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By
NICK ZEGARAC
When "West Side Story" hit the Broadway stage it must have shocked theater critics. A ballet musical about street gangs and murder, with such an emotional swell built in, that even the most hardened cynics must have left the show dewy-eyed and humming the Leonard Bernstein score. The film version created nothing less than an international craze and garnered an unprecedented 10 Oscars -- the most of any musical Best Picture. The plot is essentially Romeo and Juliet in the ghetto with Natalie Wood (dubbed by Marni Nixon) as Maria, the poor, Puerto Rican who is in love with Tony (Richard Beymer). But Maria's brother, Bernardo (George Chakiris) and his girlfriend, Anita (Rita Moreno) do not approve of the union because of Tony's Polish heritage. If you know your Shakespeare, you know how this one ends. The difference here is in the songs, so electric and outstanding that they easily steal the show. Try listening to "America" or "I Feel Pretty" without tapping your feet or "One Hand, One Heart" without getting goose bumps. It's impossible. The film tackles racism, gang violence, date rape and police brutality and it does it all in a way that entertains as well as educates.
MGM gives us some nice packaging and some extras but let's state the obvious first: this transfer is identical to the one previously issued on DVD. Having said that, the transfer is quite good, with a rich bold color and fairly deep and solid blacks. But there are cases where edge enhancement is present and quite obtrusive. There's also a lot of pixelization in the background wire fences. Certain scenes appear slightly out of focus, while others are so sharp that even with your television sharpness turned to zero, the image is rather hard edged. The soundtrack is very strident. Songs are presented at an explosive listening level that really rock the house. However, other bits of dialogue are soft or muffled. Some of the songs have a grating high pitch to them that really strains the ear. A moderate listening level is recommended to fully appreciate this audio.
Now for the extras -- for starters we get a very handsome book that contains the entire script as well as personal reflections from the producers and cast and newspaper clippings of the initial reviews. The print quality of the book is barely adequate with photo image quality that is poor to unacceptable, smeared images of original stills and others that have faded colors. Since this is a two-disc set, the movie is on disc one, with the option to view with or without the intermission music -- a very nice touch. Disc 2 contains a documentary "West Side Memories" that is somewhat disappointing in that not all the cast members have their say.
Missing from the proceedings are George Chakiris (Bernardo) who is still alive and should have been included. Yes, Natalie Wood is no longer with us but I find it hard to believe that she never gave any sound bytes to the press with regard to her participation on the film. Marni Nixon, who dubbed for Natalie, is also not present to lend her expertise and talk about the art of dubbing, which she did plenty of during Hollywood's golden age. There's also no Ernest Lehman -- odd, considering how active he's been on other special edition DVD's. This documentary is self-congratulatory and pretty much plays it safe. The premiere and the film's enduring popularity are glossed over. On disc 2 we get the isolated intermission music presented a second time -- for what reason, I'm not sure -- presumably to fill disc space. There's also a montage of stills set to music and no less than five theatrical trailers -- all of them looking pretty dull and worn. Lastly, we get a shameless add from MGM, promoting its other DVD releases. That's pretty much it. A real waste of a second disc, if you ask me. Yes, the documentary is fairly comprehensive, but it could have fit on side two of a flipper disc. Yes, the book is a nice companion piece but it's not printed with high quality in mind. The handsome packaging of this collector's edition hints of more hidden treasures than are actually found inside. |
