Finally finished watching the remake of West Side Story

[conuly]

Which I've been doing basically one scene at a time, off and on, for months. We watched the original a lot growing up - in retrospect, I'm not entirely sure this was age-appropriate - and it just took me a while to get through the new one.

And I guess it's a tragedy because it's just so freaking stupid. Everybody in that story is just stupid, and makes bad decisions, although at least those choices make slightly more sense than in Romeo and freaking Juliet.

All the way at the start of that movie! You want your kid sister to stop seeing that dude? Then you are taking the wrong approach, buddy! Anita could've told Bernardo that. Anybody on the street could've told him that, if only he was the sort to listen to good advice, or any sort of advice. You don't "forbid" things. You don't pick silly childish fights on flimsy pretexts. No, if you want that proto-relationship to die, you invite the guy over to dinner. You're so nice and supportive, and you talk talk talk talk talk about his life, and his job, and his studies, and whatever boring stuff you can find to talk about.

The two have nothing in common! They only just met! So stop making their romance more attractive than it is. Just let them get to know each other and get bored, and it'll all fizzle out within a month.

But then there'd be no story.

That's the tragedy of life in a nutshell. People aren't too bright, but otherwise we'd have nothing to talk about.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Like George Bernard Shaw said of the original Romeo and Juliet, it's not a romance. It's a six day fling between a 14 year old and 16 year old that ends in two suicides and four murders.

[conuly]

Because people are stupid, and youth doesn't make it better.

[siliconshaman]

You know, for all the times that story has been rewritten, you'd think someone would've done one where they're not idiots.

[acelightning73]

And it's so much fun to mock stupidity (and occasionally that helps un-stupidify the nearest idiot.)

[kengr]

Oh, I'm sure that's been done. Probably fan-fic or the like.

Thing is, it's a lot harder to make the story *interesting* that way.

[adafrog]

I complain like that about the soap opera we watch at lunch. But then I'm reminded there wouldn't be show if people locked their doors/actually talked/weren't stupid.

[adrian_turtle]

"Remembering Siri" has Juliet not being an idiot. And Romeo being enough less of one to survive. The problem is that if they're really not idiots at all, I'm not sure I'd recognize the story as Romeo and Juliet. But in the Simmons story, there's a weird sort of hovering suggestion that the characters once saw a play like "Romeo and Juliet" and thought it was so very romantic. Just the first half, of course. Exiled for love!

[gwydion]

When I was sixteen, I dated someone three extra months after I lost interest because my dad lost his shit over it, and I didn't want to validate his bullshit.

I could have told Bernardo that too.

[conuly]

Yeah, but then there'd be no story.

Although, really, even a happy ending would've had an unhappy coda. Two young kids who have no business pretending at adulthood running away together? Hah, yeah, no, that's a recipe for divorce.

[conuly]

Yes, and then what would you do at lunch?

[conuly]

Literally anybody could've told him that. In fact, I bet that if it was somebody else's kid sister then he could've given that advice!

[conuly]

Sigh. It's just pointless, though.

[acelightning73]

"I have a love, and that's all that I have"
"A boy like that? Who killed your brother! Forget that boy and find another. One of your own kind - stick to your own kind."

THe only social structure those gang kids knew about was the gang. And today, you see teenagers well, I have to shoot those guys cause they're Crips or Bloods. And I saw one of them looking at my girl. So let's just shoot them all.

I remember what it was like to be overpowered with lust and trying to stay as close to the guy I desired as I could get. But unrequited lust is not a good kind of relationship.

[gingicat]

The *dancing* though.

[conuly]

Good thing all their lust was requited, then, huh.

[conuly]

Is this a positive "the dancing!" or a negative "the dancing!"?

[conuly]

Although I *did* find a fanfic that, despite orthographical problems, isn't too badly written where the rumble is caught by the cops just before anything bad happens, so now Chino is talking to Anybodys and they're becoming friends. It's amazing, probably because Tony and Maria thus far have barely appeared on the screen.

[acelightning73]

We don't want the paying customers to get the idea that murder/suicide is an acceptable expression of desire. Or that gang warfare is romantic.

[gingicat]

Oh, quite positive! As much as I love the original Jerome Robbins choreography, the dancing in this version seemed more organic somehow. (I think they kept the original choreography for the dance at the gym and for "America" but I couldn't swear to it.)

[adafrog]

Very true.

[thekumquat]

I saw the original for the first time a few months ago. I couldn't tell whether it's meant to be a comedy or not. Still not sure.

[conuly]

Well, it's derivative of Shakespeare, so we apply the Shakespeare rule: if it's a comedy, it all ends with a marriage. If it's a tragedy, it doesn't.

[andrewducker]

I do wish that people would stop categorising R&J as anything other than a Tragedy.