- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
- Messages
- 66,776
- Real Name
- Ronald Epstein
West Side Story
Special Edition
Studio: MGM/UA
Year: 1961
Rated: NR
Film Length: 152 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (2.20:1)
Subtitles: English, French and Spanish
I knew this would be a very difficult review to
do from the onset. What could I possibly write that
would give proper justice to West Side Story,
the undisputed greatest musical film ever made? Let
me try....
West Side Story transfers Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet to present-day New York.
The love story of Romeo and Juliet becomes that
of Maria and Tony. The feud between the houses of
the Capulets and the Montagues is re-created in
one involving two teen-age gangs, the Jets and
the Sharks. The famous balcony scene of the
Shakespeare drama transpires on a fire-escape of
an ugly New York tenement. The movie is regarded
as one of the best musicals ever filmed thanks
to Jerome Robins' choreography, Leonard Bernstein's
music and Stephen Sondheim's lyrics. The film
went on to win ten Oscars and made Academy Award
history when Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins became
the first, and to date, only co-directors to win
the Oscar for Best Director.
The stage is set in New York’s Upper West Side in
the 1950s, where the area’s slums are plagued by
racial tensions. The main players are Tony (Richard
Beymer), member of the white gang the Jets, and
Maria (Natalie Wood), sister of Bernardo (George
Chakiris), head of the Puerto Rican gang the Sharks.
The Jets feel they've got a right to defend their
turf against newcomers while the Sharks feel themselves
facing an uphill climb against discrimination, wanting
the same opportunities as whites.
There is no doubt that West Side Story is a
cinematic masterpiece. The film's real selling points
are its highly-charged song-and-dance numbers, the
passionate ballads, the moody sets, and the colorful
support from its supporting cast that include Rita
Moreno and Russ Tamblyn. You can't help but be in
awe of the sheer accomplishment of Hollywood talent
that has produced a film so utterly stirring.
Before I talk about the transfer, let me talk a
little about the DVDs new packaging. West Side
Story arrives in what may be MGM's most elaborate
package to date -- an oversized sturdy cardboard
case whose innards slide out to what can best be
described as a bookend sleeve. Inside this sleeve
rests the actual DVD digipack and collector's booklet.
With all the different types of DVD packaging these
days, I easily find myself lost with proper names,
but I believe "digipack" best describes this 4-pane
cardboard packaging that houses the two DVDs in
plastic hub casing. This is not exactly my favorite
kind of packaging, but it does allow for some
beautiful surrounding glossy photographs. A chapter
list is included inside one of the flaps.
This boxed set also contains a collectable scrapbook,
featuring an introduction by screenwriter Ernest
Lehman, a complete working script with revision pages
and song lyrics, rare never-before-seen photos,
letters from director Robert Wise, a reproduction of
the original lobby brochure, a historical timeline
and film reviews from 1961.
How is the transfer?
This is basically the same widescreen transfer
from the original 65mm film elements that we got
on the initial DVD release a few years back. Most
everyone will be satisfied with this nearly perfect
transfer, but being the nit picker that I am, I think
that an all-out restoration from MGM would have
yielded even better results, particularly in ridding
the film of the abnormal amount of speckles and
blemish that are scattered throughout. The original
negative shows signs of aging as well. The print
features some of the richest colors to be found in
any '60s widescreen production (the photographic
process was Super Panavision 70), and all of it is
boldly and vividly reproduced here. Flesh tones
are generally excellent and black levels are deep
enough to give this film nice texture. Best of all,
the 2.20:1 effectively preserves the compositions of
cinematographer Daniel Fapp, who gives us nice wide
open shots of streets, alleys and rooftops.
The box states that this DVD features new 5.1 audio,
but to be honest, I couldn't really determine if it
is any improvement over the original release. This
mix is no great shakes. I didn't notice any distinct
direction of sound (dialogue crosses all three
channels), and the rears don't do a great job of
supporting the film's musical numbers, just merely
adding ambient noise here and there. Audio is quite
strong with dialogue that is distinctly clear. I
would say that the musical numbers come across with
good dynamics, though I was bothered by the sort of
phony sounding dubbing that was added for these tracks.
Let me make a special note (as raised by a member
here) that seconds of a restored Jets "whistle"
can now be heard before a camera pullback from a
chain-line fence following the Tonight ensemble
number.
Special Features
Right off the bat, let me talk about the fact that
this new DVD release contains the first-time-inclusion
the film's original orchestral intermission which has
been remixed and remastered in 5.1. There is no way
you can possibly miss this intermission sequence
because the sound rose so far above the film's
normal audio level that it made me jump out of my
chair. Viewers can opt to play the film with or
without the inclusion of this intermission.
The entire feature resides on Disc One.
Let's take a look at the supplements can be found
on Disc Two...
West Side memories is an all-new 55-minute
documentary filled with new cast and crew interviews
that offers insight into the making of the film. It
begins with the voice of co-director/choreographer
Jerome Robbins who talks about how he came up with
translating Romeo and Juliet to screen in
a modern-day setting complete with Leonard Bernstein's
music. Steven Sondheim, Arthur Laurents and Greg
Lawrence talk about this bold new musical that
was a departure from the normal Fred Astaire/Gene
Kelly musicals, by introducing fresh young faces
who combined contemporary dance style with the
infusion of ballet and jazz. Walter Mirisch and
Robert Wise talk about their individual efforts
and collaborations, while we are shown many great
stills of rehearsals as well as new interviews from
Richard Beymer (Tony), Rita Moreno (Anita) and Russ
Tammblyn (Riff). There are some really cool moments
of raw footage of the cast dancing against the New
York set. Robert Wise was such a stickler at
shooting as many angles as he could, that the cast
often spent a full day dancing on hard street cement.
The New York shoot was only supposed to be two weeks,
but because of the rain, it went over schedule by
two months. The cast didn't care -- they loved being
in the city and even did their own rain dances
(which we see footage of here) to make it rain more.
The documentary then steers into the genius of
Leonard Bernstein's score with some really interesting
words from Jerome Robbins (via a 1960 radio interview).
Rita Moreno talks about how difficult it became to
dance to the jazz-infused music that had such crazy
sets of dance timing. Next up is the film's infamous
"rumble" scene which had to be extremely well
choreographed in order that no-one gets hurt. In a
very rare treat, never-before-seen rehearsal audio
track footage shows how counting was used to properly
coordinate the scene. Next, we hear the tale of a
film that went terribly over budget and a studio that
decided it was time to let the co-director step down.
After more than 60% of the film was shot, Jerome
Robbins was removed from the picture and Robert Wise
finished it with the help of the dance assistants
who already had the rest of the film's numbers well
choreographed. The filmmakers and cast give great
credit to Robbins, citing him as the emotional
centerpiece of the film. Next, we learn about Natalie
Wood and her presence on the set. What is most
surprising to learn here is that she and Richard
Beymer (Tony) didn't get along at all. Beymer touches
a bit upon the actress's coldness towards him. This
featurette also features footage of Natalie Wood's
original recording of I Feel Pretty which
was later replaced with Marni Nixon's voice in
the final version of the film. Fortunately, Natalie
Wood didn't have any major problems with this
last-minute dubbing. In fact, seems like many
of the original cast members had their performances
redubbed, and you'll see various clips of the original
recorded performances before they were retouched.
The featurette then turns to the "marriage" of
Sondheim and Bernstein and how both the lyricist
and composer fed off each other's talents. The
featurette also briefly dwells on production and
set design as well as the film's 1961 Hollywood
premiere and the phenomenon that followed it. This
featurette alone is worth the purchase of this DVD.
Just outstanding!
A short 5-minute Storyboard-to-film comparison
presents a montage of storyboards that dissolve into
the final film footage.
An entire page devoted to Photo Galleries
gives us approximately 230 stills featuring never-
before-seen behind-the-scenes photos, production
design snapshots and storyboard sketches.
Finally, in addition to the film's original
theatrical trailer there are DVD trailers for
Some Like It Hot, Fiddler On The Roof and
The Last Waltz. You also have the ability
to watch the original film intermission in
case you opted not to include it in the playback
of the feature.
Final Thoughts
Since I would expect most anyone that has any
appreciation for one the greatest films ever made
now owns a copy of this DVD, the question is whether
there is worth in repurchasing this new 2-disc
Special Edition that sports the same transfer.
The answer is YES, simply because of the inclusion
of a collector's booklet and terrific supplements
including an outstanding new featurette that shows
you West Side Story as you have never seen
it before.
This is a set to own!
Release Date: April 1, 2003
All screen captures have been further compressed.
They are for illustrative purposes only and do not
represent actual picture quality
