Whenever a movie or show is remade, it always runs the risk of upsetting previous fans who dedicated themselves so heavily to the original. It becomes a balancing act of what to change in fear of upsetting old watchers who don’t want things changed, and what should be kept the same and possibly risk disappointing newer watches who want something new, and this is extra risky when its remaking something not only viewed as great in the past, but also one of the classics of cinema. The 1961 film adaptation of West Side Story is beloved by a great many people, and it feels like it wasn’t in need of a remake, but with the gap between release being over half a century and with famed director Steven Spielberg behind the wheel, it showed a bit more promise and had more people excited for it than anticipated. In a squalid Manhattan suburb during the 1950s, two gangs constantly lash out at each other; the white youth Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. The Jets are troubled young ‘’street trash’’ Americans left to survive on what little they have with families and a system that doesn’t want them, while the Sharks are newly introduced immigrants who feel pressured and threatened by the racist community they are faced with every day, and these two ideologies force the two to clash on several occasions, mainly the leaders of the groups, Riff (played by Mike Faist) and Bernardo (played by David Alvarez). In the midst of this territory war lines two on opposing sides, Tony (played by Ansel Elgort) and Maria (played by Rachel Zegler). Both of them spontaneously meet and instantly become smitten with the other, but soon discover that the gang war is going to prevent them from living a normal life, as well as any racial problems that will stem from this interracial relationship as told to Tony by his caretaker, Valentina (played by Rita Moreno). With a brawl expected any time soon, and with the chances of hurting those close to them, mainly Maria’s best friend Anita (played by Ariana DeBose) these two may be faced with horrible tragedy if the rumble takes place tonight. For a remake of one of the most famous movie musicals of cinematic history, this remake was received fairly well. Though a failure at the box office, the movie did critically very well, even some proclaiming it superior to its original.

Its important to know going into this remake that it manages to pull off a bizarre miracle in that it manages to stand on its own and feel like a completely different-feeling film without changing roughly anything about the main story beats of the film. A fear that comes with remaking something is making sure that it has a purpose behind it, especially with a film as iconic and important to musical cinema as this one, and if this one didn’t change enough to stand on its own, it would have been entirely pointless. The upside is that this movie strangely stands very well on its own despite not changing the main story at all, instead relying on the change in mood, tone, directing and atmosphere to create something truly unique in spirit from its original. Spielberg, despite being as prolific as he is as a director, has never touched a musical in his life, and this film shows that not only could he do it, but he should do it more. His style of crafting a musical feels so fitting for replicating the old classical style of Hollywood musical in a familiar yet modern manner. The movie feels like a much-needed update from the original, with the updated script from Tony Kushner bringing not only a modern perspective on this tale from a more aware viewpoint and one that addresses the bleak racial driven side of this narrative, but also in the technicals. The directing is stellar in this film; it’s wonderfully paced, the tone is far more realistic and less fluffy than the original, it trades the stage-like layout of the original for a more realistic portrayal of a city, the actors are well led, and it never feels like its retreding what has already been done, instead reworking from the original template, and delivering something that feels fresh and fitting in this era. The downsides to this is that it carries a lot of the original stories faults, so whatever people didn’t like in the original won’t be changed here, but also there are enough small details changed that purist won’t always be fond of these tiny alterations.

From today’s perspective, a story like West Side Story is very dated. Not only in just how it simplifies and stereotypes a lot of touchy and difficult topics and cultures in a dramatic and showy fashion, but in that the characters and plot are very much a product of their time, and storytelling and that style of writing has outgrown them. The ”Romeo and Juliet first love” structure for a story, even a musical, doesn’t feel thrilling or new anymore, so if this weren’t a remake, it wouldn’t work that effectively and the same can be said for the characters if it weren’t for the cast portraying them. A majority of the actors in this film are brimming with life and leap off the screen with such fiery passion that they are truly a spectacle to watch. They are as equally talented actors as they are performers as their singing and dancing qualities also shine strongly. Arguably the three strongest performances in this film are Mike Faist as Riff, David Alvarez as Bernardo, and Ariana DeBose as Anita. The manner of commitment and energy they bring to these roles makes them irresistible to watch; DeBose’ charm and manner in which she carries herself makes her a great new version of Rita Moreno’s version. Alvarez and Faist do wonders with their parts; taking annoying and bland caricatures in the old version and making them more engaging to watch than their previous. It does still hurt that both gangs are still filled with unlikeable bland characters and that both are still stuck with pretty lame stereotypes of Puerto Ricans and ‘’white trash’’ gangsters, but it is handled better here than it was previously. The movie does unfortunately stumble with its leads. Rachel Zegler, for a first role, does a really good job acting and performing her parts effectively, but the character isn’t truly strong enough to help her stand out enough, and Ansel Elgort’s portrayal of Tony is a little too generic and straight-faced to mask over a pretty basic performance. Despite acting fine and singing much better than anticipated, it is the one performance that feels very by-the-numbers in a cast full of show-stoppers.

From a technical standpoint, this movie takes every advantage of being as cinematic and as  theatrical as its previous, but it has the advantage of having stronger and more capable technology to really make the product feel more alive. It takes the familiar feel of still shots and allowing talented performers to show their great skill in great detail from older musical, but it has the polish and fine craftsmanship of a newer movie which allows it to look as clean and clear as possible. There are so many fantastic shots in this movie by Janusz Kamiński that shows off the sets and production just as much as it does its actors and dance numbers, it can be energized and well edited, but also can be slow and allow for truly serene frames that are strikingly beautiful in their simplicity. The environment of this film is much dirtier and more lived-in, it doesn’t look like a fancy set like the original that traded realism for spectacle, this one captures that run-down feel of the environment, and it matches with the tone overall for this film. This one does try to be more real, grittier, and more in-your-face about what it’s about through the production design by Adam Stockhausen, something that the original didn’t have the luxury of doing as strongly. The choreographer for this movie was Justin Peck, and his work with ballet and Broadway really shows as his handling of this film is outstanding. While the dancing and camerawork in the original is well done and impressive in its own right, it feels a little too staged and too conflicted with the tone of the story, whereas here it clashes far less and the talent behind these dancers and the staging of the scenes is really eye-popping, it’s hard to take your eyes off it. The movie doesn’t need to have many narrative differences from its original as it manages well enough on its unique presentation, but that doesn’t mean things couldn’t have been improved from before or even made better within this one. Certain characters are still boring, certain plot threads are still weird and unrealistic, and even now select moments can feel out of place or there’s a lack of chemistry between the leads, it could have gone further.

For a remake for something as big as West Side Story, it needed to pull out all the stops are truly show they cared about the product in order to not only win old fans over, but show why a story like that could work in the 2020s, and it looks like it managed to do just that.  At the end of the day, its apples and oranges and it will be up to whoever is watching it; for someone who wants something more theatrical, less gritty, and more of a larger-than-life fantasy tale, the original will be more your style, but for someone wanting something more cinematic, more realistic and more weight and care put into its themes and characters, this is the one for you. This movie still carries some of the flaws of its original and could have improved upon itself more to properly fix its source materials issues, but otherwise, this is a pretty worthy successor. Check it out and see if this is one classical musical you’d like to return to tonight.

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