Did anyone else notice this ?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — West Side Story
oprlvr33 — 10 years ago(July 03, 2015 08:50 AM)
Did anyone else notice this ?
I get that the downward camera angles were supposed to emphasize the Jet's menacing gang 'snapping' as they exit from the alley and from the tunnel, during the opening number. However I found it rather interesting that both angles seemed to zoom in more on the guys' crotches than their actual snapping. Even for censoring.
Peanutlee33 -
oprlvr33 — 10 years ago(July 31, 2015 08:48 AM)
I am no homophobeseveral good old friends in the LGBT community.
But if I were one of those Jets and realized where the camera was pointed, I would have been creeped out. And I'm sure those actors were awarethey were doing their job for the scene. But I still would have been creeped out.
Peanutlee33
Nah - he got the upsideI got the downside. See, there's two sides to every schwartz -
federovsky — 9 years ago(November 15, 2016 07:33 AM)
There was a whole gay undercurrent going on. All the action in the film were basically filtered through a gay lens. Of course, lyricist Stephen Sondheim was gay, as was choreographer Jerome Robbins, as someone pointed out above.
There are other clues - check out the introduction to the song "America" - Rita Moreno says archly: "smoke on your pipe and put THAT IN!" As she says points a finger, then twists backwards so the finger points upwards - a taunt about gay sex, oral and anal - it's pure genius and the best moment of the film, to my mind.
