivolous you can get: a modern classic.
