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Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021)


mrbellamy

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The original is my favorite movie musical of all time. But Im excited to see Spielberg’s take. Especially considering he’s wanted to do a full on musical for some time now. Looks great :)

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And the Academy Award for Best Director goes to Steven Spielberg for West Side Story. 

And the Award for Best Picture goes to....West Side Story. 

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It kinda just looks too similar to the original but I still think Spielberg is bound to have a few inspired moments (that one overhead shot of the gangs from the other trailer was a good one) and I will just be shocked if a writer like Tony Kushner brings no original insight to his adaptation. 

 

I'm not expecting this to be all that amazing but I feel like there'll be something to it. 

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  • 1 month later...

I wish Spielberg would do a western movie (has he ever done one?).  Imagine how good a modern-day JW western score would be!  Since he loves working with kids so much maybe he could do a reboot of The Cowboys?  Wouldn't that be something for JW to score that 50 years after the original?  

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5 minutes ago, ATXHusker said:

I wish Spielberg would do a western movie (has he ever done one?)

 

No.

 

5 minutes ago, ATXHusker said:

Imagine how good a modern-day JW western score would be!

 

Well damn, there's something I didn't know I wanted

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It is almost parodic the way they are cutting around Ansel. He's the lead and yet his friend gets more lines in the trailer. The trailer makes it seem like he's incidental to the plot rather than the main focus along with Rachel Zegler. It is bizarre. 

 

 

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West Side Story is one of my favorite things ever.

 

I have no interest in this movie. Why does it exist? Is Spielberg really that arrogant that he thinks the old movie is bad an offensive and only an enlightened mind like him can fix it? That's really what it seems like.

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13 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:

It is almost parodic the way they are cutting around Ansel. He's the lead and yet his friend gets more lines in the trailer. The trailer makes it seem like he's incidental to the plot rather than the main focus along with Rachel Zegler. It is bizarre.

 

The star here is Bernstein!

 

I always disliked the music of that musical (which I think aged badly)... so the impact of this movie on me will depend only on the arrangements... and if we see Ansel shirtless or not.

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The only musicals I like are the Disney cartoons and The Prince of Egypt. Not much of a fan of live action musicals with all the songs and dancing. I haven't watched stuff like Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Les Miserables, but I did have seen La La Land (which I thought it was okay).

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Lala Land is one of the decades most abhorrent films. Ugh. 

I see SS hearing his name twice as a winner in next winters Oscar. Nobody sings Somewhere better than Barbra. Its like butta.

My favorite musical has remained unchanged in nearly 40 years. Victor/Victoria.

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43 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

The only musicals I like are the Disney cartoons and The Prince of Egypt. Not much of a fan of live action musicals with all the songs and dancing. I haven't watched stuff like Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Les Miserables, but I did have seen La La Land (which I thought it was okay).

 

Mounlin Rouge is very messy but good. Chicago is very good. Les Miz is awful. And La La Land is okay. The music is good but the movie is a dud.

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Maybe it's just the romantic in me but I'll be disappointed if Williams didn't cameo in the recording sessions as guest pianist for a cue, considering he performed on the original film.

 

Surely Spielberg wouldn't let an opportunity like that slip... 

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3 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:

 

Mounlin Rouge is very messy but good. Chicago is very good. Les Miz is awful. And La La Land is okay. The music is good but the movie is a dud.

 

I'd say Les Mis is good, but it's dragged down by the atrocious singing of one of the main characters. Great music, anyway.

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I loved Moulin Rouge, didn't see Chicago, Les Mis was good minus Wolverine, La La Land SUCKED. 

 

It wasn't even that it was pretentious. It was that it was tonal whiplash. One minute it was doing a bad impression of a golden age musical, and the next it was a cynical modern movie. It didn't blend the two tones into something good and new. It was a salad as opposed to a stew. 

 

I hope the arrangements are at least good in WSS. I'm still SO bummed it's not Williams though. Too much history with him and Bernstein to have missed this opportunity. Spielberg should have made that a priority somehow. 

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29 minutes ago, blondheim said:

If John Williams wanted to work on this, I am relatively sure he would be doing so.

 

41 minutes ago, SilverTrumpet said:

I'm still SO bummed it's not Williams though. Too much history with him and Bernstein to have missed this opportunity. Spielberg should have made that a priority somehow. 

 

Williams passed. We leaned this from a Newman interview. It was Williams' to refuse obviously. And he refused.

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1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

 Not much of a fan of live action musicals...

Whoa, there, boy!

No love for ON THE TOWN? SINGIN' IN THE RAIN? ANCHORS AWEIGH? AN AMERICAN IN PARIS? THE SOUND OF MUSIC? PAINT YOUR WAGON? PENNIES FROM HEAVEN?

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11 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Whoa, there, boy!

No love for ON THE TOWN? SINGIN' IN THE RAIN? ANCHORS AWEIGH? AN AMERICAN IN PARIS? THE SOUND OF MUSIC? PAINT YOUR WAGON? PENNIES FROM HEAVEN?

Sorry but I've never seen any of these movies. But it's not their fault, it's me that can't stand all the dancing and singing... Just like some people hate horror movies or westerns or modern blockbusters, etc.

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7 minutes ago, blondheim said:

 

I hear that.

 

I'm actually fairly excited about Newman, not so much about Dudamel

 

I am happy it's Newman. He's good, and like a lot of composers his age, can write wonderful, luscious music when given the chance. James Newton Howard is another one.

 

Dudamel I don't mind. It's neither here nor there. I was just surprised it was so important that he'd conduct when they were so symbolic about a New York orchestra performing the score that they went with him as conductor. 

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I'm not the biggest film musical fan in the world either (unless it's Disney), but I can sometimes marvel at the visual candy on display. Busby Berkeley's 42nd STREET is, for me, the ultimate masterpiece in this regard.

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Just now, SilverTrumpet said:

 

I am happy it's Newman. He's good, and like a lot of composers his age, can write wonderful, luscious music when given the chance. James Newton Howard is another one.

 

Dudamel I don't mind. It's neither here nor there. I was just surprised it was so important that he'd conduct when they were so symbolic about a New York orchestra performing the score that they went with him as conductor. 

 

He's an average conductor imo. Sort of bland, not very inspired. He seems to be phoning it in a lot of the time. None of his classical interpretations have ever made me sit up and take notice of his contribution. I thought his Williams album was forgettable in every way.

 

David Newman is a wonderful composer who should get more work. James Newton Howard is a wonderful composer who should have gotten more Avatar work

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Of the 'modern' ones, I love Norman Jewison's JCS, Tim Burton's Sweeny Todd and Julie Taymor's Across The Universe. Not sure if I'll be even watching Spielberg's Westside Story. The trailer almost warns me against it. The style isn't interesting.

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2 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

JWFAN La La Land fans assemble!  We exist!  Really good movie!  Great score!

One of the best (if not the best) film/music combinations of the last 10 years.  And one of the few recent examples of a (good) iconic film music theme

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3 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Whoa, there, boy!

No love for ON THE TOWN? SINGIN' IN THE RAIN? ANCHORS AWEIGH? AN AMERICAN IN PARIS? THE SOUND OF MUSIC? PAINT YOUR WAGON? PENNIES FROM HEAVEN?

You were doing so well until Pennies....

One last thing in 1984 one of Hollywood's greatest film musical moments 

 

Anything Goes. It is perfection. Its seemingly straight forward until its not.  The composition, the cinematography, the singing and dancing, the art decorating and the directing are all aces. Too bad the dumbass director hates the film.

 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

JWFAN La La Land fans assemble!  We exist!  Really good movie!  Great score!

 

Absolutely. One of my favorite films last decade. Really touch me with the theme about the sting of ambition.

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