It's not that I hold West Side Story in any particular high regard as a musical (although, truth be told, I have never watched all of the original movie - in fact, maybe only 15 mins or so?), but I am still thrilled when Spielberg gets a lot of love, and proves again that he worth 20 (at least) Tarantino's.
His movie, which doesn't start here until Boxing Day, is getting very good reviews from both American and British critics (even The Guardian, usually a bit Lefty cynical of him, I reckon). A score of 95 on Rottentomatoes, and 86 on the more reliable Metacritic.
In anticipation of my liking it too, I would say that the USO dance hall sequence in the much (and unfairly) maligned 1941 made me think as far back as 1979 that he would be fantastic at making a dance heavy musical. Here it is on Youtube:
It's not a great quality upload (don't try to watch it full screen), but it still gives you an idea of how it was put together. Apart from the camera movement and composition of shots, I like how it's not over-editted to the point where you can't admire the choreography and timing as an extended event - the main fault of most modern dance movies being in the choppy, rapid fire editing which ends up making a dance look like a hundred individual 1 second scenes stuck together in the cutting room.
(Triva point: I think I might have seen 1941 twice at the cinema - I liked it that much. It remains a guilty pleasure.)
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