"I don't know who I am. And who cares who I am? Nobody, including me."
I'm not generally a musicals person and so I went into this without no knowledge other than it's based on Romeo and Juliet and that the film was originally made in 1961. I understand the debate about whether this film needed to be made but I can only judge on what I saw, and that was something very special indeed.
It's interesting that a musical that was first performed on stage in 1957 still stands up really well today. Sure, it helps that the plot borrows heavily from perhaps Shakespeare's most famous play but it has a lot of other things going for it too. The conflict between the white Jets and the Puerto-Rican Sharks feels hugely relevant and this version's casting of entirely Latinx actors for the Puerto-Ricans really helps that.
One of the many things I really liked about the film is the way it deftly balances the tone. The story about gang warfare and racism is pretty bleak and that side of things is certainly not shied away from with images of the gangs confronting each other and dead bodies on the floor. But the bleakness isn't allowed to rule all the time. The love between Tony and Maria is really powerful and lovely and there are moments of joy amongst the darkness of the plot.
The cast are exceptional here. Most come from a Broadway background so it's no wonder they are fantastic- Ariana DeBose is especially superb as Anita. The film also introduces newcomer Rachel Zegler as Maria who is utterly superb and has a bright future ahead of her (she's already set to appear in Shazam 2 and Disney's live-action Snow White as the titular character).
If there was one thing I was less keen on was the music, which as a non-musicals fan wasn't a great surprise. There were only a couple of song I really loved (though all are done fantastically on screen). "Maria" is a perfect song for capturing the feeling of being in love with someone and "America" is both hugely catchy and still works brilliantly as a debate about the American dream.
This may have been Spielberg's first musical but he certainly knew how to make one. His take on West Side Story manages to expertly focus closely on the characters when needed but also manages to give us huge song and dance numbers which are just joyous to watch (although how anyone gets anything done in New York is beyond me and there's always someone doing a big musical number in the middle of the street). This is a musical which really deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
I suspected this would be well made but I never thought I would get as much out of it as I did. It's joyous at times but also hugely emotional. It captures the range of human emotion and is executed without fault. Just exceptional.
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