The best part of Steven Spielberg’s new film of “West Side Story” isn’t the dance at the gym, or the Sharks and Jets’ scuffle in …
The best part of Steven Spielberg’s new film of “West Side Story” isn’t the dance at the gym, or the Sharks and Jets’ scuffle in the prologue, or Tony and Maria’s love duet. Oddly enough it’s the jazzy song “Cool” that’s performed ahead of the rumble. “Got a rocket in your pocket. Keep cooly cool boy!,” the antsy Jets sing before their battle with their rival Puerto Rican gang. This is show-queen blasphemy, I know, but the jolting number tops Jerome Robbins’ iconic original choreography and Robert Wise’s Oscar-winning 1961 film. It’s absolutely ferocious. Spielberg transplants the sparky scene to a decrepit dock by the river — it has the bleak river look of the final scene of “On The Waterfront” — and choreographer Justin Peck has Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Riff (Mike Faist) fight in glorious dance over a loaded gun. Those shifts in locale, subtly updating the tunes’ drives and motivation, are what make Spielberg’s very good adaptation of Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ musical memorable. It’s the “ET” director’s most visually exciting film in a zillion years. Still, it’s not gonna become a classic in the way the 1961 original did. Where this “Story” occasionally walks into West Side Highway traffic is screenwriter Tony Kushner’s many needless additions to the script.
