Original vs Remake: West Side Story

Over Christmas, I finally got around to watching Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story. I thought it would be fun to do a good ol' original versus remake post to talk about it.

Spoilers ahead!

Plot

Original: Tony and Maria meet at a school dance and instantly fall for each other. However, they're part of rival gangs engaged in a violent turf war. In the end, Tony dies and Maria's grief makes everyone rethink their actions.

West Side Story is iconic for being both a retelling of Romeo and Juliet and a commentary on gang violence. It's a thought-provoking movie that ends on a somber note as Maria walks away from the camera before fading to black. There are a few slow bits, but overall it's fantastic.

Remake: The remake follows pretty much the same plot. The biggest differences were the addition of a few scenes to flesh out characters and plot.

With the plots being so similar, there's not much else to say about the remake. It's much more vibrant than the original and more gritty. The fight scenes feel like real fights, not dance ones. There's a lot more blood too.

Characters

Original: Tony is a white boy who doesn't want the gang lifestyle, but gets caught up in it anyway. Maria is a Puerto Rican girl who's the sister of one of their gang members. She's innocent and naïve. They're both a bit of caricatures, but likable enough that we root for them.

Of course, there are a lot of other characters in the movie on both sides. A stand out being the iconic Anita. She's the no nonsense, grounded counterpart to Maria. Her toe tapping "America" number and the role she plays in the climax are memorable.

Remake: In the remake, the characters are the same, but they try to flesh them out more. Tony previously was in prison for almost beating a kid to death, which is why he doesn't want anymore violence. Maria is recently immigrated. Bernardo is a boxer, Anita wants to run her own fashion business. In some ways, the backstories help, but I don't feel like they added that much to the movie.

They also cast all actors of color for the Sharks. In the original, most of them were white. (Which we're not going to dive into here.) It's nice to see to see real Puerto Ricans and such playing these characters.

Setting

Original: The story takes place in the Upper West Side of New York City (thus the name). Being the 1960s, it's pretty obvious most of it is filmed on sound stages. Setting doesn't play much of a part in the story other than a backdrop.

Remake: There's a lot more on location shooting in this version and you can tell. The whole movie feels bigger and more alive because of it. This isn't to say the setting is bad in the original, they were just made in different times.

Other

Tone

Original: The tone of the original is serious, but that's slightly downplayed by some of the choreography and filming. Not in a bad way. Again, it's the era. For example, my sister and I call the dancing a lot of the Jets do "angst ballet".

Remake: As I mentioned, the remake is a lot grittier. Is that a good thing? I'm not sure. At times, it almost feels like it's trying too hard, especially with upping the blood and fight scenes. The ending also feels a little too drawn out compared to the original.

Songs

Original: West Side Story songs are iconic. They're catchy and memorable for years to come. Sure, I still think "Maria" is a bit of a bore, but I can still sing it if you asked.

Remake: My biggest problem with the remake is that they changed some of the song lyrics. For example, removing the word "gay" from "I Feel Pretty". It was so jarring not to hear it. Do people not know the original meaning of the word? They also changed some of the locations or set up for some of the songs which I didn't always like.

Anybodys

Original: Anybodys is a girl that wants to hang with the boys in the Jets gang. She's a tomboy and they don't like her, but she ends up playing an important role at the end of the story.

Remake: I was very annoyed that they turned Anybodys from simply a tomboy who likes being seen as "one of the guys" to more of a modern "I'm not a girl!" character. She wasn't that way in the original and I didn't like that they added it into this version.

Which is Better?

Both movies, while similar, have their own charm. Steven Spielberg did an amazing job at his first musical, making the story come to life. But at the end of the day, I believe the better version is...

The original 1961 version!

Have you seen either West Side Story? Which is your favorite? Tell me in the comments.