friendoffilm — 9 years ago(October 25, 2016 09:57 AM)

just last month, at the Somerville Theatre, in Somerville, MA,
West Side Story
was showntwice, as part of a 10-day 70mm Classic Film Festival that, in addition to West Side Story, included other classics such as
Lawrence of Arabia
, Walt Disney's
Sleeping Beauty
,
The Ten Commandments
, and
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
, to name afew.
While I also watched
Sleeping Beauty
and
The Ten Commandments
(which I thought was somewhat overrated.), the film
West Side Story
was the movie that I'd really looked forward the most to seeing.
As soon as the tickets went on sale, I snagged afew tickets for the
West Side Story
showing on Thursday, Sept. 22nd, for my sister, who was then visiting us from the Mid-West, a longtime friend of mine, and, ultimately, a friend of my sister's, who also wanted to go.
On Sept. 17th, the day after the 70mm Classic Film Festival had just started, as I was casually cruising on the Somerville Theatre's website, I noticed the following message:
"Due to a shipping snafu, tickets to "
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
" will be honored for tonight's showing of
West Side Story
, at 8:00 p. m. "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" has been moved to Saturday afternoon, Sept. 24th."
Since it was just 8:00 on the dot, I immediately donned some appropriate clothes, said a quick good-bye to Aziza, my pet Congo African Grey Parrot, Aziza, drove down to the movie theatre, parked where I could, and steamed down to the theatre and snagged a ticket for myself, as fast as I could, missing only the first 5 minutes of the movie, and getting a decent seat for myself in the 800-seat theatre auditorium.
Although the screening for that night's showing of
West Side Story
didn't sell out, there was a good crowd, and everybody had a wonderful time.
Fast Forward to Thursday, Sept. 22nd: My longtime friend and I met for dinner at a nearby Crepes place for a bite to eat, and then met my sister and her friend at the movie theatre. We all had a wonderful time, and it was great that West Side Story was shown twice, for that's the movie that i'd really been looking forward to seeing, among all the Classic films that were played at that Film Festival.
West Side Story
, when shown on a great big, wide movie screen, in a darkened movie theatre and in 70mm film, takes on an even newer, more brilliant intensity, as well as a magical, almost 3-dimensional quality to it. The scenery, both filmed on location in NYC, and the creatively designed sets by (the late) Boris Leven, seems much more expansive, and one can see all of everything. The soundtrack of the 70mm film version of
West Side Story
is more punchy and in one's face, the way it's really supposed to be. The richly-colored and beautifully designed costumes, photography and great cinematography does a great deal to really emphatically tell a beautifully haunting story, and the beautifully-choreographed dancing by the late Jerome Robbins does likewise, if one gets the drift.
From the warring Jets and Sharks to the romancing Tony and Maria, and from the Shark gang leader, Bernardo and his girlfriend, Anita, to the bigoted, bitter, cynical Lt. Schrank and equally cynical (but quieter) Officer Krupke, to Doc, the Candy Store owner, who tries, without avail, to move the kids in a better direction, the various characters in
West Side Story
seem to move much more fluidly and freely, in a much wider, more open space, when shown on a great big, wide movie theatre screen, especially on 70mm film.
The various facial expressions on the characters of
West Side Story
, most notably, the warring Jets and Sharks, seem more noticeably angrier and tougher. The dancing seems to take on a whole new intensity. Due to my intense love for the film
West Side Story
, I'm admittedly very hard-pressed to pick out any favorite scenes/songs,
or
characters, but i will say this:
The Dance at the Gym
,
America
,
Officer Krupke
,
The Prologue/Jets Song
, the Pre-Rumble Quintet-Ensenble, as well as the Rumble itself, and the
Cool
scene(s) are real pillars of this great movie-musical Classic. The fact that the America scene had both the Shark girls and the Shark goys alike in the film version was fantastic, and added wonders to the film version of West Side Story, as did the changing of the manners and color throughout the movie.
As for the characters/cast, George Chakiris and Rita Moreno were both absolutely fabulous in their playing of the roles of the Shark gang leader, Bernardo, and his girlfriend Anita, and they both won well-earned Awards for Best Supporting Actor/Actress for their great playing of these two characters. Russ Tamblyn was also excellent as the arrogant, cocky, exuberant but tough Jet gang leader, Riff, who's Tony's old buddy, and Tucker Smith was also great as the calm, cool and collected Ice, who takes over the jets gang leadership after Riff's death at the Rumble. Eliot Feld was also excellent as Baby-John, the youngest and most immature Jet gang member, and so was Dav