West Side Story

Tonight I had the opportunity to see West Side Story projected in it's original 70mm Panavision format. There are very few theatres that can screen a 70mm film so this was a rare treat.

I love West Side Story and have seen it many times. I have owned it on RCA Selectavision, VHS, Laser Disc and DVD. When the Blu-ray comes out I'm sure I'll buy it. West Side Story is a remarkable film that deserves the accolades it has received and the multiple Academy Awards it won.

I have seen it on a big screen before. It was many years ago at an outdoor summer film festival. But that was an old 16mm or 35mm print. Seeing it in 70mm was like seeing it for the first time. The theatre was packed and I could easily imagine the audiences filling the Rivoli theatre 50 years ago where the movie played for 77 consecutive weeks. Rivoli Theatre

The theatre went dark and the overture started. The curtain parted and those abstract lines appeared on the screen and I was drawn into the film in a way I had never been before. The music continued exploring all the themes of this landmark musical. The screen alternated colors  until finally the title appeared on screen and the abstract lines turned into the new York city skyline circa 1960.

Watching the opening few minutes of the film I realized director Robert Wise used the same opening for The Sound of Music four years later. Each movie begins with an aerial shot of the scenery below. The ambient noise of the surroundings are heard and above all that is the soft musical notes of the films prologue. The camera glides along over head until it comes down and zooms in on an actor. Russ Tamblyn in West Side Story and Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.

I was filled with delight as the film played before me. You could feel the appreciative energy from the audience watching this great film in all it's magnificent 70mm splendor. Every detail was crisp and colors popped. The ugly tenements of NYC never looked so good. Within minutes I was caught up in the urban love story of Maria and Tony and I have to admit, I had a tear in my eye at the end. 

Watching West Side Story at the Castro reaffirmed my belief that the best way to see a movie is in a theatre with an audience. Movies are larger than life and should be watched on a big screen, not an iPod. 

And now I am going to propose some heresy. West Side Story should be remade. Watching the film in 70mm not only exposed its' beauty, but all it's flaws as well. West Side Story is a great film, but it has not aged well. On Broadway every few years a musical is revived and re-staged or re-imagined, so perhaps it is time for West Side Story to under go a remake of it's own. Here are the things that need to be addressed.

The Casting: Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood were seriously miscast. Neither can sing and the overdubbing of both is painfully obvious when watching the movie. Beymer also lacks the charisma to fully portray the Tony character. Natalie Wood constantly slips in and out of a Spanish accent when she talks. And both stars appear older then the characters they portray. The film requires more youthful actors who can sing. And the role of Maria should go to a Hispanic woman who can really embody the part. 

The Dancing: What was once modern now appears dated. The entire audience laughed when the Jets started dancing in the opening number. Their ballet moves, while graceful, looked silly compared to the tough characters they were supposedly portraying. In addition the modern dance, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, may have been new in the 1950's, but now they looked like out of date Bob Fosse. All the dancing should be updated to more modern, athletic style dancing, while still retaining some of the classical ballet elements.  

Themes and Dialogue: The film is filled with references of disenfranchised youth popular with such films as Rebel Without a Cause and Blackboard Jungle. The advent of the rebellious anti-social teenager became popular in the 1950's when the play musical was originally produced. But at no time do any of the gang members give off a sense of menace or violence. They were brawling, violent urban gang members living in a slum yet they were amazingly clean cut. This is especially notable in the speech Riff gives to the Jets at the beginning of the film. A lot of the films language is dated, especially in the use of slang terms such as "Daddy-O". There were many moments where the audience laughed and twittered at dialogue or actions that might have seemed contemporary fifty years ago. 

Can a film like West Side Story be remade? I think so. And since Hollywood is remaking My Fair Lady, another landmark musical from the 1960's, there is no reason West Side Story shouldn't be considered. The play and music are great, so there is no reason a new modernized version should not find an audience. Maybe it's time to add some of the Spanish language elements that made the 2009 Broadway revival so popular. 

The Castro Theatre os sceening three other 70mm prints this week, Play Time, Vertigo and Lawrence of Arabia and I hope to catch all three.

At The Movie House rating **** stars