Skip to content
  • Hot News Today
  • Fashion News
  • Automotive News
  • Technology News
  • Movie News
  • Health News
  • About Us
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
Copyright United Dairy News 2025
Theme by ThemeinProgress
Proudly powered by WordPress
  • Hot News Today
  • Fashion News
  • Automotive News
  • Technology News
  • Movie News
  • Health News
  • About Us
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
United Dairy News
  • You are here :
  • Home
  • Movie News
  • How Spielberg changed ‘West Side Story’
How Spielberg changed ‘West Side Story’
Movie News

How Spielberg changed ‘West Side Story’

Eleanore Beatty December 12, 2021 Article

The original 1961 film won 10 Oscars, including Best Picture. But for decades this retelling of “Romeo and Juliet” through the lens of White and Puerto Rican gangs in New York has been panned by Puerto Ricans who felt insulted by the way characters from the island were portrayed.

The songs are largely the same, but the story is different in several notable ways — especially when it comes to the movie’s Puerto Rican characters.

Here’s a look at how the new “West Side Story” responds to some of the missteps of the original film.

How Spielberg tried to solve the problem of Maria

Natalie Wood played Maria in the 1961 film, with Marni Nixon’s voice dubbed in for all the heroine’s songs. Neither one of them was Puerto Rican, or even Latina; most of the movie’s cast wasn’t, either.

Spielberg’s version casts Colombian American Rachel Zegler as Maria. And all the other Puerto Rican characters are played by Latino actors, too.
“It’s so important for people like us to see people like us onscreen,” Zegler said in a recent “20/20” special on the film, “to see people like us singing ‘I Feel Pretty,’ to see people like us falling in love and feeling joy and dancing around in pretty dresses. It’s so important for that next generation to see someone that looks like them.”
Natalie Wood, left, played Maria in the original film of "West Side Story." Rachel Zegler, right, plays her in the new movie.

Zegler’s been getting rave reviews for her performance. Still, not everyone is sold on the casting choice.

“I have an issue with Hollywood once again fumbling the easiest of opportunities to elevate a Puerto Rican actress. They seem to think that as long as the actors are Hispanic, that’s enough,” Daily Beast Assistant Managing Editor Mandy Velez wrote in a recent column. “Except it’s not, to me or to other Puerto Ricans so thirsty to see themselves represented on screen they might collapse from dehydration.”

There’s no one wearing brownface in this movie

In the original “West Side Story,” many of the actors playing Puerto Rican characters were forced to wear the same dark brown makeup — even Rita Moreno, who is Puerto Rican and played the character of Anita.

“I remember saying to the makeup man one day ― because it was like putting mud on my face, it was really dark and I’m a fairly fair Hispanic ― and I said to the makeup man one day ‘My God! Why do we all have to be the same color?” Moreno told Futuro Media’s “In the Thick” podcast in 2017. “Puerto Ricans are French and Spanish…’ And it’s true, we are very many different colors, we’re Taino indian, we are Black some of us.”

When she raised that point on set, Moreno said she got a surprising response.

“The makeup man actually said to me, ‘What? Are you a racist?’ I was so flabbergasted that I couldn’t come back with an answer.”

In the original "West Side Story" movie, Rita Moreno and other actors were forced to wear brownface. In Spielberg's version, Moreno is back in a new role, without the offensive makeup.

Thankfully, no one in the 2021 film is wearing brownface. A diverse cast of actors are playing Puerto Rican characters, including Ariana DeBose, who’s Afro-Latina and plays Anita.

And this time around, Moreno’s observations weren’t dismissed. She plays a new character written for this version, Valentina. She was an executive producer of the movie. And she regularly spoke with the cast about what it was like growing up as a Puerto Rican in America.

“She brought so many interesting stories, and she so motivated the cast,” Spielberg says in a promotional video for the film. “And I thought she really needed to be the executive producer, more of a managerial role, not just to come in as an actor, but to really help us frame the messages that ‘West Side Story’ needs to extend to people who see it. She’s been very, very causal in all of that.”

The words to an iconic song have changed

For many fans, “America” is one of the most beloved and well-known songs from “West Side Story.” The rousing dance number is also a searing debate between Anita and her boyfriend Bernardo over the costs and benefits of migration to the US mainland.

But many of the lyrics sung by Anita painted Puerto Rico in a negative light, in both the 1957 musical (“island of tropical diseases”) and the 1961 movie (“let it sink back in the ocean”).

That drew criticism when Spielberg and Kushner traveled to the University of Puerto Rico in 2018 to meet with students and faculty for input while they were making the new movie.

In the 1961 film, Rita Moreno's Anita sang that she wanted Puerto Rico to "sink back in the ocean." In the new movie, Ariana DeBose's Anita isn't as hostile toward Puerto Rico in the version of the song she sings.
There, a professor of theater history and acting pointed out the song’s problematic lyrics as she questioned how Spielberg and Kushner planned to represent Puerto Ricans in the film. Kushner told the audience that the White, Jewish team behind the original story likely assumed the migration experience for Puerto Ricans was the same as it had been for their ancestors, who looked on the Old Country with disdain.
The professor who’d raised concerns later told The Hollywood Reporter that it doesn’t make sense for a Puerto Rican character to be speaking so disparagingly of the island, when most people migrate out of economic necessity and desperation.

“No one leaves this island without sobbing,” Isel Rodriguez said. “Three hundred thousand people left the island after Maria and the scene at the airport was like a funeral.”

In the end, Spielberg’s version of “America” cuts the song’s most controversial lines. There’s no one wishing an island where millions of people live should sink into the ocean.

By paring down the lyrics, the new version sharpens the focus of the song to the debate over whether life on the US mainland is good or bad for Puerto Ricans, rather than dragging Puerto Rico and its people through the mud.

The Sharks finally get backstories

Broadway composer and lyricist Lin Manuel-Miranda, whose parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico, has said that for Latinos, “West Side Story” has been “our greatest blessing and our greatest curse.”

“As a piece of art, I think it’s just about as good as it gets,” Miranda told The Washington Post in 2009. “It also represented our foot in the door as an artistic community on Broadway. … At the same time, because it’s just about the only representation of Latinos on Broadway and it’s about gangs, that’s where it gets tricky.”

In the original movie, the Caucasian Jets also get a lot more screen time than the Sharks, their Puerto Rican rivals. In this version, the Sharks are still gang members, but we finally get a chance to learn more about some of them.

Little was written about George Chakiris' Bernardo and the rest of the Sharks' lives in the 1961 film. In the 2021 remake, David Alvarez's Bernardo is a boxer, and more details are included about some of the movie's other Puerto Rican characters.

Tony Kushner’s screenplay creates back stories for Puerto Rican characters that in the original were two-dimensional at best, and stereotypical at worst.

In the 2021 film, Chino is going to school to be an accountant. Bernardo is a boxer who came to New York more recently. Anita is a seamstress who’s saving money because she wants to open her own dress shop someday. Maria and her friends work on a cleaning crew at Gimbels department store.

Valentina, the new character written for this movie, is a widow running her store and trying to navigate life between two cultures. And everyone who lives in their neighborhood — Sharks and Jets alike — is about to get evicted so wrecking balls can tear down their homes to make way for the construction of Lincoln Center.

Spanish is spoken much more — and with a Puerto Rican accent

A few Spanish phrases were sprinkled into the original “West Side Story” — often delivered with accents that sounded more like Americans overacting than the way Puerto Ricans living in New York actually speak.

The Spanish in Spielberg’s film is delivered with trademark Puerto Rican phrases and accents. It’s spoken — without any subtitles — in intimate scenes like conversations between Maria and Anita at home.

In the 2021 version of "West Side Story," Maria and Anita speak Spanish in some of their most intimate conversations, like the scene where Anita is fitting Maria's new dress.

And the only time it sounds stilted makes sense in the story — when non-native speakers like Tony, Maria’s Polish-American love interest, are trying to say something in Spanish.

In fact, the very first song with lyrics that we hear in the remake is sung in Spanish. It’s the Sharks’ version of the Puerto Rican anthem “La Borinqueña,” performed after police order them to leave a crime scene. And it wasn’t in the original.

The team behind this movie tried to do their homework

Originally, the plot of “West Side Story” was conceived to focus on tensions between Jews and Catholics on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
After they shifted gears to make Puerto Ricans one of the rival gangs, it’s clear the musical’s creators did little to research the Puerto Rican experience. Stephen Sondheim even admitted that he had never even met a Puerto Rican when he took on the assignment.
Director Steven Spielberg and Rita Moreno as Valentina on the set of 20th Century Studios' "West Side Story."

Spielberg and Kushner took a different tack, spending time researching Puerto Rican communities that lived in New York in 1957, when the musical is set. The visit to the University of Puerto Rico was one of many conversations.

Kushner has said the team behind the film also met with history experts and worked with native speakers — including dancers and actors in the cast — to make sure the Spanish phrases were written and used correctly.

“We kept working on this thing, because there was such an enormous feeling that — it wasn’t like, ‘Oh god, we’re going to get canceled if somebody says the wrong word’ — but this deep desire to get it right and true,” Kushner told TIME this week.
So far that attention to detail and the changes to the plot seem to be winning over critics, who’ve responded enthusiastically to the remake.

But the jury’s still out on whether that will persuade Puerto Ricans who were uncomfortable with — or outraged by — the original movie to give this “West Side Story” a chance.

You may also like

EXPLAINED | Why Nokia changed its logo after nearly 60 years?

Two Indian Americans at centre of Hunter Biden’s laptop story

The Next Star Wars Movie Terrifies Lucasfilm

Ezra Miller charged with felony burglary days after Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Zaslav praises ‘Flash’ movie

The Whale Movie News & Updates: Everything We Know

Jordan Peele explains his new sci-fi horror film, “Nope”

Tags: changed, side, Spielberg, Story, West

Archives

  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021

Calendar

July 2025
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Dec    

Categories

  • Automotive News
  • Business Tips
  • Fashion News
  • Health News
  • Home Improvements
  • Hot News Today
  • Law News
  • Movie News
  • Technology News

Recent Posts

  • How Does Web Hosting Affect Search Engine Ranking?
  • How to Choose the Best Stainless Steel Coils for Your Project
  • Understanding VPS Hosting Basics
  • Generate Buzz for Your Summer Fashion Collection With These 10 Strategies
  • Aging with Dignity: How Assisted Living Improves Quality of Life for Seniors

Archives

  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021

Visit Here

Beauty Salon

Copyright United Dairy News 2025 | Theme by ThemeinProgress | Proudly powered by WordPress

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT