WEST SIDE STORY: 4K UHD Blu-ray (2oth Century Pictures/Disney, 2021) 2oth Century Home Video

West Side Story (2021): first, the pluses. I count one, Rita Moreno, in an expanded role, and, at 90-yrs.-young, a vision of eloquence – period. For the rest, Steven Spielberg’s gutsy attempt to best Robert Wise’s multi-Oscar winning classic from 1961 is a prettily tricked out lame duck. Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography is more ‘in your face’ and the choreography by Justin Peck of the adolescent, frenetic ilk. Tony Kushner’s juxtaposition of numbers and scenes, to arguably remain more faithful to the stage show as opposed to the first movie, passes for a ‘rewrite’ of Arthur Laurents’ memorable stage and screenplay, while the cast, in its entirety sing under their own steam, as opposed to the ’61 classic in which virtually all the principles were convincingly dubbed. So, it is saying much, the talent assembled herein (Ansel Elgort – a.k.a. Tony, Rachel Zegler – María, Ariana DeBose – Anita and David Alvarez – Bernardo) comes nowhere near the staying power or star quality of Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, or George Chakiris. No, they just haven’t got it – whatever that intangible ‘it’ quality is, it is sorely lacking here. This, has been the subject of discussion for the ages. Some possess it. Others merely hope to fool the camera into believing they are among those deified as stars. Alas, the camera is a ‘truth-revealing’ machine. So, star quality cannot be bought, taught or fudged. And as good as the aforementioned actors are in their respective roles, they are, alas, forgettable faces.

I genuinely wanted to like Spielberg’s reboot, if not nearly as much as Wise’s original, then on its own terms and for the sheer chutzpah it took to convince 2oth Century – vis-à-vis Disney Inc. this was ‘better’ than a good idea – it was a profitable one. Alas, the picture’s painfully anemic box office (it barely raked in $36 million on a $100 million plus budget) bears out an old John Waters’ adage, “You shouldn’t remake the good movies. Just the bad ones, hoping to make them better!” So, it truly is a small world after all, as Spielberg’s inability to grasp this concept has left him with a decidedly lackluster thud in ticket sales, the only barometer by which today’s Hollywood continues to judge its successes. Aside: how sad. But Spielberg ought to have known better. Nevertheless, and cribbing off more ego than creativity, Spielberg here has attempted to do the impossible. We will cut him some slack for falling short of his ambitious goal. This time around the Puerto Ricans are actually Puerto Rican and, in lieu of the artful, if stage-bound recreations of New York’s lower west side – to have made the original movie a true cinematic work of art - Spielberg here has gone for the real deal, shooting in and around the Big Apple for his verisimilitude. We are still anchored in the fifties, and it is still the same old rival gangland showdown between the white-bred Jets (fronted by Mike Faist’s Riff) vs. the Latino-based Sharks. The bad blood between these rivals in a rather futile war to claim dominance over the dystopian West Side, destined for a date with the wrecking ball to make way for luxury apartments.  As before, the Jets’ retired gang leader, Tony is dragged back into this war zone when his unlikely cute meet with the effervescent, Maria gets Bernardo’s dander up. Tony is something of a protégée of Valentina (Rita Moreno, in a role expressly realized for this remake) his widowed landlord who also owns the General Store above his basement apartment. 

Based upon Jerome Robbins’ ’57 stagecraft (book by Arthur Laurents, score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim), Spielberg’s splashy reboot manages the minor coup of walking the proverbial creative tightrope, remaining relatively faithful to the elements that made the stagecraft and Wise’s picture such a success, while imbuing it with touches and flashes of today to keep it fresh and lively. Aside: I still don’t think Wise’s movie has dated. So, the reason for a remake is still moot. And clearly, audiences didn’t feel the need to run out and see this newly incarnated facsimile, as West Side Story’s anemic box office attests.  Over the decades, an ugly little rumor has dogged Wise’s reputation. Somewhere between his first solo movie, 1939’s charming screwball, Bachelor Mother, and, his death from heart failure in 2005, the contempo strain in critical film scholarship has rechristened Wise’s contributions to film history as lacking in any sort of distinct auteur’s style to immediately identify each within the director’s body of work. This, frankly, is nonsense, and just another failed bit of liberalism to infer that the past in picture-making, once revered, is now to be discounted, paling in its proficiency to today’s cinema. Frankly, such blindsided dimwittedness is an anathema to good taste.

Alas, in our current age of ‘ass over teakettle’, what was once irrefutably deemed as art, today gets a bad rap as racist/homophobic tripe, quaintly out of touch with the navel-gazers; you know, those who lack the concentration to stay engaged by anything beyond a TikTok video or worse, elect to watch snippets of such epics as The Lord of the Rings on their cell phones. However, a Triptek through just the career highlights of Robert Wise could easily be taught as a full semester in film school, what with such diverse offerings as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), I Want to Live (1958), The Andromeda Strain (1971), and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). And oh yes, he directed that ‘other’ movie musical - winner of 5 Academy Awards. You might have heard of it…The Sound of Music (1965)!

Wise’s West Side Story adheres to a particular brand of artifice that, in its day, made it cutting edge, and today, given the major cultural shifts in picture-making, has nevertheless managed to weather changing times and tastes or as a critic of its time astutely pointed out, “West Side Story grows younger every year!” Bottom line: Wise’ movie is in a class apart, something Spielberg’s reboot is not. I am not going to trash Spielberg for his chutzpah, as, like Wise, the man’s own career choices over several enduring decades have yielded a cornucopia of peerless movie magic: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Jurassic Park and Schindler's List (both 1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998). Yep, the guy has class and clout in Hollywood, enough to make a remake of West Side Story stick…or so he thought.

There is little to deny Spielberg’s reincarnation of West Side Story as the flashier affair. Such is his directorial style. And yet, one can almost imagine this movie, similarly to have been made in the fifties, with Janusz Kaminski’s glossy cinematography strictly ‘old school’ and Adam Stockhausen’s production design supporting a nicely contrasted uber-sheen with the grit of the slums and Paul Tazewell’s colorful costume design. But Justin Peck’s use of the cinema space during the elaborately staged dance numbers leaves much to be desired. Still, Spielberg and company have definitely done their homework here. But it still doesn’t add up to cinema immortality. Perhaps the chief setback here is cast – newcomers and fresh faces that pale to the memory of all that megawatt star power on tap in Wise’s movie. Indeed, the best performance in Spielberg’s remake is owed Wise alumni, Rita Moreno (Anita in 1961) and at age 90, still proving she has what it takes to be justly called ‘a star’. Not so sure about the rest.

On the surface, there is some good solid chemistry between Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler’s Tony and Maria. If only he didn’t look as though he were still 5-years away from being able to shave, and she occasionally resisted the urge to slip into a sort of cow-eyed mooning for true love. Again, it works…almost, but doesn’t really hold a candle to Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood from the ’61 original! I know. I know. Stop comparing the two movies and get on with evaluating this one on its own terms. But West Side Story (2021) begs such comparisons be made repeatedly, demands it even, and essentially, promotes us to run out and rent the original. Zegler, who won the coveted part of Maria over 30,000 candidates, is in very fine voice. Wood was dubbed. Ditto for Beymer, although I am of the opinion something ought to have been done with Elgort’s anemic singing pipes too. But there is just no getting around it: Ariana DeBose and David Alvarez as Anita and Bernardo never come close to the uber-sensuality smoldering between sultry, Rita Moreno and then uber-coiffed hottie, George Chakiris. No, DeBose and Alvarez are of your bargain basement cliché of the saucy Spic’ (I thought the whole point of Spielberg’s remake was to rid us of that unflattering racial epitaph?!?) playing to the base poverty of their circumstances. Did anyone actually believe Moreno and Chakiris were poor and struggling in Wise’s movie?

West Side Story’s arduous transition from a Spielberg pipedream into a reality took time. Owing to his own life-long love affair with the original show, Spielberg had originally thrown down the gauntlet in 2014, pressing 'then' still, 2oth Century-Fox to acquire the rights. Meanwhile, Tony Kushner, a Spielberg alum from Munich (2005) and Lincoln (2012), set about to reimagine the screenplay, keeping the musical numbers intact, but promising a more faithful adaptation of the stage show rather than the ’61 movie. Defending his decision to do a remake of a beloved film, Spielberg suggested to the press the divisions between people in 1957, regrettably had only widened in the intervening decades. I would have to agree with him there. Thus, the ‘message’ of West Side Story had remained profound and relevant despite changing times. And Spielberg, who in more recent times had grown more comfortable in the producer’s chair, announced he would be directing this remake himself, holding open casting calls in New York and Florida. Shooting West Side Story in Harlem, Brooklyn and Paterson, New Jersey – on sets at Steiner Studios, and, actual locations took a whopping 79 days. Predictably, challenges abounded. There was also some discussion about excising the song, ‘I Feel Pretty’ – a cornerstone of the ’61 movie that songwriter, Steven Sondheim actually deplored and fought like hell to have removed from the original. Sondheim was successful at getting the song axed from the 2020 Broadway revival. But for Spielberg’s show, Tony Kushner took a stand to keep the song in, suggesting its repositioning in the score now made it essential for the audience to empathize with Maria.

Peck, Kamiński and Spielberg collaborated – sort of – on the choreography, its styling and the look and staging of it. Peck noted that dance in movie-musicals in general, and the ’61 classic in particular had since been repeatedly mocked. He was also conscious not to copy Jerome Robbins’ moves, although a few choice gestures from the master crop up now and then in Peck’s re-imagining.  Aside: I recall Billy Crystal making fun of the original West Side Story during his opening Oscar monologue, attempting a loose interpretation of the original’s stylized steps, suggesting a slightly effete slant by adding “Riff – see you at the gym at eight. Don’t wear that.”  However, Peck was clearly missing the point. That all revered works of art earn their right and place to be made figures of fun. Imitation, even the cheapest kind, is still flattery. And I cannot imagine anyone imitating Peck’s contributions herein some 40 years going into the future. The rumor is Ariana DeBose's dance shoes melted during the shooting of ‘America’ – hyperbole, I suspect, as either she was performing her dance moves for 72 hours on the sun’s surface or those taps were made out of chocolate. The one concession Spielberg made was in music director. Spielberg had hoped to entice frequent collaborator, John Williams, who instead suggested he give composer, David Newman and conductor, Gustavo Dudamel a spin. This West Side Story also is unique in that 3 of its iconic numbers are performed live on the set without the benefit of pre-recording: One Hand, One Heart, Somewhere, and finally, A Boy Like That/I Have a Love. In the end, does any of this really matter or enhance the overall appeal of Spielberg’s film, enough to make us forget about the genius Wise and company had wrought? No, not even close.

At Spielberg’s request, West Side Story was shot in 2.39:1 on 35mm photochemical film, a more recent, subtler backlash towards the universal push in Hollywood to shoot everything digital. Released via Disney Inc. under their ridiculously rechristened 2oth Century Studios brand (what happened to the Fox?!?) this 4K disc sports all the pluses of HDR but still manages, in spots to look ever so slightly compressed. Colors are bold and richly saturated. Fine details pop. Kaminski’s blown out bright lighting is well served by the 10-bit color palette. No kidding – this one gets a Dolby Atmos 7.1 and it is explosive in all the appropriate moments one might expect. Dialogue – crisp. Vocals – wow!  Weirdly, no 5.1 DTS in English, just a 2.0 option. There are no extras on the 4K disc, but we do get a Blu-ray version, packed with goodies, totaling nearly 100 minutes of backstory and making of, divided into truncated featurettes – so, a good idea, made slightly anemic by the necessity to Ginsu it into manageable bites for that aforementioned strain of navel-gazers. Renowned documentarian, Laurent Bouzereau is responsible for this one. There’s a lot of stuff jammed into this extended featurette, including snippets from Sondheim (who died in 2021). Bottom line: West Side Story didn’t really need to be remade. What Disney ought to do is offer us a 4K remaster of Fox Home Video’s thoroughly botched Blu-ray release of Robert Wise’s original from 2014! Now, that would really be cause for celebration! For those who love the original, no need to double dip for this reboot. None at all!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

4