The original West Side Story was a favorite of mine - and still is - but this documentary told me too much about Rita Moreno - and not in a good way. I lost respect and admiration for her in the face of her advanced egotism coupled with her continuous need to speak ill of others and play the victim. The documentary's format of focusing the camera straight-on at her talking endlessly doesn't help matters, much less involve the audience in a meaningful way.
Ms. Moreno is unceasingly self-involved and manages to say something gratuitously negative about virtually every important man in her life. She had an eight year long love affair with Brando, then accused him of 'forcing' her to have an abortion and continues to portray herself throughout as a helpless victim - of both him and the Hollywood system. Really? You can't have it both ways - winner of the EGOT yet a hapless, naive victim.
Perhaps even more egregious and difficult to watch was her unabashed defilement of her late husband, Lenny. Ms. Moreno was married for 35 years to a man who loved her passionately and was utterly devoted to her and her career by any measure (or so it appears) - yet in the documentary, she claims (unprompted) that she didn't love him and was never happy because he was controlling. Once again, she claims status as a victim - for 35 years? Shameful to say about someone who is no longer here and who did everything possible to help her career (by her own admission).
It seems that she finds it necessary to tear down any man who was important and contributed to her life, leaving herself as the sole responsible person for whatever success she had.
All in all, this film was hardly a documentary but rather a too-long paean to an attention-crazed egotist who seems to have little empathy and no regard for others' feelings - nor respect for the dead.
Ms. Moreno is unceasingly self-involved and manages to say something gratuitously negative about virtually every important man in her life. She had an eight year long love affair with Brando, then accused him of 'forcing' her to have an abortion and continues to portray herself throughout as a helpless victim - of both him and the Hollywood system. Really? You can't have it both ways - winner of the EGOT yet a hapless, naive victim.
Perhaps even more egregious and difficult to watch was her unabashed defilement of her late husband, Lenny. Ms. Moreno was married for 35 years to a man who loved her passionately and was utterly devoted to her and her career by any measure (or so it appears) - yet in the documentary, she claims (unprompted) that she didn't love him and was never happy because he was controlling. Once again, she claims status as a victim - for 35 years? Shameful to say about someone who is no longer here and who did everything possible to help her career (by her own admission).
It seems that she finds it necessary to tear down any man who was important and contributed to her life, leaving herself as the sole responsible person for whatever success she had.
All in all, this film was hardly a documentary but rather a too-long paean to an attention-crazed egotist who seems to have little empathy and no regard for others' feelings - nor respect for the dead.