UHD Review A Few Words About While we wait for a few words about...™ West Side Story (2021) -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[trajan007]

Any rumors when we can expect the 4k?

 

[TravisR]

Any rumors when we can expect the 4k?

I assume we'll hear something in the next few weeks because I'm sure the disc will be out by March at the latest.

 

[Bill Huelbig]

Thank you!

Yes, those Columbia gatefolds were wonderful. I was 10 when I first saw West Side Story in 1978 and I wanted the soundtrack, so I borrowed it from my local library - it was in a gatefold cover that contained a synopsis of the plot, making of the film, and several black and white stills.

Imagine my surprise when I went to purchase it at a record store only to find that by then Columbia had re-issued it in a non-gatefold sleeve.

Well, I was having none of that, so I scoured the city's used record stores to find an original 1961 issued copy with the gatefold sleeve which I happily found and purchased. I still have that copy.

View attachment 124148

Thanks so much for posting this. I haven't seen it for many years. My family's copy of the vinyl album got lost over the years, and the CD didn't include this material. I was 6 when the movie came out and we got the album, and I can't tell you how many times I read these essays and looked at these pictures. Didn't actually see the movie until I was 8, after the roadshow engagements ended and it played in neighborhood theaters. It's still my third favorite movie of all time, after 2001 and Citizen Kane.

I enjoyed the 2021 version very much, but it's hard to ignore the love I've had for the 1961 version for 60 years.

 

[roxy1927]

The 2021 is very good and surprising in many ways until after the rumble when the tension should soar. Two of the most powerful scenes in the '61 film are the attempted rape of Anita which here goes for very little compared to the very humiliating sickening torture of Moreno and then the ending goes for nothing. Beymer is convulsing as he is dying while Ansel is smiling. And how could anyone come close to Wood's agony and rage? And the spaces are so large. People in NY would die for Bernardo's apartment. That's damn large for NY. Boris Leven keeps everything very cramped in the '61 film. One of huge NY's great ironies. Maybe the irony of all great cities. Spielberg has clearly never been in a tenement apartment which now in many places in the city go for thousands a month. People's living rooms are the size of Maria's bedroom. I Feel Pretty takes place in a small dress shop yet here takes place in the entire women's floor of Gimbels and the rumble which takes place in a relatively small space here is in a vast warehouse. America which takes place on a small tenement roof top here practically has the space of a Parisian Boulevard. And that huge gym with a band straight out of an expensive NY night club of the period? The Jet's women are given very short thrift with no characterization and Anybodys keep popping up out of nowhere where in the '61 she is threaded throughout so you're not wondering where she has been during her absences. She's been continually hanging on to the Jets trying to be accepted.

But yes until after the rumble I liked it a lot. The actors are wonderful, the score sounds wonderful(I'm glad Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostel get credit as so much of the music is based on theirs and Bernstein's orchestrations. The film starts off pretty talky with all its expositions and back stories but I didn't really mind and it gave more richness to the characters. Mike Faist was outstanding with a Riff much more lost and hopeless than Tamblyn. I liked that Chino was given a larger role propelling him throughout towards the finale tragedy and I loved Moreno's character. I didn't mind them giving her Somewhere. More music is included than was used in the '61 film which was good my favorite being the Copland like theme which I believe comes from the Somewhere ballet on stage.

I didn't see Robert Griffith and Harold Prince in the finale credits(did I miss it?) which without them there's a good chance there would be no WSS. Yet I was so happy to see Peter Gennaro who had such an important role in the creation of the piece.

And Harvey Evans was the security guard at Gimbels?

 

[roxy1927]

Something I'd like to add about the spoken Spanish. There is very little. And I wish Anita didn't keep saying speak English. It's like she knew there was an audience out there who didn't speak spanish. They were clearly fluent in both languages and immigrants who are go back and forth not needing to speak one or the other maybe just depending on what they are expressing and in which language it is more effective for them. The only place I missed an English translation was when Chino enters into the Shark's side of the rumble and he and Bernardo exchange a few lines. I would very much like to
know what was said there.

Very nice touch from Spielberg or Kushner Tony and Chino opening the metal door helping each other to enter into the arena.

 

[roxy1927]

One more thing I'd like to add because I was just talking to the friend who talked me into seeing this. She loves the original and she loves this version so of course we compared notes and we agreed Officer Krupke is a huge fail. This sure fire highlight is staged so badly and so amateurishly it is at best high school. I know this might sound ridiculously exaggerated but I've seen so many wonderful productions of musicals done by colleges it would be an insult to them to judge it accordingly. This number is so flat I don't know why Spielberg who got so much right allowed this to pass. He even gets One Hand, One Heart to not slow down the picture. It is lovely and moving. A gorgeous song.
Anyway I'll be seeing the film again and maybe I'll change my mind.

 

[haineshisway]

Gee, Officer Krupke is a comedy number and it has a vital purpose BEING a comedy number. And when a comedy number gets not a single laugh, something is clearly wrong. The original film got it perfectly and had big laughs throughout and got applause every time I saw it during its original roadshow run.

 

[Viking61]

Canadian listing.

 

[owen35]

One more thing I'd like to add because I was just talking to the friend who talked me into seeing this. She loves the original and she loves this version so of course we compared notes and we agreed Officer Krupke is a huge fail. This sure fire highlight is staged so badly and so amateurishly it is at best high school. I know this might sound ridiculously exaggerated but I've seen so many wonderful productions of musicals done by colleges it would be an insult to them to judge it accordingly. This number is so flat I don't know why Spielberg who got so much right allowed this to pass. He even gets One Hand, One Heart to not slow down the picture. It is lovely and moving. A gorgeous song.
Anyway I'll be seeing the film again and maybe I'll change my mind.

I feel like one of the few defender's of WSS 2021 on this forum (LOL), but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a "huge fail." It was different than the original, without a doubt. I feel as is Spielberg really wanted to emphasize the seriousness of these "rejects within society"within this number. You really felt that, unless they were to change their ways, these characters were really doomed to a bleak future and a system that didn't promise any hope.

The Robbins/Wise adaptation leaned heavily comical and silly--the characters are dressed in suits, clean shaven, and one gets the sense that they were going to be okay, despite the number saying the exact opposite. I'm not denigrating the original at all--it's a classic and still very much fun to watch--but Spielberg captured the irony of this "silly and comical" song being about teenagers lost in a system that may never offer a way out.

 

[cinemiracle]

WSS will be released on 4 k in March but no listing for the dvd or bluray. (at least not yet!)

 

[roxy1927]

I feel like one of the few defender's of WSS 2021 on this forum (LOL), but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a "huge fail."

Well I'd say I'd defend more than half of it(though it probably didn't seem that way.) And I went in with a show me attitude. I feel Spielberg showed me a lot.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I feel like one of the few defender's of WSS 2021 on this forum (LOL), but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a "huge fail."

I think there are more people that like this film version than you realize, but don’t feel the need any longer to engage those that don’t like it. To each his own. I love this movie so I’m good!

 

[Viking61]

WSS will be released on 4 k in March but no listing for the dvd or bluray. (at least not yet!)

There is. The Canadian sites list these:

West Side Story [DVD]​

West Side Story [Blu-ray+Digital]​

West Side Story (Ultimate Collectors Edition) [UHD+Blu-ray+Digital]​

 

[roxy1927]

I was talking a short while ago about the wonderful gatefold soundtracks and obcs that Columbia put out in the late 50s and early 60s. I am planning on purchasing the new film's cd so I was reading reviews on Amazon of both the new version and the original. Amazon has a propensity of scrambling their reviews of putting ones of one version under another so imagine my surprise when I came across this under the single cd of the original soundtrack.

'This album (or its single disc original version) sold by the millions in the sixties, buoyed by the hugely successful stage show but mainly because of the film. This expanded version (including interlude music, opening overture, etc.) is spread across two (red!) 180g vinyl discs is a glorious transfer, and you have to wonder at the clarity and detail that comes out of the grooves - but better still that special something you get when listening to music on vinyl. Apart from that, you get a terrific early-sixties style gatefold sleeve complete with notes about the production of the film. Best of all is the music itself. I don't know what Lenny Bernstein was on when he composed this, but some of it is just so funky! Yep, there's the more famous syrupy numbers in there as well - but what high grade syrup! A great, great soundtrack rightly celebrated on this magnificent two-album set. Forget the CD. Get this.'

If you still have a turntable and I hope you do you might be interested in this. Looks like I'll be listening to a lot of WSS. Could the new soundtrack be far behind on vinyl? I was talking to a guy at work in his 20s who is into vinyl. I mentioned yeah it's great but those ticks, pops and scratches ugh!(the bane of my youth.) He responds, "But I like them!" Huh?

 

[roxy1927]

Hey the new soundtrack IS available on a 2 lp set!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Hey the new soundtrack IS available on a 2 lp set!

But that's oh so... 60's though... This is the way to go now, LOL...

_Man_

 

[roxy1927]

Vinyl is the only means by which music retains its true characteristics. Everything else is just a digital haze.

 

[KPmusmag]

Vinyl is the only means by which music retains its true characteristics. Everything else is just a digital haze.

I am curious though - the new West Side Story was recorded digitally in the studio, so is there any benefit to converting the digital to analog and pressing to vinyl? It seems like the entire audio chain would have to be analog for there to be any benefit.

 

[KPmusmag]

Thank you!

Yes, those Columbia gatefolds were wonderful. I was 10 when I first saw West Side Story in 1978 and I wanted the soundtrack, so I borrowed it from my local library - it was in a gatefold cover that contained a synopsis of the plot, making of the film, and several black and white stills.

Imagine my surprise when I went to purchase it at a record store only to find that by then Columbia had re-issued it in a non-gatefold sleeve.

Well, I was having none of that, so I scoured the city's used record stores to find an original 1961 issued copy with the gatefold sleeve which I happily found and purchased. I still have that copy.

View attachment 124148

Love these gatefolds. For a while, Columbia was releasing WSS in a regular cover and the notes and photos (the same as in your picture) were printed on the dust sleeve. That was how my first copy was; my Aunt at some point gave me her vinyl which was the original gatefold from 1961.

 

[Chelsearicky]

I am curious though - the new West Side Story was recorded digitally in the studio, so is there any benefit to converting the digital to analog and pressing to vinyl? It seems like the entire audio chain would have to be analog for there to be any benefit.

There is really no such thing as analogue music any more. A master disc for vinyl is created by imprinting digital files on a lacquer plate with a lathe machine. That master disc is copied onto a stamper which is sent to a pressing plant. It's essentially digital being downgraded to analogue. But it is certainly not authentic analogue sound. The 'sound wave' master disc is a thing of the past.