West Side Story

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Disney+ (2021)

Review by Amanda Vilanova

West Side Story is often the only point of reference, apart from J.Lo, that many people in the UK and elsewhere have for Puerto Rico. It doesn’t offend me; it’s just a mild annoyance. I usually do not sound or look Puerto Rican enough to live up to most people’s expectations, but, hey, neither did Rita Moreno, the only Puerto Rican in the cast of the 1961 film, whose face was infamously darkened by make-up artists and who was instructed to exaggerate her accent for the role of Anita. I was poised to detest Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake. From its first announcement I rolled my eyes. Who needs another one? I dragged my mother into a cinema to watch it while she reminded me that the original film ‘had nothing to do with’ her.

The initial moments of the new film set up the conflict between the Jets and the Sharks. Much of the San Juan Hill community in the Upper West Side of Manhattan has been displaced to make way for luxury developments. Turf is smaller and these two gangs must fight to keep control. We see a mural with the Puerto Rican flag and a quotation from Pedro Albizu Campos (leader of the Puerto Rican independence movement).  The Jets insult the Sharks by defacing it, and the latter break into song in Spanish – not any old song, but the original anthem of the island, with its calls for independence. Though the moment they began to sing didn’t quite work, I cried. My anthem was being sung in a Hollywood film. I wish I didn’t need Hollywood’s validation, but I was moved. In these first minutes it seemed as if, in line with the marketing, the film was made for Latin Americans, and Puerto Ricans in particular. It isn’t, and it was a delusion to think it was ever going to be. I couldn’t enjoy it unless I accepted that it wasn’t made for me. It was for an outsider audience looking into a sliver of the Puerto Rican immigrant experience. 

Spielberg prepared the film for years and held a conference in the University of Puerto Rico to discuss representation, execution, and casting. It is undoubtedly a better film than the original. It retains the showmanship while attempting to right past wrongs, though a lot of these amendments feel like Band-Aids on an open wound. The Jets mention Puerto Rico’s relationship to the US in an offhand comment which doesn’t honour the complex history of the island as a US territory whose residents have no right to vote in the US general elections and practically no control over their trade or economy.  The presence of important symbols of Puerto Rican culture, like the flag, anthem and very precise accents and idioms, doesn’t fix the inherent flaws of the original musical though their presence does make the characters’ background more specific. The Puerto Rican characters speak Spanish to one another, free of subtitles, in a celebration of bilingualism. The film is glitzy and beautiful. The choreography and music and are gorgeous and I still can’t get the song ‘María’ out of my head. Ariana DeBose as Anita and David Alvarez as Bernardo are a triumph, with the chemistry and passion that is lacking in María and Tony’s relationship. As for the central love-struck couple on different sides of the cultural divide, Rachel Zegler’s María is energetic and watchable while Ansel Elgort does a reasonable job as Tony, though he never manages to blow us away.

Some of the changes work well. The complex representation of gender through a fantastic performance by Iris Menas as the character Anybodys, as well as Chino’s new backstory of an educated and aspirational young man caught up in the ensuing violence, are wonderful to watch. The Puerto Rican characters are working honestly and hustling (as we do), trying to make their way in a city where they are not accepted, while the Jets have the air of being purposeless and dangerous lost boys. This is particularly poignant in the final scenes where Anita visits the store run by Valentina (Rita Moreno), to give Tony a vital message. She is insulted and sexually assaulted by the Jets, while two of the Jet girls beg them to let her go.  It’s a very difficult scene to watch and an all too accurate portrayal of the horrible shapes racism and chauvinism can take. 

On the other hand, in this version Maria and Tony’s make-believe wedding set in a church is cringey and overly serious. Tony’s ex-convict backstory doesn’t add much to the plot or character development, just clunky exposition scenes and a questionable stance on prison’s ability to reform inmates. The musical number ‘America’ is still a flamenco (a Spanish dance not a Puerto Rican one) and though the lyrics have been altered, it is only a superficial change. The core of the story and music cannot be changed; it is a classic. This film was not made for Puerto Ricans but at least, in contrast to the original, it was made with us in mind. 

I am thrilled for the Puerto Ricans and Latinos who worked on the film onscreen and off to help make its representation more accurate. I hope it’s a stepping-stone for many Puerto Rican artists in the US and around the world to be seen, recognised, and valued. However, let’s seek, champion, and tell more interesting and nuanced Latin American stories now that we’ve gotten this remake out of our system.

Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Studios

Amanda Vilanova

Amanda Vilanova is a Puerto Rican writer, actor and translator based in London.