7.7 rating is shocking…
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brefane — 15 years ago(September 11, 2010 11:07 PM)
The choreography, the staging, the dancing, the cinematography and the score aim to be spectacular and succeed, but the rest: the dialog, the romance, the interior set design, the mix of Dead End Kids humor with sociological overtones and tragedy doesn't work. The film had 2 directors and it shows. In addition, I find the film too long and Wood at 22 seems too old for the virginal Maria, and her performance is overly-earnest. Wood and Beymer are pretty dull pair especially compared to the wild abandoment, and overacting of all the other actors.
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lilread — 15 years ago(October 02, 2010 09:20 PM)
I thought so too considering the iconic nature of the film and production. And 10 Oscars!
BUT
Now that I've seen the film I think it's about right. The dance sequences were superb but the singing, pacing and acting is not as memorable. I don't think it has weathered well over time.
I saw a stage production about 17 years ago here in Australia and it was better in almost every way. It had so much energy. The guy who played Tony (from the States) was amazing and what a voice -
TheLittleSongbird — 15 years ago(November 02, 2010 03:58 AM)
I agree. West Side Story deserves a higher rating, like somewhere in the 8s. I actually consider this this favourite film musical, and I have several favourites including Singin' in the Rain and Wizard of Oz, because the music and dancing never ceases to amaze me. I love the lyrics to Officer Krupkee as well, and I agree, Russ Tamblyn was awesome as Riff. I also saw him in tom thumb(1958), he was great in that too and the film is a lot of fun and very underrated, and he was excellent in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers too.
"Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage"- Madeline Kahn(CLUE, 1985) -
pasnat — 15 years ago(November 19, 2010 03:04 AM)
I just came back from a special screening of West Side Story with a fully restored soundtrack. George Chakiris was there to introduce the screening at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
After seeing this on the big screen again, I must say I was shocked that this movie isn't at least an 8.5. The cinematography is masterful, and the choreography is the best I've ever seen in a musical. It's never been topped.
And the music? What musical has ever had a better score?
Anyone who thinks this movie doesn't hold up well, we all have a right to our opinions and I just can't agree with that. At all.
Except for the "daddy-o's" and other occasional period slang that has fallen into disuse, this movie hold up extremely well. -
jagooch — 15 years ago(December 01, 2010 09:30 PM)
I agree. West Side Story deserves a higher rating, like somewhere in the 8s. I >actually consider this this favourite film musical, and I have several >favourites including Singin' in the Rain and Wizard of Oz, because the music and >dancing never ceases to amaze me. I love the lyrics to Officer Krupkee as well, >and I agree, Russ Tamblyn was awesome as Riff. I also saw him in tom >thumb(1958), he was great in that too and the film is a lot of fun and very >underrated, and he was excellent in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers too.
'deserves' doesn't really apply in the realm of ratings, as each person should rate it according to their impression of the movie, and not according to some external standard another person has set.
There is no way to enforce this, but let's encourage people to "vote their heart" and not "vote our heart" or just vote a certain way because it's the opinion of the majority. -
PillowRock — 15 years ago(December 07, 2010 02:57 PM)
I have no problem with everyone voting according to their own honest opinion and letting the chips fall where they may.
However, people who vote so as to try to "correct" the average to match their opinion more closely (for example: think it is a 6, see an IMDb average of 7, so vote 1) would be banned from voting for life if I were the Omnipotent God of the IMDb.
The same thing would apply to people who vote down a movie (which they may not even have seen) in an attempt to get one of their personal favorites to leapfrog it in the Top 250. Also, anybody creating multiple accounts so that they can vote multiple times should also have all of their accounts banned from voting.
Basically, any attempt to manipulate the rating average (instead of just a straight-up vote) would permanently invalidate all of that person's movie poll votes, in a perfect world. The fact that a non-trivial amount of such garbage goes on is why the IMDb ratings are one of the more meaningless ratings of movies around. -
demon-everlasting — 15 years ago(December 27, 2010 04:28 PM)
I've seen way better movies on IMDb with way lower rating. The people on this site are cynical and vengeful at best, giving movies one star because they don't like the director or an actor and never actually bothering to see the movie. Be happy that it has 7.7 stars, because it doesn't get much better than that. Even Finding Nemo, which for a long time had 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, only has half a star more than West Side Story. And, plus, a lot of people absolutely abhor this movie because they absolutely abhor the show in general. When I even broached the subject of /wanting/ to do this show at school on facebook, within minutes, half the theatre department gave the show a big "hells no". I like it. You like it. Some people do not like it.
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braveulysses — 15 years ago(April 01, 2011 12:36 AM)
That's really strange, I've been acting and performing for over ten years and I don't think I've ever talked to someone involved in theatre that doesn't like West Side Story. In my experience it seems to be one of the best-loved musicals by theatre people.
"All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine." -Jeff Spicoli -
boone727 — 15 years ago(March 30, 2011 07:25 AM)
The play is ten times better than the movie. There are many plays that they turned into movies that worked very well. But they tried to make the movie too much like the play instead of making it a movie, and so the play was much better.
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StrongRex — 15 years ago(March 30, 2011 08:30 PM)
Uhno. The play was awkwardly written, had poor song arrangement, and had inconsistencies with characters and situations. The movie made all that better.
Also, have you even seen the play? Parts of it are NOTHING like the movie. -
friendoffilm — 12 years ago(March 30, 2014 04:08 AM)
Frankly, I think at at least an 8 or 9 rating by imdb would've been far more suitable than a 7.7 rating for
West Side Story
.
West Side Story
, imho, is an equally beautifully musical, on stage and on screen. As a devout fan of the film West Side Story who has seen several stage productions of this musical and who largely enjoyed the more up to date Broadway
stage
revival of
West Side Story
, I viewed this particular Broadway stage version of WSS with a harder, more critical eye than many, if not most people.
I also believe that the fact that
West Side Story
was kept as sort of a larger-than-lifesized piece of theatre when it was transferred from live stage to screen is one of the strengths of the film version of
West Side Story
. -
PillowRock — 14 years ago(May 04, 2011 02:15 PM)
Back then this type of thing may have been acceptable to "sensitive" audiences
What are you talking about "acceptable" and "audiences" for? Do you have any sense of movie history?
This is 1961, which is several years before the Production Code was scrapped in favor of the ratings system.
What "sensitive audiences" would find "acceptable" could not possibly be any less relevant. The producers and writers working on the
West Side Story
movie never made any choice / decision to "downplay" the language. If you wanted the movie to be released in American theaters, then replacing the profanity was an absolute, ironclad requirement of the censorship rules that were still in place at the time.
Is your main complaint with
On the Waterfront
that the dock workers aren't swearing? Is
The Enemy Below
ruined because the sailors never swear?