Maria. Click once to enlarge all still photos by Paul Goldfinger from the streaming film.
Tony and Maria. Paul Goldfinger. Click once to enlarge.
Paul Goldfinger photo from the streaming film . Click once.
Paul Goldfinger still photofrom the streaming video. Click once.
Paul Goldfinger still image. Click once.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Blogfinger.net May, 2025.
The original WSS was based on Romeo and Juliet. In 1957 the musical/drama stage show premiered. Leonard Bernstein was the composer, and Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics. Sondheim at first resisted the task because he really wanted to be the composer. But his friend Oscar Hammerstein II persuaded him to do it, and that opened a large door for Sondheim’s future..
In 1961, the movie opened and was successful.
But Hollywood later dreamed of redoing the original film, and Steven Spielberg happily accepted the assignment even though he had never done a musical film. These days, musicals are rarely seen.
In 2019 filming began on the Spielberg version, and it opened in New York in 2021.
Movie buffs including we-the-people in Ocean Grove grew tired of hoping to see widespread distribution and then streaming. Later the film received 7 “Oscar” nominations. Finally Stephen and I discovered that Amazon was streaming West Side Story, and this week we were able to buy it on Amazon, and WOW what a beautiful and marvelous film! Technically the filming and directing are magnificent. Especially if you have seen the prior stage show and/or the movie from over 50 years ago. And there is, or course, the original music, and the choreography which was re-done now, and it is spectacular.: music and filmmaking.
There are many professional movie reviews out there, and most love the film with some minor criticisms of various aspects. Some think that this version is even better than the original:
“They don’t make movies like this anymore.”
“Dazzling, & truly a throwback to old classic.”
Roger Ebert. “There’s so much beauty in this West Side Story. It merges things that have truly shaped pop culture from the graceful precision of Spielberg—who has always had a musical director’s eye in terms of how he choreographs his scenes—to the masterful songwriting of Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernsteinto the brilliant writing of Tony Kushner to the immigrant experience in this country. It grabs you from the very beginning and takes you there. Somehow, someday, somewhere.”
At the Goldfinger house both Stephen (a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts ) and I ( a graduate of the Blogfinger Off-Shore School of Medicine) loved this revision. The best word is “spectacular.” I obtained some still images wanting to see how I would do against the cinematography of this WSS.
I came in a distant second, but photography as I experience it here is about so much more than just picture taking, and I try to capture the essence by freezing movie moments. Seeing still images after watching the movie is a bit different experience.
As of the overall drama of the story, it is classic, but this version recreates that past with powerful story-telling and movie making.
I looked at it to see if there are any 21st century aspects, and I found that in the “immigrant experience” themes. The Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, had a nationalistic framework which colored all of their everyday life including language, customs, family, work ethic, romance, morals, and willingness to accept and seek the American melting pot and the quest to become Americans.
The Jets have no such nationalistic framework. They are just poverty stricken American street-thugs, albeit romanticized by the singing and dancing. They don’t seem to have much in the way of desiring to be Americans. Some of them were named as Italian or Polish, but the Jets’ particular rough-hewn street life is what has evolved for them. They are just devoid of any specific sense of who they are and what they might accomplish in America the beautiful.
I think the Sharks are more “first generation” compared to the Jets, but perhaps they have more to hope for and more of a sense of becoming Americans as I saw in my family. And their successes are destined to be better than the Jets.
And now, 2025, this country has to contend with many sorts of divisions involving immigrants based on nationality, imported goals and customs, religion, race, legality, etc. And it seems to me that not all of new immigrants are on track to become Americanized. So the Sharks and the Jets must find their way and such paths can go in a variety of directions.
In reality, America is now mostly populated by immigrants or descendants of immigrants whose families came here to become Americans. That is true of my family. But the new immigrants? Who knows? Especially if they have defied our laws and arrived with a narrow and tightened view of what to expect.
And the film shows a harsh contrast between these two immigrant groups, and to view it as merely a love story/musical is to miss some important themes to think about, and despite its long duration, West Side Story still reveals concerns about what it means to become an American especially if it involves climbing out of poverty, and we should pay more attention to that phase of immigration in 2025.
From the movie soundtrack: