Contemporary 2021 Selection: West Side Story (2021)

 Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story"


Steven Spielberg's 2021 adaptation of Stephen Sondheim classic musical is a technical mastery of efficiency in storytelling. Spielberg skims unnecessary bulk from the original, creating a much more structured musical. The casting is also more concise, casting a diverse cast to create the diversity the story requires. Through his direction, the story of the film is set against the backdrop of a city block being bulldozed. As the characters are inhabiting their world, the debris of bulldozed buildings surround them. This constant reminder by Spielberg of their backdrop visually creates pressure on the characters and their behavior. As their home and way of life is crumbling beneath them, the characters cannot do anything but blame each other. This also becomes pertinent to the social climate of 2021, as tensions are growing between Americans as they watch their home and way of life disintegrating beneath them. Despite these grey tones of debris, Spielberg infuses the more romantic moments of the piece with colorful deviation. For a moment, we forgot about the grey tones of life falling apart around us and instead are wrapped up in the zest of colorful reds and blues. These welcoming bright colors provide some sort of meaning for the characters through love and acceptance, the only antidotes to the hatred and violence they are accustomed to. 



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