With seven Oscar nominations that include Best Picture & Best Director, Disney has decided to re-release this film in the USA in early March, to anticipate the Oscars that will be held on the evening of the 27th. It’s a valiant effort to get audiences to watch this film, directed by Steven Spielberg at age 75, and it’s his very first time directing a musical. Here, in Manila, it’s in theaters on Feb. 16.

Mind you, having been invited to a special screening, I can also see why it performed miserably when it was first released last December. It’s a glorious film adaptation of this Leonard Bernstein musical, that riffed on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, and one can palpably feel the love Spielberg has for the source material. But in that same breath of deep homage, he’s turned it into an old school treatment that may have just been too old-fashioned for the younger audience demographic of today.

Insofar as performances are concerned, you can’t ask much more from the cast assembled. As Maria, Rachel Zegler warmly captures the spirit of a young immigrant girl from Puerto Rico, dreaming of forging her own future in the Nueva York of the late 1950s, while living under the shadow of elder brother, Bernardo (played by the always dynamic David Alvarez). Ansel Elgort as Tony, the ex-con and co-founder of the Jets, who is smitten when he first sees Maria at the local dance, may have been savagely panned by the critics. But in fairness to Elgort, he does hold his own admirably.

Among the working class Irish youth Jets though, it’s Riff (Mike Faist) who easily becomes the most charismatic of the gang, comparable to the role Bernardo plays in the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks. Ariana deBose portrays Anita, and for us, the audience, it’s the role that resonates and makes the strongest impact on us. And rightly so, it’s Ariana who has been singled out in the Oscars acting categories with a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar back in the 1961 film for Anita, has a role in this 2021 update as Valentina, the widow/owner of a drugstore/bodega where Tony works. It’s a role that was created especially for her, and she makes the most of it, with a memorable minor role. That would be some kind of crazy coincidence if this same Anita role gifts two actresses, 60 years apart, with an Oscar statuette.

The cinematography, set design, and editing are all top-notch, and it’s evident that Spielberg is enjoying himself immensely in bringing this film to life. The reverence for the past iterations of West Side Story is a constant reminder. The choreography, for one, is still inspired by the original created by the legend, Jerome Robbins.

The themes of social inclusivity, of discrimination, the immigrant experience, and the American Dream are all given expression here. The poignant point is always being made about how the film may be set in 1957 New York, but that so many of these themes still have relevance today, and even if in another shape and form, are faced and endured by people today.

So if you’ve missed live theater, the musicals that would be such hits here; then this is one film that can reaffirm why you’ve loved musical comedies since the first time you watched - insert your first or favorite musical here. It’s staged on a grand scale, Spielberg wants to immerse us in this world; and make us understand why a movie screen works just as fine in experiencing the magic of West Side Story.