This movie summarizes everything that was great and everything that was rotten with mainstream white society in the 50s and early 60s.
Sure, the music is great in WSS. There is dancing and singing. Romance and action. Drama and tragedy. This is a movie about the American dream, about immigration, discrimination and the issues that foreigners faced. There is a sort of unbridled and innocent passion with which this movie celebrates American culture. West Side Story (1961): Classic, perhaps. But timeless?
Looking under the glitz and Hollywood glamour, behind the curtain, you start to notice how artificial and contrived this production was. You notice that out of the dozen or so Puerto Ricans characters, perhaps 2 or 3 were actually played by Latinos. The rest were just white actors with silly putty on their face using bad accents. I noticed other peculiar flaws. As talented as Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer may have been, why did they need voice doubles during the singing? Of course, half of these high school students are played by mid to late 20-something actors, but oh well, that's to be expected even today.
In the end, the film just comes off as plastic and white-washed to me. This was a movie about white Americans and Latino Americans, but it was made by white Americans for white Americans. This was a movie that sheltered, middle-class Americans could watch to make themselves feel 'multicultural' in the 60s.
WSS is sweet, pure, innocent and enjoyable, but also synthetic and naive.
Sure, the music is great in WSS. There is dancing and singing. Romance and action. Drama and tragedy. This is a movie about the American dream, about immigration, discrimination and the issues that foreigners faced. There is a sort of unbridled and innocent passion with which this movie celebrates American culture. West Side Story (1961): Classic, perhaps. But timeless?
Looking under the glitz and Hollywood glamour, behind the curtain, you start to notice how artificial and contrived this production was. You notice that out of the dozen or so Puerto Ricans characters, perhaps 2 or 3 were actually played by Latinos. The rest were just white actors with silly putty on their face using bad accents. I noticed other peculiar flaws. As talented as Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer may have been, why did they need voice doubles during the singing? Of course, half of these high school students are played by mid to late 20-something actors, but oh well, that's to be expected even today.
In the end, the film just comes off as plastic and white-washed to me. This was a movie about white Americans and Latino Americans, but it was made by white Americans for white Americans. This was a movie that sheltered, middle-class Americans could watch to make themselves feel 'multicultural' in the 60s.
WSS is sweet, pure, innocent and enjoyable, but also synthetic and naive.