Well, dear readers, I’m saving part two of that was the year that was for tomorrow, otherwise these here notes will be far too long and that would be most unseemly. So, let me just get right to the long part: Yesterday, I saw the new version of West Side Story, directed by Mr. Steven Spielberg. I will preface my thoughts by saying that since it opened a week ago, my Facebook feed has had nothing but West Side Story posts – from people who think it’s the best movie musical ever made, how they wept, cheered, applauded, and how everyone NEEDED to see it because the box-office numbers weren’t good. At some point, these posts seemed more like harangues than posts. And heaven forbid if anyone had the least little problem with the film – they were pounced on, told they were wrong, and then there was a lot of the usual bashing of the original film, especially the casting – like in 1961 it could EVER have been cast any other way. Yes, as always, these people do not have the ability to see anything in context, only through their 2021 eyeballs. Well, that’s ridic, isn’t it? Natch, Gloria, Natch. It was a different world back then and an entirely different movie business. But I digress. So, get ready for length, baby.
I saw the film at the El Capitan in Hollywood (or what purports to be Hollywood – certainly not MY Hollywood) – and the projection and sound there are excellent. There were maybe forty to forty-five people in attendance. While some on Facebook would equate that to the theater being three-quarters full (yes, people actually lie about this stuff), the fact is the El Capitan seats 1100. The side sections downstairs had four people on each side. Of the forty to forty-five I’d say that only about ten were under the age of fifty. Spiderman, across the street, had a line over a block long. But I digress.
Getting IN the movie theater was something else. One had to show proof of vaccination. One had to show their driver’s license. One had to have one’s ticket scanned. Then one had to go through what can only be described as a security check. You had to put your phone and keys in a thing, you had to pass through a metal detector. When did we lose our way as a society and country? The fact that this has become the new normal is both depressing and disgusting. Anyway, I finally took my reserved seat at 3:15 for the 3:45 show. First, we had twenty-five minutes of organ playing. That was fun in its way. Then we had to endure a cutesy speech from an usher (team member – another thing I can’t stand in today’s world) – when did that become a thing? I don’t need no cutesy speeches. What ever happened to showmanship? The funny thing is, the El Capitan has it – beautiful curtains and presentation, so having this guy make a speech was doubly irritating and it should be done way with once and for all. It used to only be at Arclight Theaters, but now I guess they do it everywhere. But I digress.
After about ten minutes of previews, we finally got the motion picture I came to see – West Side Story 2021-style. So, what do we have here exactly? I won’t belabor my history with the original film (it’s all in the second Kritzer book aka Kritzerland) other than to say I saw it for the first time on its second day at the Grauman’s Chinese and over twenty times thereafter in the first six months of its roadshow engagement there (it played over a year). The film was a game-changer for film musicals, and it was a life-changer for me. I was, in fact, obsessed with it. I bought the soundtrack. I danced in our den to the music. I danced down the street. I found not a single thing to criticize, including the oft-criticized Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood. The stuff I read online on Facebook, etc. would lead you to believe that casting Miss Wood was a criminal act, and that Mr. Beymer was truly horrible, a beginner who couldn’t act. The problem with the former is that Natalie Wood had a name and they needed that for the film. The other fact, and I’d wager it IS a fact – is that there were no Puerto Rican actresses auditioning for the film at that time for that role, who could sing and act it. As to Mr. Beymer, he was hardly a newcomer, having started in film and TV as a child, and he’d already had two major roles in The Diary of Anne Frank and Blake Edwards’ daffy High Time.
They also act like it was some soft piece of puff pastry, especially The Rumble. Well, no, I hate to tell you that no one thought that The Rumble was soft or silly – when Riff gets it there was an audible gasp at every performance I attended – it was shocking and equally shocking when Bernardo gets it. And at the end, in the brilliantly thought out and edited final sequence, the weeping in the theater was unbelievable – at every single performance. And that was mostly Mr. Robert Wise’s cinema sense and Miss Wood’s acting ability. My love for the original has never abated. But I digress.
Now, I think Mr. Spielberg is a great director, a true filmmaker with a true filmmaker’s eye for composition and staging. He’s made some incredibly great movies – in fact, several would probably make my top thirty, I’m sure. But like ALL filmmakers, he’s not infallible. He’s made movies that I’ve absolutely loathed – for example, 1941, Always, Hook, the second and fourth Indiana Jones movies, War of the Worlds – those come to mind instantly. And then there are movies I merely find okay. His self-important films grate on me, and there’ve been a few of those, I’m afraid. And stuff like Ready Player One and TinTin or whatever that thing was are just baffling to me. But even those films are well done from a directorial and visual standpoint. He’s always solid that way. He’s simply one of the greats.
Do I think a remake of West Side Story was essential? Of course not. Especially for the reasons it was done – to cast it more appropriately being the main one. But I don’t scream to the high heavens about it – he wanted to make it and he did and good for him. All we viewers have is what’s up on the screen. And I thought what was up on the screen was very well made. A lot of online people RAVE about how the characters now have backstories – to which I say, really? Because I feel the Jets and Sharks from the original are much more memorable. I didn’t even know until the end of the film who Ice was or who A-Rab was or who Action was. So much for backstories. In the original film, each of those characters were identifiable and majorly so. In the end, I enjoyed seeing it. It looked and sounded excellent. And some of it worked really well and the thing I thought worked really well is the thing that most of the critics went on about – that Maria and Tony are ciphers and that the film and stage show is not really about them. Even the Facebook people don’t like Mr. Elgort. But this new version gets their relationship just right. After hearing so much whining about Elgort, an actor I don’t like at all, imagine my surprise to find his performance terrific – I thought the whole Maria song and sequence was cinematically wonderful, save for the birds – that was a little too Mary Poppins for me. The entire Tonight sequence was also terrific. They were, in fact, they only things that I found remotely emotional in the film. What really shines is probably what’s keeping the kiddies far way – the score. It’s a classic show score – couldn’t be better. But the kiddies don’t like when someone just starts singing out of nowhere.
And now we get to my biggest issue with the film – the complete rewrite by Tony Kushner. Some of it’s fine, especially the Tony/Maria stuff. What’s missing now is any humor at all and you need the humor, it’s essential. It’s what Robbins knew all too well and why his Prologue will never ever be surpassed. The new film’s Prologue starts at warp speed and never lets up – the original gets you into the rivalry slowly and builds and builds, and the choreography of Robbins created a whole new dance vocabulary. I’m not a fan of Justin Peck – none of his choreography seems to come from character – a lot of angular steps and thrusting and leaping and bopping around. His Dance at the Gym fails for me because the rivalry in Robbins’ choreography is not there or certainly not there in a way that has the impact and build of the original, with the rivals trying to continually top each other – in other words, the dance tells a story. And with the sure-fire showstopper, Gee, Officer Krupke, there wasn’t a single laugh from the audience and when that song doesn’t land or get a laugh you know something’s wrong – it was the worst number in the film, for me.
One of the strongest things in the original film are the characters of Bernardo and Anita and it’s kind of what puts the audience almost on the side of the Sharks. Because Bernardo has charm, and Anita is funny and they’re so likable together. That’s why America works so beautifully in the original. Putting it on the streets is just silly – the rooftop keeps it focused and about what it’s supposed to be about. And again, watch how Robbins builds the number – it’s why it got applause at every single showing. In the new one, it’s just a lot of color and sound and fury and not serving the intention of the number, which, by the way, is the version from the original film rather than the stage show – with the Shark girls AND boys.
I liked Rachel Zegler quite a bit. She’s charming, sings well, and the camera really likes her. But what should be her finest moment in the film, the ending sequence, well, that’s the one place where I think Spielberg errs completely. You never feel the power and shock of the moment when Tony sees Maria and she sees him, he realizes she’s alive, and as they run to each other, the sudden cut to Chino with the gun. Again, the gasp from the audience was huge because it was a perfectly edited sequence. Here, Chino is in the wrong place for it to have the impact it should. And then Maria’s big speech is underscored, which I think was a mistake. The scene just lacks the power the original had, especially the genius moment when they lift Tony up and one of the Sharks steps in to help. That moment here is a throwaway that barely registers.
I also liked the additions for Officer Krupke and Schrank and some of the new dialogue was fine. I do think all that Spanish, which is always followed by “Speak English” – well, it’s a little too much with some important lines not having the impact they should have. It’s okay to have the Spanish, but subtitles really were necessary. All in all, I’m glad I saw it and I did enjoy some of it. I do think it will get a lot of nominations and may even win a few. I kind of think the handwriting is on the wall in terms of box-office but that’s the way it goes sometimes. And there you have one person’s opinion.
Well, that WAS long. I fell asleep three times whilst writing it. And now it’s late so I better get going on the rest of these here notes.
Yesterday was fine. Nine hours of sleep, answered e-mails, got ready, did some stuff on the computer, then moseyed on over to the mail place to pick up some packages – more screeners and a nice DVD gift from dear reader Jeanne and the dough for the Kritzerland show last week. Then I went to the theater. I got off at Highland and it wasn’t too bad getting down to the Hollywood + Highland parking lot. I got super lucky – the place I love to park, which allows you to get out of there really easily, was full but someone was just pulling out as I was about to go to the next row of cars. So, I waited and got that space. They’ve completely torn apart that entire mall and who knows when it will be open again. It took me a little while to figure out how to actually get onto Hollywood Blvd. Once there, I marveled at what an ugly ASS eye-sore that whole complex is. The Chinese is not what it was – there’s simply too much around it to have the impact it did. Remember, originally there were parking lots on either side of it, which made the building stand out and look completely singular. I walked west to the next block, the block that housed some mom-and-pop shops and, of course, C.C. Brown’s – that entire block has a new and quite ugly building now. In fact, there’s nothing there at all from beyond three years ago.
I walked around a bit before going to the theater. Hollywood just looks sad to me. No Pickwick Books, no Phil Harris Records, no bookstores, no Las Palmas newsstand – only Musso and Frank remains.
After the movie, I went right to the parking lot, paid in advance (only five bucks because they validate at the El Capitan), got out of there in one minute, and headed back to the Valley. I stopped at a Subway and got a pastrami sandwich and came home. I’ve enjoyed the pastrami sandwich there, but there was so little pastrami this time it was a joke, and the bread didn’t seem all the fresh to me. So, I went to Gelson’s and got two onion rolls and some turkey and had those to supplement what wasn’t a very satisfying sandwich. I didn’t want to watch anything, so I just listened to music.
Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty or thereabouts, I’ll go pick up a package that arrived later in the day yesterday, then I’ll go to storage and drop off a few things for shipping, then I have a one-thirty appointment back at the Apple Store to get the little plug thing that allows you to use the quick charge cord for the new phone. Then I can relax until it’s time to mosey on over to Vitello’s for food and a show.
Tomorrow, I have a noon o’clock lunch with dear reader Jeanne, then I’ll write, and continue choosing songs for the January Kritzerland show. Tuesday, I may take the motor car in for its diagnostic. Then the rest of the week is mostly taking it easy, writing, and getting ready for the Christmas Eve Do.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty, go to storage, put gas in the motor car, pick up a package, relax, and then sup and see a show. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have seen the new West Side Story and happy to have told The West Side Story Story.