The forced romance and the pretty awful performance from the lead guy really bring it down. Everything else is fantastic
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friendoffilm — 11 years ago(January 09, 2015 11:50 AM)
I second this:
Never get tired of this.
without thinking twice!
West Side Story
is a film that I never tire of seeing over and over and over again, especially when it comes to a great big, wide screen, in a
real
movie theatre, with the lights down low. I first got introduced to
West Side Story
, as a whole, through the music to the
original
Broadway
stage
version, back in the summer of 1962, to be exact, prior to entering the sixth grade, while attending day camp out west. One girl in my group, who'd received a copy of the LP version of the soundtrack to the original Broadway stage production of
West Side Story
as a birthday present, brought it to camp soon afterwards, and played it for the rest of our group. My love for this musical took off instantly. Since my parents also had the same LP version of the original Broadway stage production of
West Side Story
, I played it on their Hi-Fi system whenever I could, and also liked to bang around with the WSS story songs on the piano, as well.
I have not stopped loving the film
West Side Story
since, and am hoping for another screening of this great classic to come into my area. (I always keep my eyes and ears peeled for any possibility! -
marhefka — 11 years ago(January 23, 2015 08:09 AM)
@peter_joshua (Original OP)
I agree that a score of 7.6 is an insult to this great movie. When I try to guess as to why, I think of "Gigi." It is rated at only 6.9 on IMDB; yet, I think it is the best movie musical of all time. Looking at the Gigi board, many people did not like it because they thought Maurice Chevalier was a pedophile. Also, many people thought Leslie Caron was a prostitute. So, bearing that in mind, is there anything like that in West Side Story that upsets people. If there are things people hate about this movie and therefore rate it low, I don't know that they might be. -
friendoffilm — 11 years ago(January 27, 2015 02:04 PM)
Frankly,
I
think that the film
West Side Story
should've gotten at least an 8 or 9 rating from imdb.com.
That
, to me, would've been satisfactory, even though I gave
West Side Story
a ten rating, for my own personal rating.
But, different people have different opinions. What can we say? -
alex_unnamed — 10 years ago(April 19, 2015 08:02 AM)
I agree, it's a beautiful movie.
I have been enjoying it for forty years now, and one thing I've noticed in recent years is that quite a number of movies don't stand up to earlier opinions I've had. 'West Side Story' is one that easily impresses my as much as it did way back when, partly for different reasons. -
friendoffilm — 10 years ago(May 16, 2015 06:29 AM)
You're right on the money, jackjom. Most of the older classic films, even the ones that I've liked well enough to see more than once, seem to be a little bit frayed around the edges, despite still being enjoyable, but
West Side Story
has aged the most gracefully of all, at least in part because of the very story behind it, if one gets the drift. -
mail-2217 — 10 years ago(July 03, 2015 09:57 PM)
Solid 9.
One thing I think that downgrades it nowadays: it is -always- introduced to kids now as a Romeo/Juliet knockoff. Which annoys me deeply. I -wish- they would let kids watch and judge it on its own. The moment kids hear 'based on Shakespeare' it immediately colours their perspective. -
mail-2217 — 10 years ago(October 07, 2015 12:40 PM)
Not possible.
The moment you mention 'Shakespeare' I don't care what technique you use it automatically colours their expectations. It's the same anytime you do -any- setup for -any- work of art. It's like giving kids a sandwich and telling them BEFORE they take a bite that "it's got broccoli in it.. but you'll like it!". Game over, dude.
My point is this: it's completely unnecessary to do a setup. Why explain it if you don't have to? Just let 'em watch it and THEN do the whole Shakespeare talk if you feel the need to 'broaden their minds'. Why do 50 year old adults always feel the necessity to explain to kids 'THE WONDERS OF CULTURE!'?
Why? I came into this game for the action, the excitement Listen, kid, we're all in it together. -
PillowRock — 10 years ago(October 07, 2015 12:31 PM)
I don't think the problem is saying that
West Side Story
is based on Shakespeare. (Telling them something about it taking place against the backdrop of a street gang war would also set up problematic false expectations.)
I think that the problem is how kids are introduced to Shakespeare. They're plays. They're not meant to be read. They're meant to be seen enacted. Most kids wouldn't be too thrilled with modern movies either, if they were allowed only to read the scripts.
When you see Shakespeare's plays performed well, the bits of unfamiliar language aren't much of a problem. When you can see what the characters are doing and hear the intonation of their line delivery, the meaning is clear even if you don't catch some words or understand the reference of some metaphors. After the kids have the connection of having seen the story and understanding the relationships and actions, then you can go back through the script with them to explain some of the archaic language and less-well-known-than-they-used-to-be metaphorical references.
In my high school, all freshman English classes had "Romeo and Juliet" on the syllabus. I was lucky that during my freshman year of high school a local second run movie theater was showing the 1968 Zeffirelli movie version of
Romeo and Juliet
. So the high school's entire freshman class got loaded onto buses one day for a matinee showing field trip. It really did help engage a much higher percentage of those 9th graders with that play. When I took the Shakespeare semester as one of my junior / senior elective English classes (after the 9th & 10th grade standard English classes that everybody took, my school had a bunch of different optional one semester English classes of which you had to take at least 2), we saw on videotape in class a couple of the plays that we read (I remember a "Shakespeare in the Park" production of "King Lear" starring James Earl Jones). Those, too, helped make the plays feel more immediately accessible.