After hearing all the buzz about Spielberg's remake, I decided to check out the original all time classic version at home first. While I enjoyed the plotline and some of the acting, even some of the music, honestly, I thought I would not give it more than 6.5/10. The garish dresses, somewhat contrived sequences with supposedly nasty, tough gang members theatrically breaking into songs and dances - made me think that the execution left a lot to be desired and did not quite live up to its billing as an all time classic. But then, I generally dislike musicals (with some notable exceptions, of course) and thought may be it was a subjective thing.
But after watching Spielberg's version, which I would rate 8.5/10, my impressions of the original were reinforced. The 2021 remake is everything the original could have been, but wasn't.
Of course, Spielberg has had the unfair advantage of all the heaps of analysis and dissection that the original has been subjected to over the last 60 years, not to mention all the advances in the state of the art of cinema, so we will always respect the original, on the shoulders of which the 2021 version stands. But having said that, it just made me reflect on how far Hollywood and world cinema have come in these years.
I can't say that all directors manage to take advantage of this progress (technical and artistic) when they remake old movies - a case in point being Bram Stoker's original 1922 black and white silent movie "Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror." I remember the movie making a profound impression on me as a schoolboy, and even now, when I watch it again, I find it astounding how with rudimentary, crude technology still in its infancy (by today's standards), such a masterpiece was created - especially compared to Werner Herzog's 1979 remake - which, IMHO, ruined it with all kinds of uncalled for colorful scenes, costumes and what have you - which just did such a great job of distracting from and even destroying the suspense in the bare-bones original version. But I digress.
In my opinion, in contrast, Spielberg has taken a diamond in the rough, and after ironing out the kinks (and dialing down the cheese) turned it into a sophisticated, polished gem. While he has remained very faithful to the original in terms of storyline, screenplay, songs and scenes, I found that the songs and dances seem much more organically integrated and realistic (well, as realistic as a gang can make them seem), and the costumes, visuals and acting are all a huge improvement on the original, not to mention the excellent cinematography and set design that one almost takes for granted these days. And talking about set design, the original had the advantage of recreating the sets from the same time period but then the 2021 version perhaps has the advantage of knowing what from that period has been romaticized in the psyche of the audience after all these years to enable it to press the right buttons to evoke a sense of nostalgia.
The protagonists in this sort of a movie, IMHO, need to bring a certain eye-candy factor, and the remake - with the All-American white boy next door Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria (Rachel Zegler, with an uncanny resemblance to AOC - was that deliberate?) - improves on that aspect too.
So what's on my personal wish list for the next remake, whenever that might happen? First of all, it might seem like lobotomy to strip a musical (and a classic one at that) of its songs and dances, but I am curious to see just what such a version might look like - especially given my general bias against musicals. In addition, I never understood why literature types, academics (for centuries) and many film critics seem to prefer a tragic ending in order to label a story / a movie a classic, but I would love to see an ending that is less destructive and sad - perhaps with both Tony and Maria managing to escape to some place very, very far away.
But after watching Spielberg's version, which I would rate 8.5/10, my impressions of the original were reinforced. The 2021 remake is everything the original could have been, but wasn't.
Of course, Spielberg has had the unfair advantage of all the heaps of analysis and dissection that the original has been subjected to over the last 60 years, not to mention all the advances in the state of the art of cinema, so we will always respect the original, on the shoulders of which the 2021 version stands. But having said that, it just made me reflect on how far Hollywood and world cinema have come in these years.
I can't say that all directors manage to take advantage of this progress (technical and artistic) when they remake old movies - a case in point being Bram Stoker's original 1922 black and white silent movie "Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror." I remember the movie making a profound impression on me as a schoolboy, and even now, when I watch it again, I find it astounding how with rudimentary, crude technology still in its infancy (by today's standards), such a masterpiece was created - especially compared to Werner Herzog's 1979 remake - which, IMHO, ruined it with all kinds of uncalled for colorful scenes, costumes and what have you - which just did such a great job of distracting from and even destroying the suspense in the bare-bones original version. But I digress.
In my opinion, in contrast, Spielberg has taken a diamond in the rough, and after ironing out the kinks (and dialing down the cheese) turned it into a sophisticated, polished gem. While he has remained very faithful to the original in terms of storyline, screenplay, songs and scenes, I found that the songs and dances seem much more organically integrated and realistic (well, as realistic as a gang can make them seem), and the costumes, visuals and acting are all a huge improvement on the original, not to mention the excellent cinematography and set design that one almost takes for granted these days. And talking about set design, the original had the advantage of recreating the sets from the same time period but then the 2021 version perhaps has the advantage of knowing what from that period has been romaticized in the psyche of the audience after all these years to enable it to press the right buttons to evoke a sense of nostalgia.
The protagonists in this sort of a movie, IMHO, need to bring a certain eye-candy factor, and the remake - with the All-American white boy next door Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria (Rachel Zegler, with an uncanny resemblance to AOC - was that deliberate?) - improves on that aspect too.
So what's on my personal wish list for the next remake, whenever that might happen? First of all, it might seem like lobotomy to strip a musical (and a classic one at that) of its songs and dances, but I am curious to see just what such a version might look like - especially given my general bias against musicals. In addition, I never understood why literature types, academics (for centuries) and many film critics seem to prefer a tragic ending in order to label a story / a movie a classic, but I would love to see an ending that is less destructive and sad - perhaps with both Tony and Maria managing to escape to some place very, very far away.