Posted on 12/19/2021 9:48:48 AM PST by marcusmaximus
Great point.
My favorite movie of recent years is, not surprisingly, based on one of my favorite short stories of all time.
The movie:
https://www.amazon.com/Arrival/dp/B01MTRV1ED
The short story was the lead story in this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/0765304198
No "Ride the Rumble" or "Doc's Soda Shop" attractions?
-PJ
...not to mention they release it the same weekend as Spiderman -No way Home. Disney owns Mavel so basically stabbed Speilberg in the face.
I was wondering why ABC made such a big deal about this movie. They spent like 10 minutes on it during the national news. I had the impression this was a GREAT movie.
I should have known better. (I didn’t go see it.)
and ABC is owned by Disney.
The plot comes from 1597 (likely first production of Romeo&Juliet), or maybe 1591 (claimed date it was written), or with some stretching, maybe 1476 (when an Italian novel was published with all the essentials of the plot), and the premise is mentioned by Dante in the Purgatorio, before 1320, so the story in some form was probably around before then.
There have been many hundreds of thousands of productions of Romeo&Juliet since, in many forms and versions.
A good story just gets redone, and redone and redone.
The original had its moments. A couple of songs really did talk back to the preachy of the day. “Officer Krupke” lampoons all the bien pensant excuses for crime and depravity, and moreover takes seriously the “nature vs nurture” argument that is the core of sociology. A rather profound and very funny little ditty.
And then of course there is the great “I like to be in America”. Its sarcastic, ironic, patriotic and of course Rita Moreno (pro-America, very like it or leave it, if blatantly materialistic) wins the argument. Also very funny.
That’s a real eye opener and made me think about the last time I went to movie theatre, and I honestly cannot recall. Everything I watch now is either on my TV, computer, tablet or cell. The picture and sound on my TV is just as good as a theater so I don’t miss it.
The story is Romeo&Juliet (Shakespeare). “West Side Story” has the same plot, in all significant ways, and was meant to.
There have also been tons of musical Romeo&Juliet’s in every form. West Side Story is just one of these.
This is a bit out of Gounoud’s opera Roméo et Juliette
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIBFtNKCceU
It borrows from Romeo and Juliet. But sadly none of the good parts.
If you were to have to summarize the story what would you say?
Do not refer to other stories.
Just what this song and dance number is.
It can be part of a story but it is not a full story.
Huh. Its got the setup, the feuding “families”, morphed into ethnic sides and gangs. Its got the star-crossed lovers crossing the line. Its got Mercutio and Tybalt, its got the balcony scene, etc and etc.
Welcome to Shakespeare!
Which is pretty much all that verbose hack does.
Hubby and I went to the movie theater, last month, to see The Eternals
Our experience was not good. Now, we both liked going to the movies, pre-COVID. Part of our routine would be to go a little early and get something from the concession area. He liked getting a couple of scoops of ice cream, and I liked getting a Mocha drink.
We arrived, with pre-assigned seats, and were disappointed to discover that there was no concession stand. The counters were dark and there were no employees behind the counters. As we walked to get to our screening room, we passed a group of young employees who yelled at me because I didn't have my mask on. I am 67 years old. I do not take kindly to teenagers yelling at me like I'm a 2 year old. I was p.o.'d about that and it kind of ruined my experience.
So, I don't think we will be going back to a movie theater any time soon, if ever. If the "industry" thinks that cutting back on services that used to be provided, and having rude children yelling at their customers, is going to get people back to the movie theaters, they are mistaken.
Yeah, exactly. Who needs to see a re-work of an old movie musical --- a genre that is not exactly popular at the moment. Why would I want to go to this retread after the director (Spielberg) decides to have the characters speaking Spanish; but, won't give captions so that the non-Spanish speaker can follow along. Then, the cherry on top, is that he explains it's because captioning is "racist".
Okay, what isn't these days; but, still, calling a large portion of your, possible, audience racist just because they would like to know what the characters are saying, is a idiot move.
—”Once you strip away the light show where is the core story?”
Some believe that a storyline, plot, or character development
are not needed.
Just action and more mindless action.
Action driven; take it to the bank.
Right. For many years I had season tickets to the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Ct. We had been season ticket holders so long we advance to seventh row center seats. Practically onstage.
The Shubert was known for bringing in traveling companies of Broadway shows. It was great. We saw all the great musicals over the years. My fav was Joseph and his Multicolored Coat.
Then the Shubert went woke. We paid $80 a seat to see a performance of Mid Summers Night Dream by an Indian company delivered in Hindi. At intermission, 99% of the audience left. We canceled our subscription.
If you think that was what it was then I may have spotted the difference in view point that means we will certainly not agree.
I am old fashioned.
It there is nothing else then guns, spaceships and explosions will do but I really prefer even there that there be a story. Even if it is a weak one.
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