DVD Review HTF REVIEW: "West Side Story" Special edition (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Peter Kline]

This is certainly one of my favorite musicals, although it has what I consider two major flaws. Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer. Beymer is terribly wooden in his acting, and Natalie gives it a good try but seems out of place at times. It's the secondary roles that shine: George Chakiras, Rita Moreno (they won Oscars), Russ Tamblyn and the rest of the supporting cast. All in all I'm looking forward to the new DVD.

 

[Eric Peterson]

I don't consider myself a big musical fan, but there are several that I'm a pretty big fan of, (My Fair Lady, Chicago, & Moulin Rouge come to mind) but I really disliked this film. I just watched it about six months ago, and just didn't get it.

I didn't think there was any chance, that I'd buy this, but this super SE is making me think twice and might pick it up and give it another whirl.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Singin' In The Rain actually did great at the box office. Only problem was that it was a financial success, but didn't really stick as a classic at the time...

 

[Jake Lipson]

I actulally have a funny story regarding this release. Here's a reprint of that from the thread I started when I got wind of the announcement.

In the last few months, I've almost become sick of West Side Story from repeated viewings; I'd seen it in music class in sixth grade and a couple times via Blockbuster, and while no rentings were within a few months, I remembered it vividly enough to almost recite it at that point. Then a few months back I saw the high school do a theatrical performance, and we watched it in music (a different class than before) shortly afterword. And yet, becoming so sick of it made me love it all the more, and I despaired when I found out I couldn't own a copy because MGM had pulled it OOP. This prompted me to request it in Peter's 'MGM wants you' request thread at the DVDFile boards.

That was a while ago, but I continued to dream on as West Side Story became the most popular title we watched in music (everyone was actulally paying attention to it!), but eventually figured it will never happen. It'd be reissued sometime, maybe with an anamorphic transfer if we're lucky, but nothing extravagant. If I wanted it before then I'd just have to head to ebay, half.com or Amazon's used sellers. I wanted to go get one just then, but this was dead in the middle of the November DVD rush, and I'd have to wait until I had considerable money cause this one would be going fast for a lot of dough. So I put it out of my mind and drooled over the new DVDs I had at the time.

So here I was a few months later pulling up DVDFile's main pages. I see the headline "MGM, Warner musicals," and, not expecting much, click it just to skim. Imagine my delighted shock and immidate suprised-happy scream when I see my dream West Side Story set listed for release on April 1st.

So here I am a few months after that writing, and Ron has just confirmed that this set is exactly what I always dreamed it would be, so consider me sold on it. The only thing I can imagine that would improve it would be a Robert Wise commentary track; the commentary he did for The Sound of Music was exellent. Speaking of The Sound of Music: as great as West Side Story is, I must throw in my two cents that The Sound of Music stands as the greatest musical adaptation of all time in my opinion. That is of course until Warner gets its act together and actulally uses the rights to The Phantom of the Opera, which they've held for a long time (if I'm not mistaken,, they even had an ad run that promised its release in 1991) and somebody does a Les Miserables adaptation.

 

[Rob Ray]

The only reason Singin' in the Rain didn't sweep the Oscars in 1952 is that it had the unfortunate luck to come out immediately after all the Oscar hoopla surrounding "An American in Paris". It was perceived as "An American in Paris II" because it was another Gene Kelly project with another overlong (terrific -- but overlong) ballet sequence. Academy voters probably felt that voting for "Singin' in the Rain" would be too redundant in the year following "An American in Paris'" surprising dark horse victory. Plus, Paris' ballet was more pretentious and Rain's was considered "low-brow" by comparison. It was only a few years later that everyone realized that the Academy had given the Best Picture award to the wrong film.

 

[jeffrey_WIN]

And who knew that Beymer and Tamblyn would end up working together 25 years later on Twin Peaks???!!!

 

[Greg_M]

Yeah, Rob, Academy voters didn't want to honor "Singing the Rain" because it was too much like "An American in Paris" so they by passed it in favor of "The Greatest Show on Earth" now there's a real classic

I'm sure SITR would have collected a few more nominations if that was the case, "Chicago" has 13, while "Moulin Rogue" was nominated just last year. And we can't forget the back to back win's for "My Fair Lady" Sound of Music (not to mention all the "Mary Poppins" nominations.)

SITR was one of those films which became popular due to television airings just like "Wizard of Oz, "Willy Wonka" (A major Box-office flop at time of release) and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"

 

[Richard Gilmore]

Also the new edition of "Singin in the Rain" has great PQ. A shame they didn't give us a new restoration for WSS. This is a film that deserves the Gold Glove treatment. The packaging and extras make it worth a purchase however.

 

[Mark_vdH]

Thanks for the review.
I've never seen it, but I've pre-ordered it at Amazon.ca.

Usually I don't mind, but with a nice collector's set like this...: Does MGM have bilingual covers in Canada?

 

[DeeF]

The Ultra Resolution process which was used for Singin' in the Rain might be useful for restoring more recent movies, but I believe our technology needs to advance before Lowry can do this kind of work to 70mm sources. Singin' in the Rain was digitally restored using 2K resolution, already a smaller resolution than exists on 35mm film. Lowry has an office filled to the brim with Mac G4 computers, all working overtime on a small piece of a movie like Singin' in the Rain or Sunset Boulevard.

West Side Story and other 70mm movies have huge, huge negatives. 4K resolution might not be enough to restore this film, and the Ultra Resolution actually stores three separate digital files, from the seps.

I'm not anyone with authority, but I think it just isn't possible, right now, to restore these movies the way Singin' in the Rain was restored. Perhaps in the near future...

 

[Jon_W]

I have the original MGM veriosn of WSS and am always impressed with the picture. The colours are amazing and the print defects never take away from my viewing enjoyment. I do find DVD "restorations" to be good things, however I think we can have too many good things. I have to admit I find the transfers of Cleopatra and Lawrence of Arabia to be more enjoyble visually then Doctor Zhivago or North By Northwest because they do not look so fake. These restorations in the digital realm should not be used unless they really need to be. Film and especially older film will always and dare I say should always have "defects". Clearly, if the problems are so distracting that they take away from the enjoyment of the film then that is not a good thing. All this is not to say that a new transfer and or print should not have been made but lets not complain for the sake of complaning. Anyway, great review Ron and I plan to pick this up. Although I would have loved to of heard a Wise commentary.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Usually I don't mind, but with a nice collector's set like this...: Does MGM have bilingual covers in Canada?

MGM's US and Canada packaging are identical on everything AFAIK.

 

[Marty M]

WSS was on TCM a couple of nights ago and I thought that the missing whistle on the current DVD was also missing in the print shown on TCM. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Brian W.]

WSS was on TCM a couple of nights ago and I thought that the missing whistle on the current DVD was also missing in the print shown on TCM. Can anyone confirm this?

I can't confirm it, but that's probably true -- I saw it theatrically about four years ago, and the Jet whistle was missing from that print, too, which presumably used the original 5.1 remix.

 

[GarySI]

Screw the technical mumbo jumbo. I maybe an A/V junkie but now I've started to do the Jet dance in the living room again. "Hey Officer...." I can't wait.

 

[Florian B]

Hi.
Another wonderful review for a wonderful film, Ron.

Just wanted to let you all know DVDSoon is offering this package for CAD$22.98 or US$15.59.

 

[DeeF]

I've watched this disk.

I'm sorry to report, I'm a little disappointed.

The "optional" intermission did not work on my disk. Bad disk, or bad programming? I don't know. The actual intermission music does appear on the 2nd disk, though, and it is simply a version of "I Feel Pretty." Where does the intermission actually go? The group of us watching the movie all debated this. In the show, the intermission is after the rumble, and before "I Feel Pretty," but that could be different in the movie.

2nd disappointment: the movie seems to have sync problems, just a very slight audio out-of-sync. I put in the old WSS story DVD, and the syncing was perfect.

3rd disappointment: the making of documentary wasn't terribly illuminating. We did learn that Robbins was basically fired, that Tucker Smith did the dubbing for Russ Tamblyn, and that Natalie Wood's singing wasn't really up to par. And Sondheim took credit for the switching of the placement of the two songs, "Cool" and "Officer Krupke." Otherwise, the documentary wasn't much, and they didn't include anything with George Chakiris, even though he appeared on the Oscars this year!

The packaging is quite nice.

Overall, if you've bought the older disk, I wouldn't run out and replace it.

 

[Jefferson]

i appreciate your comments,
but i never pick bare bones release
over one with extras...just me.

 

[Greg_M]

MGM could have recorded a comentary with the surviving cast members (Most showed up at the recent 40th anniversay screening) Like the one Warner Bros did for "Willy Wonka"

There was never a planned intermission. Robert Wise gave theaters an option to include one if they wished. There are two natural fade breaks halfway through the film to do this: When Tony leaves Doc's candy store after the war counicl scene as he whistle's "Maria" and after the reprise of "tonight"

The original Roadshow didn't use either break, and I'm wondering where the "intermission" music really comes from.

 

[Jefferson]

I am sure it comes from the original prerecording sessions. Perhaps recorded in anticipation of an intermission that kinda/sorta never was?