Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story begins with what looks like a shot from the director’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. The camera hovers over a crumbling city, swooping past a wrecking ball as it haunts the remains of a once bustling neighborhood. Eventually, audiences meet the Jets and the Sharks—rival gangs of different ethnic backgrounds—both vying for control of a community on the brink of destruction. Beneath layers of bravado and swagger, they too live under the shadow of a wrecking ball. They too fear they’ll soon be replaced by a shiny new condominium.
On the surface, West Side Story follows the swooning romance of two lovers (played respectively by Rachel Zegler and Ansel Elgort) caught in the crossfire of a violent gang war. At its thematic core, however, Spielberg’s newest outing is best understood as the story of a community fighting to be both seen and heard. As the performers sing and dance their way throughout each musical number, one gets the sense that their very movements serve as a visualization of their deep longings and emotions. After the initial wartime-like shot, Spielberg breaks the film open in a splash of color and vibrancy. What, on the outside, looks like a community nearing extinction, turns out to be a blast of fresh life. West Side Story literally gives a voice (or more accurately, a song) to the voiceless.
Throughout the film, Spielberg also employs a series of hovering or overhead shots, adding both a sense of magnitude and spiritual dimension to the story. Despite the violence and tragedy that beset these characters, might there be Someone watching? Caring? Whatever your interpretation, the film emphasizes how much these individuals matter—despite their numerous flaws. They are important.
Christian viewers would be hard-pressed to find another 2021 film that lavishes such care and attention to characters on the edges of society. How can we love our neighbors if we first don’t learn to see them? In West Side Story, not only do we watch these characters go about their daily lives, we also get to participate in their joy, abundance, sorrow, and pain. — Wade Bearden
Arts & Faith Lists:
2021 Ecumenical Jury