...using the novelization of the story, which is actually quite good. The music blows, and it's a distraction from what could otherwise be a gritty, urban endeavor. Long as they don't ghetto it up like they tried to with so many other movies, it could be a gem. The story is there...
"Hey...I like that...I like that!!" Terry Silver Karate Kid III
It's been done, many times. It's called Romeo and Juliet.
shareWest Side Story was based on Romeo & Juliet.
share"The music blows." The music (and lyrics) are the reason for the production. Of course, you know it existed as a Broadway show before it was a movie, don't you?
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?
Hi, bradford-1. Good to see you posting here again.
Your points are well taken. Thanks. As I've pointed out on other threads on this post, but it bears repeating, a re-make of the movie West Side Story, especially without the music and songs, etc., would be an utter and total fiasco, because it would absolutely cut the heart and soul right out of it.
Hi, bradford-1. Good to see you posting here again.
Your points are well taken. Thanks. As I've pointed out on other threads on this post, but it bears repeating, a re-make of the movie West Side Story, especially without the music and songs, etc., would be an utter and total fiasco, because it would absolutely cut the heart and soul right out of it.
Oh, Good Grief! How could anyone say the music blows?
I came late to Sweeney Todd (the idea of the plot sort of creeped me out), but as soon as I heard the music and lyrics, I mas mesmerized... the way he puts words together. I immediately asked a good friend who lives and breathes theatre what else I knew by Sondheim and he mentioned WWS - my first thought (and thus my first words) were 'Officer Krupke!'
The OP needs a curriculum in musical theatre.
I saw the film "Sweeney Todd" when it first came out, almost ten years ago and liked it a lot, but it's not a film that I'd want to see more than once.
shareGo get the original Broadway cast album and listen to that. The movie butchered Sondheim's music (pun intended) and some of the parts were badly miscast, especially Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett. Angela Lansbury was perfect in the role.
shareNO it doesn't
You sir are an idiot and don't know what you're talking about. - with all due respect
This was perfection and should be left alone
No one could do it justice today or tomorrow
NO it doesn't
You sir are an idiot and don't know what you're talking about. - with all due respect
This was perfection and should be left alone
No one could do it justice today or tomorrow
The original post seems like they are trolling. Trolling deserves name-calling. I mean saying something like "the music blows" is antagonizing people who love the score. That is just as bad as name-calling.
share[deleted]
Long as they don't ghetto it up
That's what worries me. The only thing wrong with the film was actors being dubbed. It's the greatest musical ever written in my view.
share"The music blows."
You serious???
The music in this film is as great as it gets. And that's coming from a died-in-the-wool rock n roll fan. The West Side Story soundtrack is an all-time classic.
This:
The music in this film is as great as it gets. And that's coming from a died-in-the-wool rock n roll fan. The West Side Story soundtrack is an all-time classic.
Needs a serious re-make...
The music blows
a gritty, urban endeavor. Long as they don't ghetto
Way to go, cheeso65! The great, golden oldie-but-keeper 1961 classic film, West Side Story needs a "serious re-make" like a hole in the head, if one gets the drift.
if Steve Spielberg has any common sense, and as much affection for the film West Side Story as he claims that he does, he'll leave well enough alone, and not even think of messing with a classic!
Agreed, cheeso65. In fact, I believe WWS finds its grittiness in the phenomenon of delinquent youth gangs, emergent in the mid-1950s, and prominent on the Upper West side of Manhattan (Spanish Harlem). Interestingly, some say that the story originated as a Romeo & Juliet re-cast set in Manhattan's Lower East Side--the combatant gangs, Catholics and Jews. Essentially, East Side Story!
But here's a question a friend once raised: Inasmuch as the story mines the tension of socially forbidden love, what better polarity in 1961 than that between black and white? And to spike the southern (and northern) outrage, cast Tony and the Jets as black and Mary (Maria) and the Sharks as poor whites, and watch the sparks of miscegenation fly! [Consider that, in WSS, for all the cultural disassociation depicted, no real color difference exists between Tony and Maria, nor much between the Jets and the Sharks, in truth. Yet, color matters as one of America's true markers of "otherness." Casting directors well know this.]
With black Jets and white Sharks, and all the racial hatred of 1961 thrown atop the production, many would have agreed with Anita's plea to Maria to "find one of her own kind." Of course, film producers of the era would never have attempted such a casting. Why? Because they knew their audiences and would have believed, rightly, in the unpalatability of a "black/white" casting. Such a main casting would have trouble, even today, more's the pity.
Why is it a pity that humans want to be with their own kind?
It’s not a pity at all. It’s human nature.
I wouldn't mind a new adaptation, if it's done well. I mean, why do we see different stage productions of the same play or musical, if not to see what different directors and actors can bring out of it?
But I think I'd rather see it done as a live television musical. Most of the ones they've done so far have been rather lighthearted--it would be a bit of a change to see them do a serious one with more serious themes for a change.
Op: this may sound harsh, but you're an idiot. And also probably a troll, and/or very young. Now go back to your play pen and listen to the music again. if you can, try really really hard to understand real musical composition, and if not, return to your preferred dreck, and stay away from here.
No remake. You don't futz with perfection.
I don't think so, jschillig! West Side Story is a film that must be left as it is, or the heart and soul could be cut right out of it!
shareA television musical, whether live or not, would not have been a good fit for something so beautiful, powerful and relevant as West Side Story. Such a thing would've cheapened it...big time.
share