Back in 1961 people still went to the movies. It wasn’t that it was the best year for film, or that the Academy picked the best five films for Best Picture – but the film they DID pick was an exceptional work of art. And that film was West Side Story. The movies that still resonate from that year include The Misfits, La Dolce Vita (nominated for Best Director), Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Splendor in the Grass, A Raisin in the Sun, and, of course, The Hustler.
The Best Picture nominees that year were:
West Side Story (won Best Picture and ten out of its 11 noms)
Judgment at Nuremberg (won Screenplay and Actor out of its 11 noms)
The Hustler (Won Art Direction + Cinematography out of its 9 noms)
Fanny (Won Zero of its 5 noms)
Guns of Navarone (won Visual Effects out 7 noms)
West Side Story topped the box office that year. Rock Hudson, trapped in the closet, drew audiences with two films topping the box office, Lover Come Back with Doris Day and Come September with Sandra Dee. La Dolce Vita somehow brought in the crowds. And comedies like The Parent Trap and the Absent-Minded Professor were popular with families. A religious epic King of Kings was popular that year, along with the family friendly 101 Dalmatians. El Cid and the Guns of Navarone rounded out the box-office top ten.
Natalie Wood starred as Maria in West Side Story – which today would be called “Brown Face” and for sure would be disallowed. Spielberg’s version changes that dynamic from the original. They wanted a star in 1961, and they got Natalie Wood who is simply brilliant in the film regardless.
In 1961, America was coming out of the utopian 1950s and headed towards the cultural revolution of the 1960s. JFK had just beaten Richard Nixon and had ushered in a Camelot – the beginning of how the boomer generation would influence culture up until Obama’s rise in 2008. But West Side Story takes place before the Civil Rights movement, the feminist and anti-war revolution of the late 1960s. The south was still segregated, and America was about to radically change. It had one foot in the 1950s and one foot in the 1960s. But it’s about tribalism. It is about division. It is about racism. And about a country that must try to find a way to get along.
West Side Story is a modern take on Romeo and Juliet, which means two warring sides that hate each other have 2 young individuals who fall in love anyway. The result is street fighting and ultimately tragedy. In 2021, we are not living in a time of unity. We are living in a time of extreme hatred, division, and cold virtual civil war. That makes West Side Story somehow quite timely. I do not know how Spielberg is planning to update the divisions, whether they will remain in the past or whether they will be updated to today, but a 2021 version might have a Trump Supporter and a Black Lives Matter activist falling in love. Either way, the vibe of the film is very much appropriate for this year.
By contrast, In the Heights isn’t that movie. It is every bit as sumptuous and lovely as West Side Story, but its message is not about division. It is not about racism or oppression. Rather, it is about an immigrant community finding love and making America their home. It is basically if this song sung by Rita Moreno was expanded into a whole movie.
In a perfect world, Chu’s In the Heights would have been that movie that brought people out from far and wide to the movies. But it was released at the wrong time. Not just because COVID was keeping people out of theaters but because its upbeat message was hard to latch onto for its target audience. There wasn’t enough fury in it, not enough anger. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton has the same problem resonating right now. It is often met with a sneer by the social justice set for ignoring racism. The “antiracist” movement doesn’t believe in color-blind casting. And yet, almost all of what you see as Hollywood’s remedy to the charges of racism is exactly that: color-blind casting. That can sometimes be distracting if we’ve been given a certain toolkit of how we are supposed to process race and racism in movies.
Miranda is someone whose parents came from Puerto Rico, which is the community that represents one side in West Side Story. In the Heights is about Washington Heights – it is about celebrating the diversity of the melting pot so close to his heart.
But make no mistake – it is not an angry screed about the Land of Opportunity but rather a celebration of it. He has been targeted this past year for a variety of things that simply would not have existed back in 1961. Back then, only box office determined success. To make money, movies had to be greater than great or appeal to every audience quadrant. Both the original West Side Story and In the Heights are films that really celebrate the best of what musicals offer. The players had to be able to do it all – sing, dance, act. Now, of course, the casting also has to be “Twitter approved.”
Spielberg’s update for West Side Story might resonate with the anger of division of the moment more than In the Heights. It is one of only a handful of films that look to be sight-unseen contenders in this, the second year of Hollywood trying to piece itself back together again. In the Heights, however, has a universal joyfulness about it that will eventually find its place in film history the same way the original West Side Story did. That movie offered a glimpse into a world American audiences had not seen. In its own way, it helped to mend the division in the neighborhood where the two factions battled each other.
We don’t yet know what films will come to define 2021, either at the box office or at the Oscars. But the Academy is finding itself at an inflection point. It simply can’t continue to exist inside a bubble. Hollywood, if it wants to survive, will have to find a way to start making films that reach more than just those who live in New York and Los Angeles. Their target audience should not necessarily be China’s box office, especially since they aren’t exactly amenable to American exports of late. But also because this country needs movies too. Movies that take us somewhere beyond indulging in superhero fantasies.
At first it looked like the hive mind on Film Twitter was preparing to pit In the Heights against Spielberg’s West Side Story. How surprising it was, then, that In the Heights was targeted instead and now has the albatross of having done something “wrong.” Which is absurd. If anything, I think West Side Story will reignite In the Heights as we compare the two films side by side and be appreciative that we have a year where both of these movies were made.
This year might be a great reset for Hollywood. Maybe it will be a wake-up call too. Maybe it will be a reminder that criticizing and dissecting and policing art and the artists who create it makes for a boring, sanitized industry and Oscar season.
I liked In The Heights but did not love it the way everyone else did. Felt like a dry run for a improved in every way Hamilton. Still I liked it and don’t think its going to come back regarding Oscars especially if West Side Story sucks up all the air.
I still think Power of The Dog will be the big Oscar player along with one of the Ridley Scotts
Dune I can’t decide on.
Also is Soggy Bottom skipping all festivals? Starting to wonder if PTA and MGM push it back a year.
Phantom Thread did the same thing as Soggy Bottom is doing now. I wouldn’t worry yet
True the only difference that sort of puzzles me is that Phantom Thread was simply not ready in time since it started shooting at the beginning of the year unlike Soggy which started earlier. I’ve always wondered if Thread had a festival run if it would have picked up a few more nominations.
It sh0uld have been n0minated f0r screenplay and cinemat0graphy and w0n Best Picture and There will Be Bl00d sh0uld als0 have w0n f0r Best Picture !
My pr0blem with West Side St0ry is if I’m Steven Spielberg and can make any m0vie i want why in hell w0uld I remake West Side St0ry ! As f0r Dune I feel the same as y0u d0 .
If you think that the general public disagrees with the “woke” criticisms of In The Heights, then it stands to reason that those criticisms had a negligible effect on the film’s box office results. The number of people who wanted to see In The Heights but didn’t because of the “controversy” is trivial.
I saw In The Heights in June; there were fewer than 10 people in the theater. I saw The Green Knight a few days ago and the theater was half full. I don’t think it’s because The Green Knight is a better crowd pleaser that connects with Real America; it’s because people are more comfortable going to the theater now than they were in June.
And box office predictions majorly overestimated how many people in 2021 were willing to go to a musical as their first trip back to the theaters. I did and couldn’t have found a better way to be welcomed back to the theaters. But musicals are still very divisive, so the box office disappointment shouldn’t have surprised anyone as long as it was Miranda’s In the Heights and not Miranda’s Hamilton. West Side Story might break that mold since it’s Spielberg. But whether it does or doesn’t, I think In the Heights is going to be the bigger player at the Oscars. The Oscars aren’t motivated by box office like they were in 1961. Oscar voters are going to be motivated by what welcomed them back into theaters after so long, assuming that Oscar voters don’t have the same aversion to musicals that so many regular moviegoers do.
“How surprising it was, then, that In the Heights was targeted instead and now has the albatross of having done something “wrong.” Which is absurd.”
Thank you
Sadly, absurdity is the new normal and looks to stay that way for a good long while.
I agree that the In The Heights criticisms are absurd. The casting is the casting and all the roles were filled out well.
But I think even in 1961 people thought Natalie Wood was a bit off in the role — she wasn’t singing, and she’s not Puerto Rican. Even 8 year old me watching it in the 1980s picked up on it.
In the Heights was fantastic! I hope it ends up in the Best Picture lineup, it certainly deserves it.
“ Back in 1961 people still went to the movies.”
In 1946 approximately 96 million people went to the movies, by 1960 that was estimated to have dropped to 40 million.
Thus the word “still”. I mean how many people have gone to the movies in the last few years, minus 2020?
Citing 1961 as some sort of bellweather wasn’t entirely accurate though. In fact, the movie industry then was in a freefall thanks to the end of the studio system and the ascendancy of television.
1. Don’t be so shocked that La Dolce Vita was a big hit in 1961. Foreign language films of high quality (of which there were scores of them post-WWII) were received warmly in the US. In fact, between 1960 and 1987 TWENTY foreign language films landed Best Director nominations (that’s 20 in 28 years). It seems that the 80’s and 90’s saw the open hostility such films in both box office and awards respectability.
2. I wholeheartedly agree that In the Heights got dealt a bad hand, but clearly the market didn’t react to it, what on earth could the studio do at this point to revive it (or more importantly what will convince the studio to spend that kind of money when this fall’s prestige lineup is STACKED STACKED STACKED)? As for West Side Story, I just don’t know. Is the market really that hopped up for a remake of a 60 year old film with a soundtrack that couldn’t be more out of step with contemporary music since maybe O Brother (except I think it will take an utter miracle to get WWS songs tracking on pop radio). And that’s not to say that it will be good or bad, just that the intended audience is going to be tricky to identify AND get in line.
3.”It simply can’t continue to exist inside a bubble. Hollywood, if it wants to survive, will have to find a way to start making films that reach more than just those who live in New York and Los Angeles.” And we’ll do this via two films set in New York City? Hell, can’t see why not.
4. By the way, I think Dune has the same “who is the intended audience ” problem that these two musicals have.
5. Off topic, but Carter Burwell is insinuating that the Coen Brothers have actually split up for good because Ethan wants out of movies. It’s hard to believe that the split of of the one the most iconic film teams in modern history is going on so quietly in the Film press.
I think Ethan will be back in a few years.
I’m not sure given their ages
I really think In The Heights is overrated. But Anthony Ramos and Olga Merediz are so great in it!
In the Heights was the first time Miranda’s songwriting tics began to mildly annoy me.
Could you please be more specific? I’d love to read your opinion.
It’s hard for me to put into words, but he has a tendency to structure songs with melody verse chorus verse chorus Gilbert and Sullivan section where ALL THE WORDS are crammed in and sung at supersonic speed then BIG CHORUS BIG CHORUS
My kids insisted on Hamilton in the car all during the pandemic, and it was hard not to notice this.