‘West Side Story’ is one of the best movie musicals I’ve seen

Posted on December 17, 2021

By MARK VIOLA

As a self-proclaimed fan of both movies and stage musicals, I can understand the surprise I was met with over the past couple of weeks when I told people I had never seen any version of the acclaimed “West Side Story.”

I’ve never seen the musical performed on stage, and I’ve never watched the 1961 film adaptation which earned 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

I remember writing in my review of the 2016 remake of “Ben-Hur” that when a previous version has won 11 Academy Awards, it is probably a good idea to look elsewhere for something to remake.

Apparently, the cut-off is 10 Oscars, because now we have a new film adaptation of “West Side Story,” and it is nothing short of amazing. The movie is directed by Steven Spielberg (“Jaws,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) with a screenplay from Tony Kushner (“Lincoln”), who is a Tony Award-winning playwright for “Angels in America.”

Although I can’t compare this new film to the original, I can say it is filled with wonderful music and songs — which, of course, are a credit to, in part, the late Stephen Sondheim — but it is how those songs are brought to life by the exceptional cast and the ever-steady directing hand of Spielberg that make this film not only a great one, but an excellent one. The director is able to inject such a sense of time and place into the film, even down to how the movie looks on screen.

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