West Side Story

And Speaking Spanish In Prison

Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’s “West Side Story” is one of my favorite movies of all-time. We’re running out of movies to remake (unless we remake movies a second, third or fourth time, which actually was once the norm in the top half of the 20th century), so you’d have to have some major cojones to tackle a movie like this. Major cojones seem like this might be a job for Steven Spielberg, but even when he attached himself to this project, I was skeptical.

Normally you should be weary of something twice removed. As great as the original “West Side Story” is, it is also a reworking of Romeo and Juliet. Spielberg is many things to many moviegoers, but he’s no dope, he knows this. His rendition of the classic musical somewhat minimalizes the love story between Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria (Rachel Zegler), the better to focus on the supporting characters, the atmosphere, and of course the song and dance. It’s a gamble. Again, however: cojones.

“West Side Story”, the 2021 version, hums and whistles, it hits and parries. It doesn’t have the dynamic colors of the original, or the cleaner choreography between the two movies. But it has the faces, it has the bodies. Spielberg doesn’t let you forget what’s at stake, he centers the gravity of this tale in a way the original film didn’t. His redo is ultimately a relic polished, but it feels urgent, every hand clapped, every toe tapped. Some movies skillfully capture the moment. Some movies perform the harder task, they transport you. This movie transports.

Tony Kushner was behind the screenplay this time, though he doesn’t change the fundamentals of Tony, the wayward, dangerous Jet and Maria, the delicate flower of the Sharks. This was the film’s toughest challenge, given the magnetism of Richard Beymer and the gorgeous Natalie Wood. Zegler is a darling, but her presence feels smaller than Wood – this revised edition makes her stronger, but she’s never as intense as Wood came across (though part of that probably has to do with Wood being older than Zegler during their respective productions). It’s a fine performance, but it doesn’t linger. Elgort, meanwhile, doesn’t have terribly big shoes to fill, as Beymer was one of the less-lauded elements of that first film. But he’s introduced as having previously punched a man to death, earning himself one year in prison he’s just completed. As someone who has been in prison, Ansel Elgort? Yeah, nope.

Ariana DeBose earned a well-deserved Oscar for her work here as Anita, and she is the film’s heart. She is powerful, funny, flirty and an incredible dancer, and you’d almost feel bad that when she’s onscreen with Zegler, you can’t stop watching her. Also impressing is this fiery young firebrand I later learned was up-and-comer Mike Faist, who has become familiar via “Challengers”. He’s wiry, wormy, slimy as Riff, Tony’s brother and a problem child just desperate to start beef with the Sharks. As soon as he struts onscreen, easily lifting scenes from under Elgort’s arm, you spot a self-destructive spirit. He is the film’s Chekov’s gun.

The most dramatic change from the source material is the new role accommodating the presence of the luminous Rita Moreno. One of the most beautiful women of all time, the elderly Moreno is absolutely lovely here as Valentina, a shop owner who has known these gangs since they were little kids. She has delicate and emotional moments as Tony’s confidante, her shop a no-man’s-land in this ongoing turf war. But it is the violence of the third act that gives her a moment to be proactive, taking these little troublemakers to task for their pathological need for bloodlust and revenge. It is as if Valentina briefly remembers her time as Maria, and what happened in another life. Most other filmmakers would honor Moreno with some tacky cameo, or she’d get a goofy joke. Spielberg uses her as a pivotal character, the beating heart of the movie, and a walking critique of the faults found in the earlier film, not faults found today but ones that have always existed — the grotesque masculinity, the false, weightless violence. If you love the earlier film, that’s got to give you goosebumps.

One of the pivotal elements in this film is the casting of Latino actors in place of white men and women in tanned makeup. Personally, as a Puerto Rican, obviously I appreciate this a great deal. A key creative decision made by Spielberg was to avoid using subtitles for the Spanish language discussions in the movie, some that go on for a couple minutes at a time. This is such a powerful choice in that it forces viewers to acknowledge these Puerto Ricans are American, just an American maybe they don’t understand, Though the passion within the performances, the viewer can understand what is being said. And if they struggle, then they just have to lean forward.

This makes me think of the language issues in prison. In my first federal institutions, you had a few guards who spoke Spanish. Other languages, maybe not, but there was a heavy Hispanic and Latino population among officials, ensuring prisoners who spoke Spanish had someone to ask questions and request help. The Spanish-speaking warden should have helped too, but that particular person ignored myself and my family when I demanded they give me surgery for my broken jaw.

My second location was more distant, closer to “small town America”. There, you had maybe one official who was actually Black, and he never interacted with the other guards and almost never crossed paths with the inmates. As far as officers speaking Spanish, that wasn’t happening. They barely spoke English. I remember one guard who had to disperse the mail asking the rest of us if one of us spoke Spanish just to read the names off the envelopes, because I guess “Gonzalez” and “Ruiz” were words beyond his ken. There was no effort to ensure a bilingual atmosphere, and as such inmates who spoke limited English were ignored, forgotten and anonymous. And it was clear from some of the officials with whom I spoke that they hadn’t begun to consider all the guards were white while most of the inmates were minorities. A little DEI goes a long way, but simply mentioning that to the current government might just earn me a second prison term.

Next week, a surprise! To honor the incoming administration, we’re doing TWO STRAIGHT WEEKS of BAD TASTE! Join me as we go deep deep deep into the caves of Intentionally Poor Choices!