W hen Steven Spielberg contacted the playwright and you may screenwriter Tony Kushner concerning the possibility of remaking Western Front side Tale for the 2014, Kushner was first anxious for some causes. For example, he had impossibly higher boots so you can complete: the latest sounds, established in 1957 of the artistic titans-director-choreographer Jerome Robbins, composer https://datingmentor.org/tinder-hookups-guide/ Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Steven Sondheim and you will copywriter Arthur Laurents-are a revered antique and you may a pillar away from twentieth century American artwork. Meanwhile, there are many areas of the fresh new songs that appear severely dated to a younger, more culturally conscious listeners. Of numerous discussions possess exploded usually about the musical’s brownface roots and you may cartoonish depictions of its Puerto Rican characters. Just last year, the brand new Puerto Rican journalist Carina del Valle Schorske requisite the fresh musical to be resigned for the a new york Minutes bit called “Let ‘West Side Story’ as well as Stereotypes Pass away.”
As soon as Kushner wanted to make this new screenplay, he had been faced with a perilous balancing operate: in preserving this new musical’s pure excellence if you’re improving abreast of its shortcomings. Up to now, critics and audience features deemed their perform profitable. The film, and that opens inside the theaters into Dec. 10, already lies from the a great 95% Fresh rating into the Spoiled Tomatoes; over the years, critic Stephanie Zacharek wrote: “I had no idea I needed that it Western Top Story up to We watched it. Which, possibly, is the greatest sorts of movie, the fresh new stealth end which was covering up into the plain attention all the along.”