HOLLOW SQUARE PRESS
  • HOME
  • BLOG
  • BOOKS
    • TOM'S BOOKS >
      • BAKER'S DAUGHTER, MILLER'S SON
      • BOY AT SEA
      • THE CURSE OF VILMA VALENTINE
      • A FEVER OF THE MAD
      • GHOST GUITARS
      • SOME TRICKS OF DESPERATION
      • TOM'S SONGBOOK
    • JONATHAN'S BOOKS >
      • A HOWLING IN THE NIGHT
      • SIREN SONG
  • FILMS
    • THE EARLY YEARS: 1970 - 1975 >
      • ALEX IN WONDERLAND, 1970
      • RYAN'S DAUGHTER, 1970
      • SHAFT, 1971
      • THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT, 1971
      • THE WRATH OF GOD, 1972
      • THE EFFECT OF GAMMA RAYS ON MAN-IN-THE-MOON MARIGOLDS, 1972
      • THE LAST AMERICAN HERO, 1973
      • THE HAPPY HOOKER, 1975
    • THE MIDDLE YEARS: 1976 - 1981 >
      • GODZILLA VS. MEGALON, 1976
      • BOARDWALK, 1979
      • BLOW OUT, 1981
      • THE CHOSEN 1981
      • SO FINE, 1981
      • TATTOO, 1981
    • THE FINAL YEARS, 1982 - 1987 >
      • EASY MONEY, 1983
      • HARRY AND SON, 1983
      • THE LAST DRAGON, 1985
  • SONGS
    • AN ASSORTMENT OF LYRICS
    • THE DARWIN THEORY
    • THE STONEWALLYA KID
    • A STRING OF BANJOS
    • BOOZE
  • PLACES
    • OLD SAWYERVILLE
    • GHOSTS OF SAWYERVILLE
    • HOLLOW SQUARE CEMETERY
    • PIE LAB
  • SEASONS
    • SPRING >
      • 1. Bulbs, Redbud, & Crabapple
      • 2. Azalea, Iris, & Dogwood
      • 3. Magnolia & Dootsie
    • SUMMER >
      • A GATHERING OF OLD MEN, 1987
      • 1. Black-Eyed Susans, Day Lilies, & Four O'clocks
      • 2. Crepe Myrtle
      • 3. Tiger Lilies, Althea, & Naked Ladies
      • 4. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
    • AUTUMN >
      • 1. FALL: THE EARLY SIGNS
      • 2. OCTOBER
      • 3. FALL: THE REST OF THE SEASON
    • WINTER >
      • 1. WINTER'S ON THE WAY!
      • 2. THE PROGRESS OF WINTER

WEST SIDE STORY 2021: THE WRECKING BALL

3/6/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
​Last night I watched the Spielberg/Kushner “West Side Story” for the second time, this time on HBO Max. I loved it even more than when I first watched it 3 days earlier on Disney Plus.
 
As always I am struck by the sheer craft of both Stephen Spielberg and Tony Kushner. Kushner seems to be Spielberg’s go-to man for screenplays, and my assumption is that the 2 men have lengthy conversations concerning what the project is about. I’d love to have been in on their conversations about the prologue to the new movie.
The 1961 movie opens with the gorgeous tracking shot moving westward across New York and Manhattan and eventually descending to a playground where the Jets are hanging out.
 
The 2021 movie opens with a gorgeous tracking shot over the rubble created by the destruction of the San Juan Hill neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan to make room for the new and gleaming Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
San Juan Hill, Manhattan - Wikipedi
​We see the buildings in various stages of deconstruction, and we see giant cranes holding wrecking balls. And the camera pulls upward, away from the ground level, passing a wrecking ball until it fills nearly the entire screen. Pitted, worn, it looks like a planet.

And maybe it is. Maybe it is our planet. Maybe we have ascended from a view of specific destruction to one of a barren planet destroyed. Am I reading too much into this image? I don’t think so, given the past work of the 2 men named earlier.
Picture
Scenes from the 1961movie were actually filmed in the rubble created, although the relationship of that rubble to Lincoln Center is never mentioned. In the new movie the relationship is made explicit. Throughout we are confronted with the fact that the fight between the Jets and the Sharks over turf is irrelevant, for the turf will be no more. The Jets and the Sharks are both doomed.
 
And I think of turf wars in our nation and in the world today. And I think of that barren wrecking ball filling the screen . . .
 
[Here is an excerpt from the opening of the new movie. Unfortunately it stops just as it gets to the wrecking ball that caught my attention.]
(1500) WEST SIDE STORY 2021 OPENING SCENE HD OPENING SHOT STEVEN SPIELBERG - YouTube
​
Picture
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    August 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    June 2021
    January 2021
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    April 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All
    Books
    Eating
    Flowers
    Movies
    Pie Lab
    Stanley Kubrick
    Terence Davies
    Terrence Malick
    Weather

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    contact form

Submit