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Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021)


mrbellamy

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Maria is more for the singer, as it calls for more fluctuation of the voice than most of the other songs. America has more of a Hispanic feel, appropriately so. The Bernstein score is big band, jazzy, swingy, a whole bunch of things at the same time. All the songs are so different, the only umbrella the all belong under is the movie itself.

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2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

A WSS set in the current political climate with deportation and so on would definitely be interesting! And it could potentially give Spielberg another Oscar, which he likes so much.

 

Spielberg is not an Oscar-bait director!

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35 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

 

 

 

Sure it is.

 

Interesting argument.

 

 

 

 

Star Wars is not classical music, it's disco! This cover realized independently of the original composer proves it! 

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Btween suicide and epic failure I choose epic failure.

He would be more successful remaking Rent.

 

 

Everybody's got aids, aids, aids, aids. 

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1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

The poor guy just wants as many golden men as JW has - is that too much to ask for?

Funny. Why does he always ask JW to tag along? A true envious man would but ol' Johnny out of a job and then make the movies.

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2 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

Funny. Why does he always ask JW to tag along? A true envious man would but ol' Johnny out of a job and then make the movies.

 

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. ;)

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30 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

Btween suicide and epic failure I choose epic failure.

He would be more successful remaking Rent.

 

 

Everybody's got aids, aids, aids, aids. 

C'mon, everybody, we got quilting, to do.

I pay a lot of money to see Spielberg do a live-action LEASE :lol:

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I concur.

 

I've always wanted to see Spielberg tackling a musical. If there wasn't already a respectable film adaptation made, I think he couldn't have chose a better one than West Side Story. This is the only downside of the project. However, I don't think he wants to do a remake of the 1961 version.

 

In my opinion, the 1961 Wise/Robbins version is still a fine movie, albeit dated in some parts and probably a tad too Hollywood-ized in several choices. My guess is that Spielberg will probably go for a grittier, much more natural approach, with the film shot almost entirely on location in NYC, with live singing whereas possibile and with true Latino actors/singers/dancers. It's likely also that Kushner's script will deal with the spirit of violence and rebellion in a much more direct way, without any dilutions. The violence between the gangs will be shown as it is, with blood and bruises. I am sincerely intrigued in how Spielberg will do it.

 

I hope Williams will be involved in some capacity. I can't see anyone else doing respect to Bernstein's original score. My bet is that they will remain as faithful as possible to Bernstein's original Broadway orchestrations, without amping up or Hollywood-izing anything like in the 1961 version. However, the workload is huge and my guess is that there will be a large music team tackling all the aspects (from rehearsals with singers, to preparation of the guide track on set etc). Williams will probably work as Music Supervisor/Director, to guarantee things are done in the proper style and respectful to the Bernstein score. Perhaps he will do some arrangement/orchestration himself whereas necessary, but it's likely he will work with some trusted colleague like Bill Ross to assist him.

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19 hours ago, Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya said:

What's wrong with the old one? Remaking Best Picture winners is now a thing??

 

You know, us oldies are bound to think in those terms, but I'm beginning to understand Spielberg's reasoning and motivations for wanting to try an update of this film and bring in new younger audiences to its extremely broad and relevant themes (and great songs). The fact is, younger moviegoers often do not have any desire to sit themselves down in front of old sixties musicals, even if their parents encourage it. So a new version could go down quite well, especially since La La Land has shown there's a demand out there for big Hollywood musicals. I may not have any interest in seeing this, but I'm just one 41 year old dude. And the original will still exist anyway, it's unlikely to be rendered obsolete by a new take.

 

I dunno, there's just something a bit sad and redundant about grizzled movie buffs feigning outrage over a musical remake.

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Also - it's not a remake of the movie - it's a second adaptation of the musical.  To many people's thinking, West Side Story is a film that was made in 1961 - but in fact this is equivalent to considering The Magic Flute as a 2006 film directed by Kenneth Branagh.  Therefore, much like Mozart's opera, Bernstein and Sondheim's piece is one which can be endlessly interpreted by stage directors and adapted by filmmakers, such as Robert Wise, or Steven Spielberg, or anyone else.

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I never enjoyed musicals very much, especially not those weighing in on 'important' matters (showbiz extravaganzas are a much better outlet for this particular genre). So i will not watch this before it hits Netflix but i expect the best to come out of this maybe a string of cinematically brilliantly realized sequences. A great overall movie - zero chance.

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29 minutes ago, publicist said:

I never enjoyed musicals very much, especially not those weighing in on 'important' matters (showbiz extravaganzas are a much better outlet for this particular genre). So i will not watch this before it hits Netflix but i expect the best to come out of this maybe a string of cinematically brilliantly realized sequences. A great overall movie - zero chance.

Try an experiment, Pub. Skip the songs (except "source" songs) for THE SOUND OF MUSIC. It works brilliantly, as a straight drama, and you get to see more the Baroness! Eleanor Parker - what a doll!

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We have that, 'Die Trapp Familie' is a well-known german version from the 50's. I really can only watch 'My Fair Lady' or the Vincente Minnelli musicals these days. 

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WSS is light-years ahead of anything else written for the musical stage.  To me, Bernstein is the greatest composer America ever produced, narrowly ahead of Gershwin and Copland, at least to my sensibilities.

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So is it likely Williams would remain involved in this project, either by orchestrating parts of the score or even writing new transitional cues that weren't in the original musical?

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