Movie Stats:
Released 1961 (USA)
American, in English (very minimal non-translated Spanish)
Directors – Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise
Stars – Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, George Chakiris, Russ
Tamblyn
Plot Summary:
Basically, it’s Romeo & Juliet, set circa 1950s NYC,
with singing & dancing. Wood and Beymer play star-crossed lovers Maria
& Tony. Chakiris plays Bernardo, Maria’s brother & leader of the Sharks
(the Puerto Rican gang). Tamblyn plays Riff, Tony’s best friend & leader of
the Jets (the Irish/Italian [?] gang).
Bad Stuff:
When a gang spends most of a movie dancing around and
singing, I have a really hard time taking them seriously. I just don’t find
that particularly intimidating or bad ass.
I felt like there was a lot of “people doing dumb stuff
because the plot called for it.” Maybe that’s because I didn’t take either gang
seriously. I just didn’t see the motivation for a lot of what most characters
did beyond “it was in the script.”
Too long. I make that complaint a lot, don’t I? It’s because
a lot of these Oscar winners are too damn long.
Good Stuff:
I think I fell in love with Rita Moreno, who played
Bernardo’s girlfriend Anita, during her first song, “America.” She was so
sassy! I really liked her character.
All of the women’s costumes were fantastic.
I really enjoyed most of the song & dance routines. I
didn’t like the lyrics of “Cool” very much, but the dance routine was great. I
loved the dance routine in the gym.
The Verdict:
I’d never seen this before, so I was surprised to learn how
many of the songs I knew. I had no idea they were all from this one film.
I liked it significantly more than I was expecting to. I thought
the opening sequence, where there was almost no speaking, was really well done.
I liked practically everything about the film. I didn’t even mind that it was a
rehash of Romeo & Juliet. Up until the point that people started dying, I
thought it was pretty fun. It was just too long. I started to doze off by the
end.
Regardless of that, I give the movie 4 stars.
Okay! Think about how long this movie is, right? And then think about if when you watched it, it was during a Public TV pledge drive. And then think about how long it gets when you add in pledge drive breaks. AND THEN think about how it would be if the pledge drive people refused to show the last 30 minutes of the movie until they had met their fundraising goal. That was my first experience watching this movie. So. Damn. Long.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it's not surprising that I'm so-so about this, as a film and a musical. The songs I either like (Officer Krupkie, America) or hate (That damn "there's a place for us" one is too slow.) I think the dancing is awesome, but I just don't really like the plot. It's more fun to see live and done by high school students, but it's not done so much anymore because some people find the portrayal of Puerto Ricans offensive.
Haha. Well, I didn't have to endure a telethon at the same time, and I nearly fell asleep during it as well. I hope "Lawrence of Arabia" is a heck of a lot more exciting because it's nearly 4 hours long (DEAR GOD).
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about it earlier and what I meant to say, very inarticulately in my post, is that the characters had no real development. I think that's what bugged me the most.