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Rated: Unrated
Starring: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, et al.
Director: Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins Review
The winner of 10 Academy Awards, this 1961 musical by choreographer Jerome
Robbins and director Robert Wise (The Sound of Music) remains
irresistible. Based on a smash Broadway play updating Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet to the 1950s era of juvenile delinquency, the film stars
Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer as the star-crossed lovers from different
neighborhoods--and ethnicities. The film's real selling points, however,
are the highly-charged and inventive song-and-dance numbers, the
passionate ballads, the moody sets, colorful support from Rita Moreno, and
the sheer accomplishment of Hollywood talent and technology producing a
film so stirring. Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim wrote the score.
The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, Dolby sound, optional
French subtitles. --Tom Keogh
------------ Though the youngest members of
your family will not necessarily get what subtlety exists in this epic
romance, and there is much implied violence, this classic musical is an
excellent introduction to today's generation the real heat, talent and
creativity behind those GAP commercials...The score alone remains one of
the most memorable and emotionally satisfying Broadway scores ever; the
choreography is a non-stop show of balletic grace, beauty and violence.
Set in the real streets of New York, this movie has it all: a Romeo and
Juliet love story, featuring the adorable and winning Natalie Wood, who
despite the fact that she is lip-synching to Marnie Nixon's lovely
soprano, does a smashing job in the role of Maria. Richard Beymer, who
continued to play Tony onstage for many years, is goofily winning as Tony.
Rita Moreno adds fire and spice in the flashy role of Anita. Robert Wise,
who would later helm The Sound Of Music, works magic with Jerome Robbins;
the film is gorgeous to look at. Why oh why oh why can we not produce a
musical of such immediate power and lasting emotion today? I truly believe
that if the right creative team took the chance on something as hip and
well-drawn as this, people would flock once again to see musicals on film.
Buy it.
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