Latest / Have You Seen?! The Movie Podcast / West Side Story

Transcript

West Side Story · Have You Seen?! The Movie Podcast

0:00
Joe: The way it is, the lyric is more tongue-in-cheek, and so like they don't actually say it.
0:06
Joe: And so oh really?
0:07
Joe: You know, well, because yeah, because they say Officer Crumpy, Crump you.
0:29
Dylan: Welcome to Have You Seen the Movie Podcast, where every movie is a premiere.
0:34
Joe: This week we're stepping into one of the most iconic movie musicals of all time, West Side Story.
0:41
Joe: A love story set in the middle of a gang rivalry.
0:45
Dylan: If you enjoy the show, make sure to follow it on your favorite podcast app and leave us a five-star rating.
0:50
Dylan: It really helps the show grow.
0:52
Joe: And we want to hear from you.
0:53
Joe: Text us your name and a movie suggestion using the link in the description.
0:57
Dylan: This week's movie, West Side Story, is rated PG for violence, mature themes.
1:02
Dylan: So if that's not suitable for little ears, we hope you'll tune in next week.
1:06
Dylan: Came out in 65.
1:08
Dylan: 61.
1:09
Dylan: 61.
1:10
Dylan: Pardon.
1:12
Dylan: So who were the directors?
1:15
Joe: Uh directed by Robert Weiss and Jerome Robbins.
1:20
Joe: Okay.
1:21
Dylan: And have they directed anything we've watched on the show?
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Um not that I can think of yet.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:31
Dylan: It's based off of a an actual like Broadway stage musical.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:40
Dylan: Um like I got a lot of like Romeo and Juliet vibes from it.
1:46
Joe: Yeah.
1:46
Dylan: Like I totally was waiting for that.
1:49
Joe: Definitely inspired by Yeah.
1:51
Joe: Gotcha.
1:52
Joe: I like though that there were some twists, some changes.
1:56
Dylan: Yeah.
1:56
Joe: Yeah.
1:57
Dylan: Yep.
1:58
Dylan: Um.
1:59
Dylan: And I don't know if it was just the New York accents.
2:06
Dylan: But like I also kept getting um like newsies vibes from it.
2:12
Joe: Oh, yeah.
2:13
Joe: You know, after this, there were a lot of influences in other things.
2:18
Dylan: I can totally see that.
2:20
Joe: Yeah.
2:22
Joe: What did you expect going into this?
2:24
Joe: More musical or more drama?
2:26
Dylan: Oh, um.
2:28
Dylan: Man, it's I got a lot of both.
2:30
Dylan: Yeah.
2:31
Dylan: Yeah.
2:32
Dylan: Yeah.
2:33
Dylan: Um probably I probably expected more drama than musical.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:39
Dylan: And it totally started off, and I I really was like, oh man, this is gonna be long.
2:46
Dylan: Yeah, yeah, I could tell.
2:48
Dylan: I could tell.
2:51
Dylan: I I really like I know I was poking fun at some of the parts, and I really like wasn't doing it on purpose, but yeah.
3:00
Joe: Yeah.
3:01
Dylan: I was like, oh man.
3:03
Joe: Yeah.
3:04
Joe: No, right off the bat I just go, what have you done?
3:06
Joe: I was like, oh man.
3:08
Joe: Me and my wife are enjoying it and almost quoting it at the beginning, and you're just like, What do you mean almost?
3:13
Joe: Yeah.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: I was being modest.
3:23
Dylan: All right.
3:24
Dylan: Well, you'll have to stick around to see what the final final decision is.
3:30
Dylan: So if you haven't seen this movie in a while, here's a quick setup.
3:34
Dylan: Two rival gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, clash on the streets of New York while Tony and Maria fall in love, setting off a tragic chain of events.
3:44
Dylan: Dun dun dun.
3:47
Dylan: But yeah, kind of like touching back on what I was just saying about the like Romeo and Juliet vibes.
3:55
Dylan: Uh-huh.
3:55
Dylan: I really wondered if that's where a lot of it came from.
4:00
Joe: Yeah, I was definitely inspired by which they definitely did a good job of like changing it.
4:09
Joe: Uh-huh.
4:09
Joe: Modernizing it.
4:10
Joe: Kind of giving it.
4:12
Dylan: But yeah, it definitely starts off with like it's very I'm gonna I'm gonna say like musical heavy.
4:20
Dylan: It starts off with like the snapping.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:23
Dylan: And I'm like, okay, like I know it's supposed to be like a game.
4:29
Dylan: Yeah.
4:30
Dylan: Yeah.
4:31
Joe: Yeah.
4:32
Joe: The stage version was originally planned as a story about a Catholic boy falling in love with a Jewish girl, which was kind of the tension at the time.
4:41
Joe: But um, and the working title was East Side Story.
4:46
Joe: But after a boom of Puerto Rican immigration to New York in the late 40s and 50s, the story was changed and the show opened on Broadway in 1957.
4:57
Joe: So there was still some at that time um some like conflict or or like it was still taboo to have mixed couples on stage.
5:10
Joe: Yeah.
5:11
Dylan: So I kind of feel like it's still not taboo, but it's definitely like not touched often with like movies and plays and stuff.
5:24
Dylan: Yeah.
5:24
Dylan: Alright, Joe, so let's talk about characters.
5:27
Joe: Okay.
5:28
Joe: Who played Tony?
5:30
Joe: Uh Tony was played by Richard Bimer.
5:35
Joe: Um originally uh Elvis Presley was offered the part.
5:40
Dylan: Really?
5:41
Joe: Yeah.
5:43
Joe: Um and that was the original choice, and uh his uh Elvis' manager, uh Tom Parker, refused to have Elvis do it because he wanted him to do more numbers, and he only sang he only sang six of the twelve songs.
6:06
Joe: Only.
6:07
Joe: Okay.
6:08
Joe: And then the other thing was uh the rights to the recordings.
6:13
Joe: Uh they couldn't get the rights to the recordings.
6:16
Joe: So if they were to do a soundtrack, they wouldn't have had like residual income or anything like that.
6:22
Dylan: Oh, okay.
6:23
Joe: So they said nah.
6:25
Dylan: Which like is that was that uncommon to not have like the rights to it?
6:32
Dylan: Uh it was to like not get residuals?
6:34
Joe: It was more common to not get it, yeah.
6:37
Joe: Yeah, because the um movie production company and the music people associated with it got the rights to to everything and not the artists who were s singing on them.
6:50
Dylan: So yeah.
6:52
Dylan: Gotcha.
6:53
Joe: Yeah.
6:54
Dylan: Um so what else was was um Richard in then?
7:00
Joe: Um not very much.
7:02
Joe: This is you know, one of his breakout roles, and then he just continued acting.
7:08
Joe: Um so it was just a typical audition and um before that.
7:17
Joe: It was just a typical audition for him.
7:19
Dylan: So then you also have his counterpart of Maria, um played by Natalie Woods.
7:29
Dylan: Yeah.
7:30
Dylan: You said that.
7:31
Joe: Rebel without a cause.
7:33
Dylan: Oh yeah.
7:34
Dylan: Yeah, because she played why am I blanking on her name now?
7:37
Joe: But she played Judy?
7:40
Joe: Yeah, yeah, and that was done in so revel with was in 1955, and West Side's story was in 61, and they had seen a movie that she had done called Splendor in the Grass, yeah, with Warren Beatty, and so they kind of pursued her to kind of come in for the part.
8:01
Joe: They had already cast somebody, and then they saw her on screen, and then had her come in and audition and changed it.
8:10
Joe: Yeah, that's awesome.
8:11
Joe: It's awesome for her, but not for the person who's already cast.
8:15
Dylan: Well who played um Anita?
8:21
Joe: Rita Moreno.
8:23
Dylan: Um, I loved how uh strong of a character they let her be.
8:29
Dylan: I mean, because all the Puerto Ricans I know are you know very strong-willed and full of energy.
8:35
Dylan: Yeah.
8:36
Dylan: So I was very happy to see them let her portray that kind of to the full extent in the movie.
8:44
Joe: She was previously in The King and I and a lot of other musicals and kind of side um characters and things like that.
8:56
Joe: That was like one of her biggest roles.
8:59
Dylan: So who was the leader of the Jets?
9:03
Joe: That was Bernardo, played by George Caracas.
9:08
Joe: Of the Jets?
9:09
Joe: So that would be Riff played by Russ Tamblin.
9:15
Dylan: He did not get as much screen spotlight as I kind of expected.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah?
9:22
Dylan: Just being like kind of the leader.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
9:25
Dylan: And so I assumed that a lot more of the story was going to kind of evolve around him.
9:33
Joe: Oh, wow.
9:35
Joe: Yeah.
9:36
Joe: I mean, he was pretty big.
9:37
Joe: Um, he had a good following up until that point as an actor who's in Seven Brides and Seven Brothers.
9:44
Joe: I think it's the young guns where he there's a there's actually a clip going around right now on social media that's kind of been blowing up, and he dances on these um shovels.
9:58
Dylan: Oh yeah?
9:59
Joe: Yeah, and he does this crazy acrobatic uh choreography, and he dances on shovels, like his feet are on the two shovels, and then he like flips them around and like bounces off of them and just that's impressive.
10:14
Joe: Yeah, he was known for for kind of his acrobatic dancing, yeah.
10:19
Joe: And so that was one major reason why they they wanted him.
10:24
Dylan: For his tough dancing skills.
10:27
Dylan: Exactly.
10:28
Joe: We need tough dancing skills.
10:35
Joe: Who was the leader of the sharks?
10:36
Joe: Bernardo.
10:38
Joe: Okay.
10:40
Joe: Played by George Carrickus.
10:48
Joe: Yeah.
10:49
Joe: Really hard to pronounce his name.
10:52
Joe: As I pointed out in the uh White Christmas episode, he was uh one of the background dancers in White Christmas.
11:01
Dylan: Oh, really?
11:02
Joe: Mm-hmm.
11:03
Dylan: You pointed that out, did you?
11:05
Dylan: I did.
11:06
Joe: Do you listen to our podcast?
11:08
Dylan: Well, I don't remember you pointed that out at all.
11:15
Joe: I did.
11:16
Joe: I made a huge point about it.
11:17
Joe: Because yeah.
11:19
Joe: Yeah, right in the uh from anything to like the biggest one that he stands out in is um Love You Didn't Do Right by Me, uh, where she's in the club singing that song.
11:32
Joe: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:33
Joe: Yeah, and there's only a few dancers with her, and he's one of the main dancers.
11:37
Joe: Oh, okay.
11:38
Dylan: Yeah.
11:39
Dylan: Now I'm getting flashbacks.
11:41
Dylan: Gotcha.
11:42
Dylan: Okay.
11:42
Dylan: All right.
11:43
Dylan: So speaking of dancing and stuff, I feel like we definitely have to talk about the music.
11:48
Joe: Yeah, since it's a musical.
11:53
Joe: Um yeah, a lot of what they wanted to do was to mix genres because you know, you have like the jets and the sharks, but you and so musically they wanted to mix it up.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: Let's mix it.
12:08
Joe: Um and uh and so they did kind of a or they didn't want to do the typical orchestral soundtrack.
12:19
Joe: Yeah.
12:20
Joe: And so they went with jazz fusion and Latin fusion.
12:24
Joe: Yeah.
12:24
Joe: And so you have these like where where it's the jets, it's more jazzy, and then where it's the sharks, it's it's more Latin fusion.
12:32
Joe: Yeah.
12:33
Joe: And um one of my favorite examples for them kind of mixing it up is they do a six-eight followed by a three-four, a six, eight followed by a three-four, and they just play with those rhythms.
12:47
Joe: Yeah.
12:48
Joe: And uh the America song, uh, it's one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three.
12:58
Joe: So it's that wouldn't be hard at all.
13:00
Joe: Right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:03
Joe: Like I could see it and play it, but but then Rita Moreno said that this was not the typical dance music because you know, you're you're used to a five, six, seven, eight, or a one, two, three, four, you know, and this is like, you know, odd meters and things like that.
13:23
Dylan: I mean, which they totally nailed the the vibe though.
13:28
Dylan: Like, definitely brought through that that Latin flair with it.
13:33
Joe: Right.
13:34
Joe: So yeah.
13:36
Joe: So many, so many times that uh they brought that, they brought that in.
13:42
Joe: It's so good.
13:43
Joe: The America one for me is like one of the biggest ones, uh where I just feel like you know, you have this back and forth between the men and the women.
13:52
Joe: Yeah, you know.
13:53
Dylan: They did really good at that.
13:54
Dylan: Yeah.
13:55
Dylan: That's one of my favorites, and then also um would have to go to Officer Krumke.
14:00
Dylan: Yeah.
14:03
Dylan: Yeah.
14:04
Dylan: That whole song there was just funny the whole time.
14:07
Dylan: Yeah.
14:07
Joe: It was funny when they started with the stage play and they were writing lyrics, they were gonna say Officer Crumbke F U, you know, the full word.
14:18
Joe: Um, but because of like like standard standards and practices, even on stage, they couldn't write that.
14:27
Joe: Oh and to me, having grown up watching that the way it is, the lyric is more tongue-in-cheek, and so like they don't actually say it.
14:37
Joe: And so Oh really?
14:38
Joe: You know, well, because yeah, because they say Officer Crumpke, Crump you.
14:44
Dylan: Oh, I totally my brain totally translated that into Young.
14:49
Dylan: Yeah, yeah.
14:50
Dylan: Because I totally thought it was the uh you know, F U.
14:53
Dylan: Yeah, the F U, yeah, yeah.
14:55
Joe: Yeah, and it's it's just funny.
14:56
Joe: Like, to me, I I've always liked that little like they don't they don't go that far, you know.
15:02
Joe: Right.
15:02
Dylan: Yeah.
15:04
Dylan: Tongue in cheek like that's just real fun in the theater, anyways.
15:07
Joe: Yeah.
15:08
Joe: Yeah.
15:09
Joe: So musically they they just wanted to have that split between cultures, you know.
15:17
Joe: And so where I really feel like they did a good job of so despite most of the actors coming from Broadway and some of them coming from the actual Broadway show.
15:27
Dylan: Oh, that's cool.
15:28
Dylan: I didn't know that.
15:29
Joe: All the actors are or the major I would say the majority of the actors' voices were overdubbed.
15:36
Joe: Oh yes, really, yes.
15:39
Joe: So Natalie Wood had it in her contract that she would record the vocals for for all of her numbers, and the producers didn't feel like she had the strongest voice.
15:51
Joe: So yeah, and they were just kind of hesitant on um you know, having her do it.
15:59
Joe: Yeah.
16:00
Joe: So contractually, she recorded those.
16:04
Dylan: Oh man, they're like, I found a gray area.
16:07
Joe: Yeah, exactly.
16:08
Joe: So she recorded everything, recorded things, you know, like uh, you know, they took stuff from her voice when they did the on-screen, everything.
16:18
Joe: So she she she sang along to all that, and then um they told her, Well, we're gonna have somebody overdub and sweeten up some of these parts.
16:30
Joe: Um, okay, you know, and then they ended up just totally recording the songs over with a different person, and um, I think her name was Marty Nicks, and um and so they fulfilled their obligation of of having her record it, which was in her contract, yeah, but it wasn't in her contract to keep the recordings or to keep it in the thing, so they were able to move on without uh, and so consequently uh with the rest of the actors, they did the same thing.
17:04
Joe: Wow, and they didn't have it in their contract, so it was like a kind of easy peasy.
17:09
Joe: Right.
17:09
Joe: Um, Rita Moreno uh couldn't hit the low note notes in um when Rita Moreno was singing to her about you know get with your own kind and be with your own kind and all.
17:23
Dylan: Oh, yeah.
17:24
Joe: Um and so she couldn't hit those low notes, so they went in and they they for that one in particular, because she couldn't hit the low notes, they just recorded the whole thing and kind of just replaced her in that scene.
17:41
Joe: Yeah, her voice.
17:43
Joe: And Rita Moreno was kind of like you know, she had more of a growl to her because she was you know, she was playing anger, you know, and she just said the the person who overdubbed just didn't go there, like oh it's just a little more fluid, a little more, you know, polished compared to what she had done.
18:04
Dylan: Oh, that's that's sad.
18:06
Joe: Yeah.
18:07
Dylan: With them like going in and like overdubbing, I think we should definitely talk about just how the movie is put together.
18:14
Joe: Yeah, I mean it goes from anything to um the style of choreography to the choreography was designed specifically for each character.
18:27
Joe: Really?
18:28
Joe: And so Anita's character, which you know you caught on as being strong, right, was designed for a strong female.
18:35
Joe: Hey, I did it, yeah.
18:38
Joe: And even even the uh technique of dancing and and all those things went into her character, yeah.
18:49
Joe: And so they made the techniques and everything harder to make her look stronger, and um, and that you know that made her have to work a lot harder on the part to to to put that all together.
19:04
Joe: Yeah.
19:05
Joe: So at the time of musicals, there was in a lot of musicals, dancing was sometimes just a filler for you know things.
19:16
Joe: And it's just like, hey, we're in a musical that's dance, pa-pa, you know, and uh, and so uh Rogers Rogers and Hammerstein and you know in the in the movie Oklahoma made it so that if a dance was missing, um so was the plot.
19:37
Joe: And so the the dancing in the movie was used to drive the plot and tell more of the story while it was going on.
19:46
Joe: And so West Side's story is kind of the epitome of this, where they take that and you know, uh again going back to like things like Tonight or Maria or um, you know, you know, a lot of these songs where this is their plot driving forward and their dialogue is coming through in the music while they're dancing, and so so it's a lot more you know purposeful than just hey, that's dance.
20:19
Joe: Yeah.
20:19
Joe: They used real locations uh in New York.
20:23
Joe: Really?
20:24
Dylan: I was gonna ask about that.
20:26
Joe: Yeah, like they they definitely built a lot of sets, yeah.
20:30
Joe: Because when so they built the sets like six feet off the ground so they could get lower angles.
20:37
Joe: Oh, okay.
20:38
Joe: And so where they needed to do that, they built the set and and uh, you know, usually where they're dancing, and you can get those upshots and things like that.
20:48
Joe: Um but uh yeah, so they used the actual real locations mixed with um, you know, uh stage and studio things like that.
21:00
Dylan: So they definitely did a good job bunding it all together.
21:03
Joe: Yeah.
21:04
Joe: And then they they really wanted to define you know gang versus gang.
21:10
Joe: Yeah.
21:10
Joe: And so um they they had like established colors for yeah, I noticed that.
21:18
Joe: Yeah, it it pops out really, really quick.
21:21
Dylan: Yeah, yeah, which I definitely appreciated because there's a lot of people could uh keep track of.
21:28
Joe: Yeah.
21:29
Joe: Yeah, it's it's uh and you have like with the sharks, it's more warm tones and reds and purples, and these really like stick out, you know.
21:41
Joe: Yeah.
21:41
Joe: Like uh the first time you see Bernardo, he has that blood red shirt on.
21:46
Joe: Yup.
21:46
Joe: You know, and like black pants.
21:48
Joe: That's it.
21:49
Joe: Right.
21:49
Joe: Boom.
21:50
Joe: You know, and uh, and then you see the other, you know, you see the jets, and there's more earth tones and blues and greens, and like they have the yellow jackets and you know the kind of khaki color, I guess.
22:02
Joe: Um and uh and so yeah when you see those contrasts and you know clashing against each other and things and even um there's a point where when they go to the dance Bernardo and and uh Anita are basically matchy matchy yeah right it's like they got the they got the shark purple on you know right it's kind of funny though because Maria she has a little red on her but then her dress is white is white yeah I liked the moment in the move in the movie where she's like I can't wear white nobody else there is going to be wearing oh nobody else there is going to be wearing white yeah yeah yeah plus you know how much she she hates the dress and right she's I'm not gonna wear it and she puts it on she's like oh it's so beautiful yeah I think it's funny too that like the whole conflict was her willing to drop the uh I don't know cle what would you call it cleavage line I don't know yeah like by an inch or whatever yeah she's like just one inch that's one of my favorite lines in there is like you know you know we're just gonna go to a dance or whatever and then she says something about um something about you end up praying at the end or something like that.
23:31
Dylan: Let's talk about favorite scenes.
23:34
Dylan: So I know that you had said previously that the American number was one of your favorites so do you have any others?
23:44
Joe: Um I'd also say culturally like like looking forward um you haven't seen Greece yet right nope okay there is a there's definitely a play on that in in uh in Greece but we we could talk about that more if you remember it.
24:03
Joe: Okay.
24:04
Joe: As long as you point it out again um I think stay cool is is always one that um that sticks out for me.
24:13
Joe: Yeah yeah because it's you know after everything hits the fan and they're just trying to kind of re regather and and kind of lick their wounds and like figure out what they're gonna do and what's going on and and so then the the new kind of leader steps up it's like okay you know Riff's gone you're stepping in yeah you guys need to chill uh more precise you need to stay cool yeah exactly yeah they the these days it'd just be called chill or something take a chill pill yeah and apparently like they filmed it in a parking garage but it was such a tight set that the low ceiling made the whole place feel like an oven and so when you see them like perspiring I thought they were extra shiny.
25:12
Joe: Yeah yeah they're extra shiny in that and they were it's like they you know they would they would you know stop a scene and run outside because it was cold yeah get cool and come back and it was so bad that one of the actors was sick already had a fever and eventually passed out and had to go to the hospital because it was just the temperature just everything going on like he pushed through but it was just like he was dead yeah man I do like the dance scene um it's it's so John Aston is the guy who who um he he's the main uh person who's like commanding the dance and saying hey let's partner and everything and he would eventually go on to play Gomez Adams in the Adam original Adams family.
26:06
Joe: Oh yeah and he's actually the dad of um Sam Wise or of Sean Aston who's in Goonies as well oh yeah yeah so it's just yeah kind of cool connections but yeah he's just a funny guy you know yes yeah I was gonna say the dance scene is one of one of my favorites too b because it shows the you know the the Latin versus kind of the American like choreography.
26:44
Joe: Yeah that's what I was looking for.
26:46
Joe: Mambo versus Mambo um the the rumble's a good scene too yeah yeah it is it's yeah all those like yeah everything the way they put together and how it seems it seems natural but it's all choreographed yeah you know right it's just like that's the whole like magic trick of it is to make it seem as natural as possible.
27:16
Dylan: Right.
27:17
Joe: So yeah and you know going back to the dance scene just just when they they see each other from across the room and in you know everything around them disappears and then they have that kind of like um the framing yeah the framing you know the blur out framing kind of thing and um which you're like what is that about but yeah it's just they see each other for the first time and it's like I was like thinking man this would be this would have been interesting if that was Elvis you know like man that would have been a really different movie yeah if it was yeah Maria I wonder if he would have done a like a Brooklyn accent or whatever a New York accent all right Joe so let's get into some behind the scenes nuggets.
28:28
Dylan: All right what do you got for us?
28:30
Joe: Well as we said Marnie Nixon was the overdub vocalist for for the leads for both Anita and Maria there was also a company that was hired to overdub all the other actors oh so they're just like we're just gonna hire this out yeah apparently um there's companies like this that and I don't know if I'm pretty sure they still exist in probably more numbers than they were in the 60s but they hired a company and they took all the singers and had them basically sing along to the movie uh and try to match the vocals for each each person.
29:14
Joe: And I could tell that in the um the scene where um Anita's you know telling Maria that uh you know the you know why would you go with somebody who killed your brother yeah there it doesn't match completely.
29:34
Dylan: Yeah.
29:35
Joe: And I always thought it was like my TV or like just overdumbing in general.
29:39
Joe: Yeah but it was like it was actually the company that recorded all this so it was a pretty interesting way about yeah yeah one of the things with Rita Moreno as well is that they had her uh so Natalie would uh basically all the Puerto Ricans had to wear thick dark skin tone makeup yeah and so they caked them in the stuff like so that they would look darker but she's she was already dark yeah and so she really like she said she was in the makeup trailer and was complaining like I don't know why I have to be this color you know I don't know why I have to be this dark and and all this stuff and the the the makeup person actually asked if she was racist she's like I don't know why I have to be this dark and they're like are you racist?
30:40
Joe: That's wild.
30:41
Dylan: Yeah I mean did they have them be darker just so it stood out more on the camera?
30:46
Joe: They had them be darker so they looked more Puerto Rican okay and Natalie Wood isn't you know Hispanic at all she's actually Russian origin.
30:56
Joe: Uh and George Chikaris um he he's Greek or something like that.
31:03
Dylan: So like like yeah and okay because I thought his skin tone looked weird.
31:08
Dylan: Yeah yeah very it's kind of blotchy.
31:11
Joe: Yeah yeah um yeah and it was it was just the weird you know thing is not all the Puerto Ricans who you know played Puerto Ricans were Puerto Rican.
31:26
Joe: Yeah there were a lot of Caucasians there was um at least one Asian yeah you pointed out pointed her out in while we were watching yeah yeah and you know it it just it just uh it's interesting the way they casted back back in the day you know I mean is that because there just weren't many Puerto Ricans in the industry or racism?
31:52
Joe: Yeah or I think I you know it was 1961 so it was before a lot of things changed uh it was still in the middle of of things kind of progressing into having mixed actual mixed people in the same room yeah you know so yeah so there was a lot of that um I think some of it was just they cast it and these people danced better than those people and you know we're just gonna cast them yeah because they needed dancers more than they needed whatever you know so it's pretty interesting.
32:31
Dylan: Yeah inter it it goes to show how things have changed over time though for sure.
32:37
Joe: So what would you say is like the the cultural impact of this movie well I'm glad you asked I think most musicals where you see people dancing while there's a fight you know um and I think you know again you have like I said Greece which to me is a throwback to this you know movie culturally with how they used Romeo and Juliet I think that opened up the you know kind of opened things up to reinterpret a lot of other Shakespeare plays.
33:21
Joe: Yeah um and even with the I think it was Baz Lorman did a redo in the 90s of of uh Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio um and that that was like a modern take because they had like instead of swords like they spoke in the original text but they had they had guns instead of swords and things like that.
33:45
Joe: So yeah just a lot of uh different things one of the biggest ones that you know he admittedly uh did was Michael Jackson um you know in the 80s uh he he did thriller he did beat it um so if you take beat it uh bad and a couple of other you know uh videos that he did it's it's fighting with dance choreography yeah yeah and it's just like I mean even in um with Beat It they're going through the streets they're you know they're in this garage they're you know they're just having this whole like thing and and it it just goes back to West Side story in that yeah you know oh smooth criminal yeah smooth criminal where he's more of a gangster uh you know and uh but and then beat it they're in a parking garage like fighting and you know so just uh yeah and that was a huge huge thing for him that influenced him to to do that all right Dylan so we're gonna rate this and you're gonna tell me did you like it did you not like it and what was expected versus what you received expected versus received yeah I mean I did not know a whole lot about this going into it okay um like I knew that it was like two rival gangs but that was pretty much it yeah so I think for overall rating though I'd probably give it a seven okay um I enjoyed it yeah I would not go running back to it or dancing snapping back to it yeah but it was good though I mean I it's definitely not one of those ones that I'm like I just regret watching it.
35:50
Joe: Yeah yeah good I thought it was I really thought like I th I thought you were gonna give it I thought this was gonna be our lowest score because yeah you got up in the middle and I was like oh he's getting up yeah I mean I don't know it's just one of those things that I like I like musicals but this was a lot of musical yeah yeah like I said it was the epitome of the the dance right yeah yeah it it to me it um you know I I wanted to watch it when I first seen it because of Natalie would say she's in it I watch it and then I just love love the songs and then over the years as me and me and my wife have watched it it's just it's just we get the lines down and we know and every so often we'll quote it kind of like Back to the future.
36:53
Joe: Yeah every once in a while we'll we'll say something like it waits it waits it was so funny too because I made a comment while we were watching it about the snapping oh yeah like uh maybe two minutes later your wife goes get ready there's more snapping yeah it's like oh great yeah yeah I and I'd go with the seven yeah yeah for me it it's it's also you know since I've known the movie I'll just put it on you know it's it's kind of like the meme of I'm just gonna put this on while I clean kind of thing and then I end up standing and watching it or dancing or dancing pulling a full-on missed outfire yeah exactly so anything else so does this mean when we're in the uh when we're at Universal and we see the the street dancers you and I are gonna go do a dance off I'm gonna have to get it back to you on that one.
38:03
Dylan: Okay well thanks for listening to have you seen the movie podcast thanks wow reread that make sure to follow the show on your favorite podcast app and if you're enjoying it leave us a five star rating it really helps the show grow.
38:24
Joe: And we want to hear from you text us your name and a movie suggestion using the link in the description you can also follow all of our socials in the description as well everything you need is right there we'll be back next week with another movie premiere so Dylan are we gonna start settling arguments through dance now absolutely mumbo mumbo