Alright, this is dedicated to all the people who said I should see "West Side Story", my Mother, my Uncle Scott, and my friend and fellow blogger, Diane Jaquay! Check out her blog, she is a wonderful maker of cards, I will leave you the link in the comments section! :)
"West Side Story" is a musical from 1961. In my opinion, this is the oldest musical (that I have seen, maybe there is more?) that had grit. Next would probably be "Cabaret" and the first "Annie" with Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan (I recognize my "Annie" movies by Miss Hannigan's, Carol will always be my favorite!)
"West Side Story" stars Natalie Wood as Maria. Her singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon, but that is some darn good lip synching on Natalie's part!! Maria is the sister of Bernard, leader of Puerto Rican street gang, The Sharks. Their rival gang is The Jets.
One day, at a dance between two gangs, Tony, played by Richard Beymer, meets Maria and they fall in love. The only problem? Tony is one of The Jets. These two gangs are always at it, so soon after, war ensues. That's all I am going to say, otherwise, I will give the whole thing away!!
There is some GREAT music in this. "Somewhere" is beautiful. I have Wayne Newton on a record covering it. Also fantastic. The color on this is marvelous, amazing how things used to pop back then!!
I finished this in two nights. It was around one in the morning when I finished it, whilst working on another preemie hat! The ending came---I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT ENDING!! :( By far this is one of the greatest, yet saddest musicals ever. I was sitting there, clutching my scissors and pom pom, crying and saying to the TV in my head, "It can't end now! What happens next? This is the most unfair and heartbreaking thing in musical history!!"
The beginning (Overture) leaves you trying to figure out what those little squiggles on the screen are. Then, BAM! It's Manhattan, place of my dreams!! From that moment, I knew it was going to be good. I mean, what is cooler then snappy gang members dancing through the streets?
The bad thing was, the disc was all scratched up, probably from the previous renter. That person probably practiced their figure skating all over this. By the looks of it, they probably won the Olympics. Stop ice skating on DVDS of "West Side Story"! I don't know how else they would get scratched. :(
If you have not seen "West Side Story", what are you waiting for? It's got cool written all over! If you have seen it, what do you think of it? Favorite part? Least? Let me know in the comments below! :)
http://dmjaquay.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI knew you would love this, Raven! My favorite thing about this movie is the amazing MUSIC! I had a cassette tape of the soundtrack when I was young and I think I memorized every word to every song. I also love the dancing/choreography. We have a joke in my family about doing "snap" (referring to the opening dance scene with the Sharks and the Jets ;) And of course I can't forget to mention that my favorite actress, Natalie Wood, stars in this film. I wasn't crazy about Richard Beymer as the choice to be her leading man, I would have probably picked someone else, but he did a decent job in the role. The ending is indeed tragic. Did you know the story is based on Romeo and Juliet? Btw, thanks for the blog shout out :)
ReplyDeleteNo problem!! That snap is classic. Who else would you have chosen instead of Richard Beymer? Natalie is very pretty!
DeleteOh, I did not know that is was based on "Romeo and Juliet" but I was kind of getting that vibe, the rival gang/family, Anita says Maria is dead, Tony dies, Mom and I were just talking about it, wow!
DeleteLove this movie! Of course Maria is a great character, but Anita was always my favorite. The songs will stay with you forever.
ReplyDeleteAnita was cool! Mrs. Rita Moreno!
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