"West Side Story" as the 2021 Redemption

On March 2nd, West Side Story (2021) was released on both HBOMax and Disney+. As a tired, burnt out grad student who takes intense comfort in classic Hollywood and musicals, I watched it as my comfort film to recover from finals.

West Side Story redeemed a lot of the fear and desperation I've felt through 2020 and 2021. That's a bold statement, I know, and don't hold me to it when I someday say another movie was my favorite of 2021. But as a theatermaker-turned-film-asshole, my thoughts on this movie haven't left my mind since the first time I saw it in December of 2021.

Let's start with the bad before the fantastic: Ansel Elgort, someone who has multiple allegations of harassment, assault, etc. of specifically minor girls, is hard to watch fall in love with a beautiful, innocent teenager. There's a brief period where my brain allows itself to forget - he was indeed cast, and the entire film shot, before the allegations emerged. Re-filming would have been near impossible. The movie is still incredible with him in it, mostly because Tony itself is an incredibly dull and milquetoast role already, but it's something that eats at the back of your brain every few minutes. There is one shot during "One Hand, One Heart" that makes me giggle because Rachel Zegler, the undeniable star of the movie, has a picture-perfect silhouette, while the backlighting makes it incredibly clear that Elgort's upper lip extends far beyond his bottom one.

Now, past that.

West Side Story obviously benefits from the soaring Bernstein score and gorgeous Sondheim lyrics that have followed it since its 1950s premiere on Broadway. This specific adaptation, however, I have been anxiously awaiting since January of 2020.

Right before the pandemic, a new revival of West Side Story opened on Broadway, and it was one of the most irresponsible pieces of entertainment I have witnessed. An attempt by Ivo Van Hove to create the "gritty" revival that seems to be every director's MO these days, the 2020 revival put everyone involved at risk. Beyond just employing a Bernardo who had very public sexual harassment allegations (unlike Elgort, these were very, VERY publicly-known before the casting was announced), the revival forced dancers to dance on perpetually wet floors, leading to multiple actor injuries (including one for Tony that postponed the show's opening) and portrayed Anita's attack as a full sexual assault, broadcast up close and personal on giant stage screens. There was no content warning.

The 2020 revival of West Side Story did not respect the original source material, nor the audience that would be waiting in lines to see it. Spielberg's West Side Story, however, overflows with respect for everything - the lyrics, the choreography, the score, the minority groups who fill its story. (Please note that I am white and straight - anyone who sees otherwise about minority representation in this film is likely much more valid than I.)

West Side Story, all at once, feels both timelessly classic and impeccably modern. A lot of people on Twitter have been, rightfully, raving about the shot of a puddle that reflects Tony and the light around him during "Maria," but this film has endless shots that will have entire essays written about them one day. Spielberg does what I feel very few musical adaptation directors have done - be okay with doing a fucking musical. He allows there to be full dancing, songs out of nowhere, incredible theatricality in scenes and relationships. Unlike another 2021 favorite, Tick Tick...Boom!, West Side Story allows itself to fully commit to the original emotion connected to the script and score. It also, of course, adds another layer of cinematic beauty that few can do like Spielberg - colors, shots, compositions that would be nearly impossible to achieve in a stage adaptation.

An adaptation that was scared to embrace the sometimes random emotions of stage theater would inevitably cut "Dear Officer Krupke" or "I Feel Pretty" - the 2020 Broadway revival actually did cut the latter. But this rendition keeps them in - and it makes all of the characters more human. Musicals are designed to give the characters a chance to express emotion that cannot simply be put into dialogue; by cutting this out of fear of being too "theatrical," you are depriving the audience of your characters' innermost joys and emotions.

By updating Anybodys to a trans man instead of just a tomboy, Anita's attack to be non-exploitative, and Doc (now Valentina) to an actually vital character, West Side Story takes the music that has made me cry since I was a baby and creates a modern, fresh take on the oldest story in the book. Yet it still feels like a love letter to both classic Hollywood and the Broadway stage - a line that few musical films allow themselves to toe.

Everyone in this movie (save for Elgort, although it still might be a career high in a sea of mediocre films) is at their best - Ariana Debose has received, and will continue to receive, ample praise for what is both a vibrant and heartbreaking Anita. Mike Faist is, in my opinion, the greatest Oscar snub of the year (though I might be biased as someone whose freshman year of college was dedicated to the Dear Evan Hansen OBC). Literally even the 5 minutes that Brian D'Arcy James is on screen as Krupke are fucking fantastic.

West Side Story might not get the Oscar reception it probably deserves (maybe it will! who knowwwws), but I feel like it'll be a movie that, in years to come, audiences will realize that an instant classic was dropped into our laps in December of 2021. I, personally, hope one thing lingers from this films critical success - musicals are not a bad thing.

5/5 stars.