Student Blog: Watching West Side Story on the Big Screen

I've been waiting for this movie since last year and last weekend I went to the movies and it was the best way to start the end of this year. West Side Story is a musical that we've seen everywhere through the years and it's a classic that has a place in our hearts, so as a fan of musicals, watching the remake directed by Steven Spielberg was a great experience from when I saw the first teaser months ago, to the end of the movie with all the emotions that it made me feel.

First of all, I have to say that it's such a beautiful movie. I mean, of course there are scenes that are meant to be eye catching like the music number "America" or "Mambo", where we see the colorful costumes, the bright lights, the amazing choreographies and listen to the iconic songs, but those scenes like the opening number that we see the Jets in this part of the city where buildings have been demolished or when Maria and Tony are in an ordinary church and the background is this gorgeous stained glass window, scenes that are more simple to shoot look as complicated as the other ones and that kept me with the eyes on the screen.

On the other hand, the cast is amazing, I was surprised by how they not just did their job but they also gave they appropriate their characters, specially Ariana DeBose who had to bring a better Anita to the story without ignoring the essence of the original character or her talent and that shows in "America" and "A boy like that", she was my favorite; also Mike Faist that played the bad guy perfectly with his performance as an actor and as a dancer, he really looked like a leader and oh my god he's just amazing. Now talking about the main characters, Rachel Zegler was everything that I wanted to see in Maria, but personally speaking, I enjoy Tony and Maria in their musical numbers so much but I don't really connect with them and find their story a little problematic.

To be honest, West Side Story was never my favorite musical, but this movie made me appreciate more the work behind the music, the lyrics by the one and only Stephen Sondheim, how the story was created: a love story starting modern Romeo and Juliet, situated in the 1950s, showing problems that sadly still exist today's society such as racism, violence, inequality and poverty, but also talk about love and hope through a musical. It has too much drama and I have issues with some things in the story, but the details, the choreography, the art and everything that made musicals have that magic is what I love about this movie. For sure, it was one of my favorite movies of the year and I'm happy that I lived the experience of watching it on the big screen like many people did when the original was released in 1961, but with the difference that the fact that it was a remake didn't matter because it has little changes that fit better with today's audience like the gender swap with some characters or the diversity in the faces that we see through the movie.