How do you remake a classic like “West Side Story?“
Director Steven Spielberg is smart enough to know that you don’t, you update the 1961 musical for the times. Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” with a book by Tony Kushner, is a restatement that fits our era well, which is both its strength and weakness.
However, comparisons to a beloved movie classic are inevitable.
Filmmaking, in terms of cinematography, camera movement and even pacing, are different now than 60 years ago. Also, Jerome Robbins, who helmed the original Broadway stage production, co-directed the first “Story.”
That movie felt more like a stage play; this one feels more like a movie.
The major character change is that instead of Doc, we have Valentina, Doc’s widow (Rita...