West Side Story

West Side Story (1961) dir. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins
Starring: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno

***½

By Alan Bacchus

The famed Broadway show so vividly brought to life on screen and equally celebrated with 10 Academy Awards, mondo box office bucks and full pop culture infusion arrives on Blu-ray with bells and whistles, as well as a robust high definition transfer.

For the most part it’s still a marvel and a strangely vacant tragic love story. Of course, the original source material is Romeo and Juliet reset in the streets of New York. Although here, with its bubble gum musical treatment, the environment feels significantly less gritty and less threatening than Shakespeare’s 17th century Verona. But more on that later.

The opening scene is still electrifying. After the overture and the calm helicopter view across the city, the film settles in on an enclave of one of the boroughs, a school yard where a gang of 'thugs' snap their fingers in unison. It’s part of their intimidation of the other kids around them to assert their authority. There’s no dialogue and little music. Then, as the guys strut down the street, a glide of the foot, a ballet leap and a twirl signals a full-on dance number, during which we’re introduced to the Jets and the Sharks, two rival gangs, one made up of Polish descendants and the other Puerto Rican immigrants.

Jerome Robbin’s innovative and startling dance numbers combined with the energetic direction from Robert Wise results is a superlative introduction to the film. The first third of the film, in fact, is one eye-popping scene after another. In the tradition of the best studio musicals of the ‘30s, Wise’s camera whips around freely and moves as elegantly as the dancers. And when punctuated by Leonard Bernstein’s punchy score, everything is perfectly in sync.

Where the picture suffers is the love story between Maria (Wood) and Tony (Beymer). Wood, as a Puerto Rican, still distracts us from her star-crossed infatuation with Tony. And Richard Beymer is unfortunately upstaged by both Russ Tamblyn and George Chakiris. Tamblyn and Chakiris are so prominent in the first half of the film that we actually forget it’s about the lovers. As leaders of their clans, they both express themselves with wildly different but equally mesmerizing dance styles.

The ‘Dance at the Gym’ sequence is one of the most impressive numbers showcasing both dancers at their best. Chakiris features a tightly wound and controlled Latin-America style while Tamblyn shows off his acrobatic ‘Donald O’Connor’ flips and jumps. The terrific Blu-ray featurettes consist of numerous acclaimed choreographers and dancers breaking down the innovations from Robbins in these sequences for lay viewers like myself.

The film loses much of its energy with the deaths of Tamblyn and Chakiris after their second act rumble. With them out of the picture, we can only rely on the love story to maintain the momentum. Sadly, the romance falls flat all the way to the end. Robbins and company do manage to pull out one great sequence in the second half, perhaps the greatest musical number in Hollywood history. The ‘Cool’ number, which takes place in the dark and claustrophobic parking garage, was famously reworked by Martin Scorsese in his Michael Jackson ‘Bad’ video. There’s no Chakiris or Tamblyn in this scene, but the rest of Jets kick it up a notch with style.

Even though this is the small screen, we can feel the sense of scope from the original 70mm cinematography. The wide shots look bigger, the colours pop brighter and the close-ups are more pristine and detailed than most pictures of its time (or now!). None of this grandiloquence is lost over the years. And although the love story doesn’t work, the doomed finale feels utterly tragic. It’s a strangely downbeat ending to a monumentally successful film.

West Side Story is available on Blu-ray from MGM/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music (1965) dir. Robert Wise
Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer

****

By Alan Bacchus

For about 5 years The Sound of Music was the highest grossing film of all time. It was a phenomenon back in the day, besting the box office record held for 25 years by Gone With the Wind. It’s a touchstone film, and a treasure of pop culture moments. I hadn’t actually seen it in full from beginning to end, until now this splashy Blu-Ray release, yet I seemed to know the story intimately, and I even knew the lyrics of most of the songs. Such is the penetration of this movie into our public consciousness.

It’s an elegant heartwarming family film, one of the best 'Disney' movies, Disney never made. Based on the real story of the Austrian von Trapp signing family of seven children, their father, and their stepmother who escape their Nazi-infested homeland. But the actual escape is really just a suspenseful climax to an endearing story of family, motherhood and love between two polar opposite people.

The matriarch of the von Trapp is Maria (Julie Andrews), whom we see in the opening as an absent-minded nun who’d rather spend time singing songs on top of the glorious green hills around her quaint village in the Alps than be on time for her prayers. Her fellow nuns recognize her infectious personality is not really suited to a nunery, instead she gets assigned as the new governness (an elaborate term for ‘nanny’) to the aristocrat and recent widower Captain Georg Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). With the rub being, Captain has seven children who’s aggressive activities have scared off all other previous candidates.

Of course Maria is resolute and warm and makes a great impression despite the children’s attempts to break her. Captain is different though, the death of his wife has hardened him reverting back to a military-like authority within the house. But Maria warms him up too, with song and dance, and eventually they fall in love. When one of Captain’s colleagues discovers the musical talents of the children, he books them to perform at a local concert, something which Captain continues to forbid. But as the Nazi’s encroach on their lands, Captain realizes his country and his lifestyle are in danger and engineer’s a daring a risky escape at this very concert.

Andrews exhibits such magnetism, that Shirley Temple, Natalie Wood, Julia Roberts type of magnetism that lights up a room, or in this case, a cinema. Christopher Plummer is a fine actor too, and has a different kind of stage presence. Captain von Trapp is characterized rather obviously as a stuck up old widower with a pickle up his ass, and Plummer's change to a smitten love struck young man is a great transition. Though a born Canadian, he wears the skin of an Austrian aristocrat with a British accent so well. And he can sing. Who can forget the romantically patriotic Edelwiess song he plucks away during the final concert in the faces of the nasty Nazis in the front row.

As mentioned, these songs, which feel like a Hollywood national anthem of sorts, are so familiar: Edelweiss, My Favouite Things, So Long Farewell, Do-Re-Mi and of course the opening ditty where we see Ms. Andrews belting out ‘The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Music!”. In fact, I can’t think of a grander introduction to a character on film than Ms. Andrews' in this moment. It comes after Robert Wise’s long helicopter journey taking us across the impossibly beautiful mountaintops of the Alps before finding Maria on top of her grassy hill signing her heart out.

On Blu-Ray Ms. Andrews looks amazing, so does Wise’s absolutely perfect compositions. The real world on location scenes shot in Austria, Bavaria and other fabulous places in Europe ring out great authenticity. And remember this film was shot on 70mm as well, making everything extra crisp. You don’t even need to go past the first song to see the pictoral perfection. Just watch the clouds in the background, the formation of which is pastoral, exquisite, and just the right shape to create the perfect composition complimenting the green mountaintop and Ms. Andrews’ position on it.

Next to a 70mm big screen revival, the Blu-Ray makes for the next best reason to rewatch this film once again.

The Sound of Music is available on Blu-Ray from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) dir. Robert Wise
Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe

****

If you didn’t know already Robert Wise’s seminal sci-fi picture gets an update this week with the Keanu Reeves/Scott Derrickson version. The original film which tells the story of an alien who arrives to earth with a message of peace is, with today's eyes,  perhaps too simplistic to stimulate any complex intellectual thought, but it’s still a benchmark in science fiction cinema. And with the help of Robert Wise's solid direction, Michael Rennie's iconic performance and Bernard Herrmann's gorgeous score, this original film is still highly watchable.

In the opening scene American military spots an unidentified flying object hurdling toward earth. Alarm bells go off everywhere and the army convenes on the Washington mall to greet it. Out of this a classic cylindrical UFO walks a humanoid person, Klaatu (Michael Rennie). But when a triggerhappy soldier shoots Klaatu he’s sent to the hospital.

Klaatu’s mission which he explains to the President of the United States is to convene the leaders of the earth to inform them of their irresponsibility with the new nuclear technology. Unfortunately the bureaucracy involved with bringing the countries together frustrates Klaatu. So he decides to wander out into regular society and learn about these strange new people. He rooms with the Benson family and befriends their young boy Bobby (Billy Gray) and his mother Helen (Patricia Neal). When the military discover he’s missing he’s perceived as a threat which creates a conflict thus threatening the entire human race.

In this classic studio era, science fiction was perceived as a b-movie genre, films intended for children and matinees. Wise, directing from Edmund North’s screenplay based on Harry Bates’ novel, intellectualizes the science as a means to examine our own social and political frailties. With today’s eyes the lessons taught could be perceived and obvious and on the nose. Indeed there’s little subtlety in Wise’s objective.

Unlike other remakes, there’s much more room to open up the story and explore the other details and subplots which emerge in this early version. We don’t learn much about the alien species other than Klaatu’s mission, nor about how he can assume the form of a human. Klaatu’s relationship with the Benson family is well-drawn but Wise inexplicably characterizes the scientist, government and military with little imagination.

Wise’s skills as director are apparent though. The Klaatu character, who is initially drawn as a benevolent alien changes ever so slightly revealing a devious and dangerous side in the second half.  The final act is anchored by a suspenseful chase with the fate of the earth hanging the balance. When Helen assumes responsibility for Klaatu’s mission those famous words are finally spoken: Klaatu Barada Nikto.

And if Wise was unsure about his message he tells it to us again, with his very literal public service announcement voiceover closing the film: Your choice is simple: "Join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you.”

Watching old genre films like this requires a filter for the era, as audience became more sophisticated the meaning of this final statement would go between the lines. There’s hope for Scott Derrickson’s new version to better the Robert Wise version. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is not meant to be a franchise, so let’s hope the producers will settle on and deliver one good film.

"The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)" is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment