6/23/2023 0 Comments Anita west side story rita moreno![]() The original film's heightened reality draws the material back to the source of Romeo and Juliet, showcasing this story's roots and embracing the doomed tragic love story. These choices both serve to highlight a certain element of the story. The original film is embracing its roots as a stage show, while the remake wants to imagine it as realistically as possible. The gang violence is more visceral in the remake, giving both the Jets and the Sharks a sense of danger as opposed to the more choreographed playful nature of the original film which fits its more artificial design choice. The colors are worn and washed out, yet still able to pop in key scenes, typically to showcase Tony and Maria's love for one another. The 2021 remake instead goes for a bleaker more broken-down aesthetic. ![]() As mentioned earlier this extends from the casting but also to other aesthetic choices. The 2021 West Side Story, while vibrantly painting the songs and dance numbers, opts for a more grounded realism. This also becomes a clever bit of characterization, as it ties into Anita's desire to further integrate into America by reminding both Bernardo and Maria to speak English, laying the groundwork for her big expression of the American dream in the song 'America' and how tragic her disdain for the country will be following her assault. Spielberg allows the Puerto Rican characters to shift from English to Spanish but opts out of subtitles, allowing them to exist as they are without the need for explanation. For the 2021 remake, Spielberg cast the Sharks with all Latino performers to give a greater emphasis on authenticity. In the original film, actor Rita Moreno was the sole Puerto Rican performer in the cast, and even still her skin was darkened, like her white co-stars who were cast to play Puerto Ricans, and was told to put on a thicker accent. One of the biggest differences between the 1961 West Side Story and Steven Spielberg's recent remake is the casting, more specifically, the casting process. How does a movie made in 2021 by one of the greatest living filmmakers, who has been making films for six decades, compare to one of the most iconic films of all time, and how do the various stylistic choice inform this story of two young lovers doomed to tragedy. While the film was not the same box office sensation as the original and was considered a bomb, it received rave reviews from critics and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning Best Supporting Actress for Ariana DeBose in the same role that Rita Moreno won for.īoth versions of West Side Story serve as an interesting exploration of how various creative decisions can alter, change and sometimes keep similar the same story. ![]() The film starred Rachael Ziegler, Ansel Elgort, Ariana DeBose, Mike Faist, and David Alvarez. In 2021, after being delayed a whole year due to the COVID-19 pandemic Steven Spielberg's version of West Side Story opened in theaters. The one filmmaker who could get away with remaking a timeless classic is Steven Spielberg, often regarded as one of the greatest directors ever. It is often regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time and is a classic, so remaking it was always a daunting task. The film was a box office hit, becoming the highest-grossing film in 1961 and was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning all but one of them and walking away with the Best Picture win that year. The film starred Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Marano, Russ Tamblyn, and George Chakiris. The musical opened on Broadway in 1957 and was eventually adapted into the iconic 1961 film with Robbins co-directing alongside Robert Wise. Conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by the legendary Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by a then relatively new Stephen Sondheim, and a musical book by Arthur Laurents, the story is a modern reimagining of William Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet, set in the upper West Side of New York in the 1950s with a conflict between two rival street gangs, the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. West Side Story is one of the most popular musicals of all time. ![]()
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