West side story： Exquisite and neat retro blockbuster, but it lacks surprises!

Recently, Hollywood has been particularly popular in remake, and even Spielberg, the great director who has been deified, can’t avoid custom.

West side story, the previous film, won ten awards including best film and best director at the 1961 Oscar. It is not difficult for the new version to surpass or match.

First, the obviously outdated storyline

The film is set in new york in the 1950s. The Jets, led by white people, and shark tale, led by Puerto Rican descendants, fought for territory. In the two irreconcilable gangs that hated each other, Tony and Maria had an epic love affair. Unfortunately, this pair of bad karma mandarin ducks in troubled times could not resist the hereditary struggle between the gangs, and finally ended in tragedy.

The original work has a long history, and it can arouse the audience’s wide resonance in that year, because it can grasp the social hot issues of that era and make the audience resonate enough through the rendering of images. But nowadays, with the continuous development of society, this story of loving each other but not being together is obviously out of touch with reality, and it is as pale as a blank sheet of paper that makes passers-by feel nothing.

This can’t blame the audience for liking the new and hating the old. After all, as ordinary people, they still hope to see more unusual things through the big screen, instead of just taking out the cold rice swept into the corner of history and frying it again.

This is particularly prominent for China audiences who have no idea about the background of the film. The rapid development of various plot twists in this film always makes Chinese people feel at a loss after watching it.

For example, love at first sight between the hero and heroine. Tony from the Jet Gang was sent to prison for some unspeakable reasons. After he was freed, he met Maria, the sister of the leader of shark tale, at the first dance. The two young people fell in love with each other quickly after loving each other.

For this kind of romantic love that can only exist in fairy tales, the film did not pave the way too much, as if it was natural because the crowd took one more look at each other.

Although the above-mentioned artistic treatment can resonate with a few people, it is difficult for most people to accept it, and its permanence is even more doubtful. This film is good, which not only carries forward love at first sight, but also makes the two protagonists love each other to death in just two days, unless the other party does not marry.

Art can be higher than life, but the premise is to learn from ordinary society. A love that has no sense of CP and no foundation, even if it is tragic, is just like a castle in the air and completely ungrounded.

What is incomprehensible is that Tony accidentally killed Maria’s brother Bernardo, went to say goodbye to his beloved girl and intended to surrender himself. As a result, not only was Maria forgiven, but their feelings suddenly warmed up and became intimate.

In the face of her brother and girlfriend Anita’s questioning, Maria felt no guilt, and even used the so-called love as an excuse, hoping to get each other’s understanding. The above plot is no longer a reasonable category, but has become a naked challenge to the moral bottom line of human society.

As love, its foundation and premise is not to cause any harm. Tony has done something to hurt Maria. Even if normal women don’t give him a break, they should never be more infatuated with each other. The film ignores the setting of normal ethics, so it is difficult for the audience to have any sympathy, let alone accept it completely.

　Second, the inheritance and persistence of the technical level

Whether a musical is good or not depends on the level of music and dance. This film is quite well done.

As Spielberg, who has worked hard in the film industry for 50 years, his technical attainments can be described as pure love. Even in the field of musical films, director Si can still hand over a satisfactory and beautiful answer sheet.

Due to the consideration of deployment, many musical films will sacrifice a lot of body movements and only balance with beautiful music. This film does the opposite. It doesn’t pursue a long song aria, but takes dance as the first breakthrough point. Through the cutting of the picture and the performance of the actors, the audience can get the greatest pleasure with the naked eye and improve the texture of watching movies.

In the film, there are not only group cooperation, but also SOLO to show individual ability. More importantly, it also incorporates many thrilling fights into the dance, which makes the ugly violence exude a special beauty. There is a passage in the film in which Tony and his good friend Reeve decide to win or lose by fighting for pistols because of their different ideas. With the continuous cut-in and cut-out of the picture, the two actors are fighting for each other, but all the body movements are always around the guns on the ground. Careful arrangement, exquisite composition and skillful photography and editing make the whole performance full of charm.

The story of this film took place in the 1950s, and its costume props were very elegant. No matter the scenes, buildings, or the shapes and costumes of the characters, they were highly restored. In order to reflect the texture of that era, the film specially processed the pictures accordingly, giving the whole film a kind of classical hazy beauty of the last century.

In the eyes of many old fans, the forties and fifties of last century were the golden age of Hollywood movies, which not only produced a large number of cross-era works that influenced the later Hollywood style, but also created a group of superstars who led the fashion trend. Casablanca and Roman Holiday became immortal classics in many people’s minds.

Born in the forties, Si Dao is permeated with longing for that beautiful era in his bones, so he will spare no effort to reuse the elements of that period in his works and pay tribute to the lost beauty in various ways.

At the same time, in order to cater to the young audience, Si Dao has also joined a large number of hot topics in the current era. Although there are descriptions of racial discrimination in the original version, it has not been exaggerated for historical reasons. The new version of west side story has raised the topic of racial discrimination to a very important height, the first of which is the fight between the Jets and shark tale.

There are a lot of provocative lines in the film, which directly reveal the attitude of the society from top to bottom, and the key turning point that determines the tragic fate of the hero and heroine is all due to the sexual harassment of Anita by the Jet Gang. Accusations of racial discrimination enable the film to win the favor of mainstream awards. From this point of view, director Si really understands the hearts of the judges and the audience.

Third, the creative confusion of famous directors

West side story won seven nominations in the 94th Academy Awards, especially for best film and best director, which proves that Spielberg is still body of work. However, although the film technology is excellent, photography, sound effects and artistic direction are all remarkable, it is difficult to have anything that can really impress the audience.

A large number of palace-level directors, represented by Si Dao, are still full of creative energy and can’t find anything wrong with their techniques, but their works always have a sense of deja vu.

Perhaps they also want to break through, but the deep-rooted creative thinking leads to the above-mentioned efforts are always superficial, neat and neat, but the freshness is seriously lacking.

And Hollywood’s tradition of respecting the elderly is even more difficult for them. After all, as long as they don’t make low-level mistakes, the reputation of their works will not be bad. Such a vicious circle makes it difficult to make bold moves.

After more than 100 years, the film industry needs constant innovation to lead its development. Although it can be successful in a short period of time if it always adheres to the original orthodox creative method, it will undoubtedly do great harm to the industry, but today’s film market is becoming more and more conservative. Except for a few technocrats, everyone basically wants to lie on the credit book for the rest of their lives, making the creative style gradually uniform, as if it were a product produced by an assembly line.

West side story didn’t make much innovation on the basis of the original work, but it upgraded the original technology by using more advanced equipment and means. Just like a gift box, it was more beautifully packaged, but its taste didn’t change much. For audiences who have tasted various tastes and read a lot of films, it is more like chicken ribs, which is tasteless and a pity to abandon.