Posted on 12/26/2021 5:29:00 PM PST by zeestephen
It was a big hit. Robert Wise was a solid craftsman but was not cut out for stylized material like this. TSOM did not demand what WSS demanded. It’s not a dance musical - it was naturalistic and much easier to direct.
Oh, but Spielberg had to “improve” on it.
The demon of progressives is to “improve”. Thereby they destroy the original.
The thing is, it doesn’t matter. Hollywood has spent years insulting us and we’ve finally had enough. I don’t understand why they think belittling half their audience is a good business plan.
They want us back they have to produce pro American movies and they won’t do that. China won’t let them.
No wanted to give the rights to Spielberg to make a blockbuster musical in the 80’s or 90’s? It may be true, but I find it hard to believe. Jaws. Close Encounters. Indiana Jones. The Color Purple. Schindler’s List. Heck, I even liked A.I. His range is unquestionable. I think all he had to do was ask.
Beymer was awful in that film. Absolutely awful. Natalie Wood gave a bland Movie Star performance. She was also dubbed by Marni Nizon’s resonance free, personality free singing. Zegler is the right age, looks the part and sings like a nightingale. Elgort was good enough to distract.
Well Spider Man had no issues. It’s an age thing. Older people aren’t going to theaters. There is also the political angle you mentioned. And also, Latino people don’t really like WSS all that much. I think they overestimated that audience’s interest.
good enough *not to distract*
In this case they *did* improve it though.
I knew this was going to happen as there was no real demand to remake this except to make PC and Woke. Spielberg needs to retire, he has literally run out of creative juice. His day is past I guess.
I’ll go further and call it the best film version of a Broadway musical ever made. Right there with TSOM and “Fiddler on the Roof”.
Right but he actually didn’t make it PC and Woke.
This ‘West Side Story’ is a remake of a movie which was a remake of a musical which was a remake of Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Just how much money did they think they could make?
I’m not with you on trashing Marni’s voice in the original film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SQ4ogstDVE
(I did meet her at a party once in her advanced years, however, and I will say—she was rather full of herself.)
I’ve always found her voice shrill and devoid of any character. It’s all technique. I don’t like what she did in “My Fair Lady” either. Not having Julie Andrews in that film is one of the great missed opportunities in film history.
It’s hard to improve on perfection.
It’s not woke at all. It was very true to the original stage play, and was actually quite sympathetic to both the mixed white ethnic population and the Hispanics whose neighborhood was destroyed to make way for Lincoln Center.
I was prepared not to like it, but it was very good, much better than the first movie.
I have not seen it. I expect it to be “Woke” because of who made it and the times we are in. Many people are calling it “Woke”. But I have yet to see anyone describe one example. They just fight about if it is or is not without giving any examples.
have a vested interest in American cinema being worthwhile (as should all Americans)
/\
Ya, well, that tugboat sailed long ago.
I think Americans have a more vested interest in non fraudulent elections than * marvelously * * wonderful* cinema produced by arguably the most anti American scumbag segment of society.
Spit.
It does not matter how great or awful a film this Spielberg version is.
When you hammer for years wokeness and virtually destroy an entire industry (movie theatres / Hollywood), it is like crying wolf...a thousand times. The moviegoer simply cannot even burn one calorie to check it out because the percentage it is sh*t is so so so high.
If it is good, word will get out and people can get the DVD and watch at home.
When people are CONDITIONED from a constant barrage of leftism and silliness and suckiness, they stop paying attention to it and move on.
Americans, many of them, have simply moved on from the silliness.
There is nothing Woke about it. It was caught up in Culture Wars it really had nothing to do with.
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