unfeathered (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
unfeathered) wrote2025-05-08 11:27 pm
unfeathered) wrote2025-05-08 11:27 pm
Entry tags:
West Side Story 2021 and a (very) belated OMWF revelation
OMG, "Walk Through the Fire" is "Tonight" (the ensemble version) from West Side Story.
This revelation brought to you by me finally catching up with the 'new' (4 year old) movie of WSS tonight, and sitting there going "this feels really familiar, with everyone singing in counterpart and walking purposefully towards the camera - oh wow it's OMWF!
I mean, I probably made the connection way back when I originally saw OMWF but that was, what, 24 years ago (bloody hell) and I've obviously forgotten again in the intervening almost quarter century.
Other things about the new movie:
1. Tony seemed just as wet as in the original film, until they got to "Cool", which I really, really loved. Re-writing it to have Tony singing it to Riff, and then reversing that to Riff singing it to Tony just really worked.
2. I absolutely adore Maria. Wow, that girl can act, and can sing gorgeously as well.
3. Like a lot of modern musicals, the singing feels really underpowered and obviously mimed. It's okay when it's a group singing, but the solos feel very fake. Except Maria. And Anita, actually. She's awesome too. The two of them really were the best thing about this movie.
4. Rita Moreno. Awesome to see her in this version too, and I like the idea of her being Doc's wife, as a nice way of bringing in another female part, and a Latino connection for Tony. Also loved her being the one to sing "Somewhere".
5. I like the idea of Bernardo being a boxer (I'm fairly sure that wasn't part of the original musical?) and I also liked the representation of Chino being the only one who wears glasses and is presumably bookish and outside the actual gang. And Tony's new background as someone who'd been previously convicted for violence. Lots of background that I'm fairly sure wasn't in the original. (I read the script of the original musical quite obsessively as a teenager, though obviously that was a very long time ago!)
6. Anybodys. I couldn't figure out who the character was for AGES, because I knew the character as a girl but this looked like a guy, but once I figured it out, the fact that Anybodys had become a trans man in this version made sense with the modern re-telling. So that was quite well done, but he? they? lost a lot of the lines and interaction with the other Jets that I enjoyed in the original so that was something of a loss.
In summary, I feel this was a better movie than the original. It brought in a lot of context that made it make more sense to a modern day viewer. Pity it took such a long while to get going though.
This revelation brought to you by me finally catching up with the 'new' (4 year old) movie of WSS tonight, and sitting there going "this feels really familiar, with everyone singing in counterpart and walking purposefully towards the camera - oh wow it's OMWF!
I mean, I probably made the connection way back when I originally saw OMWF but that was, what, 24 years ago (bloody hell) and I've obviously forgotten again in the intervening almost quarter century.
Other things about the new movie:
1. Tony seemed just as wet as in the original film, until they got to "Cool", which I really, really loved. Re-writing it to have Tony singing it to Riff, and then reversing that to Riff singing it to Tony just really worked.
2. I absolutely adore Maria. Wow, that girl can act, and can sing gorgeously as well.
3. Like a lot of modern musicals, the singing feels really underpowered and obviously mimed. It's okay when it's a group singing, but the solos feel very fake. Except Maria. And Anita, actually. She's awesome too. The two of them really were the best thing about this movie.
4. Rita Moreno. Awesome to see her in this version too, and I like the idea of her being Doc's wife, as a nice way of bringing in another female part, and a Latino connection for Tony. Also loved her being the one to sing "Somewhere".
5. I like the idea of Bernardo being a boxer (I'm fairly sure that wasn't part of the original musical?) and I also liked the representation of Chino being the only one who wears glasses and is presumably bookish and outside the actual gang. And Tony's new background as someone who'd been previously convicted for violence. Lots of background that I'm fairly sure wasn't in the original. (I read the script of the original musical quite obsessively as a teenager, though obviously that was a very long time ago!)
6. Anybodys. I couldn't figure out who the character was for AGES, because I knew the character as a girl but this looked like a guy, but once I figured it out, the fact that Anybodys had become a trans man in this version made sense with the modern re-telling. So that was quite well done, but he? they? lost a lot of the lines and interaction with the other Jets that I enjoyed in the original so that was something of a loss.
In summary, I feel this was a better movie than the original. It brought in a lot of context that made it make more sense to a modern day viewer. Pity it took such a long while to get going though.