West Side Story, the Broadway musical and the subsequent film, marked a before and after in the history of musicals. Furthermore, its impact was memorable on the public that had the opportunity to enjoy it, especially the film. In my adolescence I was one of them. In , my father bought me the long play with the soundtrack, which had just been published in Spain and I was lucky that he liked it too. It took me a few months to be able to see the film, it was for people over years old and until it was shown in a neighborhood cinema I couldn't sneak in, since the premiere venues were much more rigorous in controlling minors.
The film was directed by Robert Wise , with the support of the choreography and dance scenes by Jerome Robbins (responsible for the play on Broadway), with music composed by Leonard Bernstein (in my opinion one of the best directors of orchestra and C Level Executive List composers of the th century) and songs with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (one of Broadway's best lyricists). The result was no less than Oscars. I listened to the album often and eventually bought the DVD of the film. I have never tired of seeing and hearing them. That's why I didn't have it all with me when a “remake” of Steven Spielberg was announced . I really like this director, although some of his films have bored me. I went to see it a few days after the premiere and I was not disappointed. Of course, I still prefer the original. Spielberg is quite faithful to the script and of course to Bernstein's music, the songs and the dances. But he has introduced important nuances, some inevitable.
The first is the choice of the leading actress. She is pretty but not excessively expressive and does not show enough feeling with Tony, the other protagonist. It is true that Natalie Wood was a special actress, her inimitable eyes and the role of María nailed it. On the other hand, Spielberg highlights the racial confrontation between the young Puerto Ricans and the white natives of New York, which was already present in the film, but now takes on more radical and deeper tones, which has undoubtedly been influenced by the enormous difficulties that years later still exist for the coexistence and integration of ethnic minorities, especially exacerbated during Trump's mandate, which is when the film was filmed. And Spielberg's interest in demonstrating the aggressiveness against the use of the Spanish language by Puerto Ricans and Latinos in general and its internalization in a part of them, eager for its acceptance in the North American “paradise,” is striking.