We’ve just come home from seeing West Side Story at our beautiful classic Star Cinema in Launceston. We were trying to work out when we saw the original and, going on when it was first released in Sydney (1962) we reckon it was close to 60 years ago. But what an impression this movie made on us then! We saw it more than once and each time we were elated when we left the theatre, singing the songs and copying the dance moves.
This latest version is every bit as good and makes you wonder why Spielberg bothered to make it. Reading the reviews of it in the press, it is not achieving the sort of attendance figures that might be expected. Some reviewers are saying that people are going off remakes but I suspect that 60 years is just a bit too much time between one version and the next.
This version is darker than the original; the storyline is essentially the same but the violence is more intense and it’s that which sticks in your mind when you leave the theatre. When we emerged into the daylight back in 1962 or 3, our heads were filled with the music and the dancing and the joy of being alive. Today, we had the images of the shooting and the stabbing and the violence. Maybe it’s just me but I’m sorry now that I tampered with those wonderful memories.
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