Re: West Side Story

I'm quite proud that Steven ripped me off. Like, it was all technical bits and pieces, rather than taking our plot and/or our characters. Definitely a sign that our approach worked. Kushner reimagined the Laurents plot really well, and the realism of WSS was definitely in another league to most of the movie musicals from this century. For most people, that's enough. But I preferred the 1960's movie.

The real question is whether realism is inherently better. A film that Spielberg's WSS reminded me of was La Bohème with Nebtrenko. Given that the Puccini opera is literally verismo, it feels appropriate to that opera, but West Side Story is a musical fable, and there are definitely moments that strain credulity in Spielberg's interpretation. The choreography strained credulity. That rumble in the abandoned building was OTT. Very muscular, but I prefer airier choreography myself. Compared to that focus on authenticity and realism, the Robbins/Wise film from the 1960's, which also broke new ground in realism by doing all those New York street shots, is obviously a cartoonish fantasy world. The script is weaker, but the vision of the film is more 'realistic' ... a little bit of artifice can often touch on a deeper truth, and that's something I think is true of the 1960's movie, while the artificial perfection of the 2020's movie tells you where the industry is heading. - As for Linda's Body: hadn't seen it until 2020 or something. I grew up in the 1990's, so the Front Lawn was before my time.