This film is a myth, like the musical it comes from. It has been alive and a success as a musical for more than 50 years and about the same for the film when it became a VHS tape and now a DVD. It is doomed to be a lasting success and hence a classic in its genre and in its field.
Of course it is a rewriting of Romeo and Juliet but with some kind of a twist. The twist is that the two young people are simple young people and not members of the aristocratic families of an ancient city. They are second or third generation immigrants in New York of European origins, the jets, versus the first generation immigrants from Porto Rico, the Sharks. The girl is a Porto Rican and the boy is a New Yorker. In fact the first fight is very similar in a way to what happened in Shakespeare's play. Riff is killed by Bernardo, Bernardo is killed by Anton and there is the twist. Chino picks up the vengeance of Bernardo and runs after Tony and he will shoot Tony in the arms of Maria who will survive. Tony's body will be taken away by members of both gangs.
Of course the context is completely different and the New Yorkers are very good at mocking other people, cops, judges, head shrinks and social workers and at depicting their fate as the most dramatic and tragic alienation, exploitation and dereliction. They all are born Mercutios. They are the victims of the smoke of tobacco and other stuffs, the fumes of alcohol and other wines, the beatings of their fathers and other parents, etc. They are just discrete on the sexual part because of the time (1961 for the film) and the targeted audience that has to be a family audience even if it is Parental Guidance on my DVD.
There is not much to add to this since the twist does not really change Shakespeare's lesson. Bigotry, racism, hate and a few other of these subhuman passions are dominant with simple people in any society and they guide their passions, feelings, actions and reactions. These simple people can kill in a mob and even individually when such emotions take hold of them. And after that there is nothing left for the survivors to do except to cry and suffer in silence if possible.
But this film, then VHS tape and now DVD brings up a completely different discussion. The musical was for an elite audience, that of the Broadway theatres. The film was for a wider public though the cinemas needed to be equipped in wide screens, color projectors and sound systems of quality. It anyway reached a wider audience than the play. The film amplified the success of the musical. The VHS tape came later and in fact was the cause and amplification of the first revival twenty years later. The DVD was in the same way the cause and the amplification of the second revival of the musical some twenty more years later. Each revival went along with a vast tour in the USA and Canada but also all over the world, especially the second since many cities are now equipped in special large halls for such super productions.
But the live musical and the DVD are not the same.
The live musical takes you into the magic of a show on a stage with lights and sets that are supposed to fascinate you, with actors, singers and dancers that are supposed to mesmerize you and a music that is supposed to charm you. But you are sitting in one place and cannot move and you can at best use special binoculars to zoom on some actors or singers but then you lose the wide picture. A show like this one is of course entirely nourished with conventions in the acting, the singing, the performing, and so on, of every single artist on the stage or in front of the stage or anywhere else in the house. Conventions and trade-unions that can at times dictate the rhythm of the show. The spectator is supposed to let him/herself slide into that magic and enjoy both visually and auditorily but the heavy machinery that produces the lights, the amplification and the various physical elements of the show take you for a real dance and you may fly into the show. The very strong sentimental scenes and situations may carry your emotions away too. But that will remain moderate due to the distance between you and the characters.
The film, VHS and then DVD are free of such constraints, at least for you. This film uses a real location, New York itself from the very start wince we come from the sky to land in the street of the West side of Manhattan after a slowly zooming overview down into the streets from the sky. This real location is of course an enormous change because of the liberation it provides the actors, singers and dancers. They have space, they can move, climb, run, and do many other things without any limits, or nearly none. They can play basketball in real conditions. They even have cars in the street and the cops come into the various street situations with their cars blinking blue end red like some bleeding heart.
The second change you perceive from the very start is of course the great mobility of the camera. You can shift from one angle to another instantly and that creates movement in the picture and on the screen since you are constantly capturing the situation from a myriad points of view. This acceleration of the camera's movements and multiplication of shooting angles really project you into the action or suck you up into it if your prefer and you are a lot more involved in the action, in the film. You are no longer a simple voyeur. You are part of the action itself.
This is multiplied by the fact that the camera is constantly zooming onto faces and bombarding you with close-ups that enable you to see the facial expressions of the actors, their tears and their suffering, their joy and their pain. You are deeply moved in your own sentimental emotions by this closeness to the actors and you may not identify with one particularly actor or actress, but you definitely feel part of the situations that are constructed on the screen. The production becomes deeply multi-sensorial, though not all-sensorial, which makes you keep a mental reflective distance, especially since you constantly keep in mind Shakespeare and so many other love dramas you know, from the Titanic to Love Story. Note this empathy you feel in front of this film comes from your famous mirror neurons that make you project yourself into the emotions of other people.
The film knows how to maintain this distance which is basic with a wide screen film. A film is not supposed to swallow you up and make you be an enjoying machine that has no mind.
Here the film very precisely uses some means to remind you how you must keep that mental reflective distance. The opening sequence with its changing colors on a simple sketch of New York, then the slow descent into New York. It is artificial enough to tell you that you are supposed to keep your mind alert. The dancing itself is a distance building device, just as much as the singing, since as far as I know people don't sing in everyday situation, and you probably cannot really identify yourself with that dancing or singing since you are not a member of these professions.
The film also uses lights to create such a distance by building luminous situations that are not realistic like red lights under the highway. The night scenes are particularly eerie and your mind reacts in a way or another to identify the nature of the atmosphere, the premonition contained in the scene.
Finally the credits at the end leave a fully realistic set behind and write most names as graffiti on brick walls, stone walls, concrete surface, palisades of all types and particularly a palisade only made up of old doors, to finish with road signs that are orders to turn left or not turn right, of stop, or not walk on the grass. There you know that you are in a film, that you have to keep a distance, that your mind is supposed to stay alert and fresh, and that you are supposed to come back on earth.
The film is thus a perfect example of what can be done with a musical. It becomes a real film that associates a multi-sensorial experience and yet a mental reflective distance, and at the same time some acting conventions, the dancing and the singing, the music even, are there to both charm you and keep you alert. And you sure have quite a plateful of thinking to do all along the film and you are nourished and fed with the necessary energy to chew your food properly. Have a good digestion.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
