Did anyone else notice this... ?
I get that the downward camera angles were supposed to emphasize the Jet's menacing gang 'snapping' as they exit from the alley and from the tunnel, during the opening number. However I found it rather interesting that both angles seemed to zoom in more on the guys' crotches than their actual snapping. Even for censoring.
Peanutlee33
Nope. Not me!
sharePerhaps I did look far too much into it 😳
Peanutlee33
Well Jerome Robbins was gay and he did direct the dance numbers so you might have something there :)
shareI am no homophobe...several good old friends in the LGBT community.
But if I were one of those Jets and realized where the camera was pointed, I would have been creeped out. And I'm sure those actors were aware...they were doing their job for the scene. But I still would have been creeped out.
Peanutlee33
Nah - he got the upside...I got the downside. See, there's two sides to every schwartz
There was a whole gay undercurrent going on. All the action in the film were basically filtered through a gay lens. Of course, lyricist Stephen Sondheim was gay, as was choreographer Jerome Robbins, as someone pointed out above.
There are other clues - check out the introduction to the song "America" - Rita Moreno says archly: "smoke on your pipe and put THAT IN!" As she says points a finger, then twists backwards so the finger points upwards - a taunt about gay sex, oral and anal - it's pure genius and the best moment of the film, to my mind.