But then again, the idea of singing and dancing street gangs (that kill each other) is inherently silly all the way around. IF you can get past that, the staging of musical numbers is utterly fantastic, and the music is among the best of any musical ever.

I thought the same thing about the placement of “I Feel Pretty”, coming at the point in the story where it does.
There were a couple of other minor quibbles I had, but overall, damn, that was a good version!

Great scene, cheers for posting.

You’re probably right. The rights to it, I’m assuming, are a little higher up the food chain - and these guys look at spreadsheets first, so idk. Make it with an all-black cast and giddy-up! 

Aren’t you kind of forgetting about Cabaret?

No I agree with that, I was just remarking that the world was pretty much old Stagey Musicals, then WSS showed another way to reconceptulize how a filmed musical could be done, than we kind of went back to Stagey Musicals until Moulin Rouge came out and everyone went "what the hell did i just watch".

Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood bring it down for me. He is so “golly gee” and her forced Latin accent training stands out like a sore thumb, and of course thry didnt sing a damned thing.

Parts of it are iconic but for long stretches it is a boring mess. Natalie Wood as a Puerto Rican? (With her singing voice dubbed by Marni Nixon.) George Chakiris (Greek) as a Puerto Rican? Richard Beymer as a romantic lead? The guy is capital-B boring.

The main guy and Riff are both in TWIN PEAKS.

I’d say WSS had a far greater impact on movies and movie musicals than Moulin Rouge did. I love Moulin Rouge, I even own a copy of it (which is saying a lot because I just don’t buy movies), but Moulin Rouge fit with its time and isn’t the groundbreaker that WSS was.

I’d second the reply below that emphasized the truly amazing choreography. It’s a beautiful movie, though there are aspects that haven’t aged well. Your best bet might be to just watch clips of all the most famous scenes.

At one point, TCM did a weekend/evening of all the big musicals of the ( late 50s to early 60s) time period, in chronological order. I’ve always really liked it, but in that comparative setting, you realize how innovative and forward-thinking the ‘61 version actually is, compared to how stodgy musicals on that era are.

I watched it for the first time a few years ago and it didn’t quite live up to the hype for me, but it’s still worth a watch. It dragged in parts but also has great dance numbers and tackles serious themes fairly well.

It depends on your tolerance for old movie pacing, and whether or not your sound system lets you hear the dialogue properly. There’s a lotta fun lines in the show and a lotta goofy stuff for modern viewers to notice. I think it’s held in contrast against other movie musicals around that time and that’s what’s…

I think the movie’s appeal now comes from it being a perfect representation of mid-century America. It’s something that you could put in a time capsule as a way of showing just how that era looked, felt, and sounded like. Since that era still looms large in this country, it’s important that way.

The least you can say is that it has great scenes. Robert Wise knew where to place a camera to make it super dramatic and he also was an editor before a director, which makes even his longest movies feel like a lot is happening. He also takes advantage of a glorious decaying urban landscape, and Jerome Robbins puts a…

Genuine question: is the original version any good? I remember reading a review in an old Time Out film reviews book and they slated it as boring (or words to that effect).

I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s due for a remake, but I can say that if I ever saw the original, it was in like third grade (They showed us either Grease or West Side Story for some reason) I’ve never been big into musicals, even genre defining ones, so I never saw it at any time in my life when I might remember any…

Sigh. AoS had to sustain its quality over multi seasons. Most of the ones ahead of it had to hold up for what; two, three max, and in some cases eight or so episodes. FatWS was alright and reached the level of regular AoS mini archs but never approached the best ones. Certainly did not reach the level of imagination.…

He was filming another show or series (possibly a movie in there too which may or may not have been Overlord) which is why his screen time was reduced in the show.