West Side Story (1961)
Directed by Jerome Robbins
In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.
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What critics compared West Side Story to
What it was at the time was, ironically, a more realistic take on gangs compared to the likes of 1961’s West Side Story, a simplistic narrative with a narrow focus told in the vein of a comic book or pulp novel.
But in spite of the film taking a more West Side Story approach to depicting gang violence as opposed to Gangs Of New York , there is something compelling about these urban kids not just engaging in a fight for their survival but the inherent tragedy when it appears that not all of them will make it.
"Clockwork Orange and West Side Story," he states succinctly.
Già segnalatosi negli anni precedenti con L’eroe della Strada e Driver l’imprendibile , di essenziale eleganza formale in quel loro disegno rigorosamente deterministico di personaggi dalla «vita violenta», il regista giungeva infine nel 1979 alla sua opera più compiuta e più matura, senza nulla perdere di quella sua strenua riflessione sulla violenza, qui emblematizzata in moduli narrativi che ora assumono il ritmo e i toni di un drammatico musical (quasi un aggiornato West Side Story , per intenderci), ora le asprezze realistiche di un torvo scorcio di ‘notti brave’ (completamente estraneo peraltro alla compiaciuta ambiguità dell’ Arancia meccanica di Stanley Kubrick).
It’s as if the dancers from West Side Story have walked onto the set of a Shane Black movie.
The natural comparisons will pour in for “Singin’ in the Rain,” “West Side Story” and just about any other big time movie musical you can think of.
“La La Land” is long way from “West Side Story” or “Cabaret” — two great (determinedly tragic) musicals that this film tries to emulate.
The sentiment has the audacity to compare writer/director Chazelle's millenial charmer LA LA LAND to actually amazing musicals, presumably in the realm of West Side Story, The King and I, Grease, and even Chicago.
There is, to be sure, plenty of fancy footwork at the outset — starting with that traffic-stopping overture, “Another Day of Sun,” which puts its own L.A. spin on the sweeping outdoor ballet popularized by the likes of “Rochefort” and “West Side Story.”
El director ha convertido una premisa bastante simple en una tremenda experiencia para todos los sentidos, que constantemente te hace recordar y viajar a los tiempos de musicales clásicos como Singin’ In the Rain, Grease, Les demoiselles of Rochefort, West Side Story y hasta Moulin Rouge!
It seems inconceivable that we’ll have a sustained period of musicals on the big screen that can equate to the era between and including West Side Story and Cabaret.
It also gets you reminiscing about how great musicals can be: "Singin' in the Rain," "West Side Story," "An American in Paris," etc.
From the Robert Wise-style opening (obviously inspired by the openings of West Side Story and The Sound of Music) with gorgeous aerial shots of Chicago, Source Code presents a refreshing new idea for time warp movies.
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That earlier Bill Murray hit gets multiple references as Mark (Kyle Allen, also in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming “West Side Story” remake) goes through a rewinded day over and over until Margot (Kathryn Newton, “Big Little Lies”) drops in on his routine.
The camera alongside with him as he slides through the neighborhood with the dexterity of a dancer in “La La Land” (not for nothing is the spindly actor next set to appear in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story”).
Which is befitting of someone who’s about to be seen dancing through gangland warfare in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story .
Both of them — but especially Allen (who is set to appear in the upcoming West Side Story remake) — bring a charisma to their friendship that makes it feel authentic.
By the time the Channel 4 team faces off in a West Side Story -style rumble with the city's other news teams -- a deliriously funny sequence that includes a death by trident -- you know you've fully entered a world that prizes over-the-top silliness above all else.
It's a movie with a few golden moments of out-loud hilarity (a "West Side Story" rumble between rival on-location news teams), with a healthy disrespect for the superficiality of local TV journalism (a pregnant panda is "the big story of the summer!"), and with a number of good laughs that don't translate well to print (Ferrell getting sex advice from his dog).
A scene that begins as a cute take-off on West Side Story quickly escalates into what can only be described as Battle of the Network Cameos.
Whether it's the news team breaking into song or getting involved in a "West Side Story"-inspired rumble with the other local newsmen ( Vince Vaughn , Luke Wilson, Tim Robbins and Ben Stiller in a short but sweet cameo), the foursome is funnier together than apart.
Their first encounter could very well be an homage to West Side Story, with the boy and the girl from different backgrounds meeting at a dance.
Dauntless are the warrior/protectors — reminiscent somehow of the Jets and Sharks from “West Side Story,” they are pierced and tattooed and dress in black — while the folks in Abnegation are known for their selfless charity.
But Tris can’t bring herself to stay subjugated within Abnegation, jumping to Dauntless at the last minute, where she meets Four (Theo James), goes through a series of tests/training in her new futuristic variation on the Sharks from “West Side Story”, and makes new friends and enemies.
"Divergent" takes place in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where all citizens are forced to join "West Side Story" factions by taking a cyberpunk mash-up of the Myers-Briggs personality test and an electric-blue Kool-Aid acid trip.
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In a performance that suggests Anybodys in a dinner-theater production of West Side Story, Kyra Sedgwick plays a tomboy forklift operator whose tough talk breaks through Bacon's somnambulant bubble.
"Grease" is primarily a nostalgic, romanticized, fanaticized tribute to the 1950s, a gentle spoofing of the era, with a little parody of "West Side Story" along the way.
It's kind of West Side Story with different music and a happy ending.