Though every new movie musical has struggled to entice audiences in COVID times, it’s worrisome for both theater operators and traditional studios that “West Side Story” — one of the most beloved stories in musical theater history and under the direction of Hollywood’s most commercially successful filmmaker — sold fewer tickets in its initial weekend than “In the Heights” ($11.5 million debut), a lesser known song-and-dance property that premiered simultaneously on HBO Max. “West Side Story” at least earned more than Universal’s recent “Dear Evan Hansen” adaptation, which premiered to $7.4 million, but that’s not exactly a high bar considering “Dear Evan Hansen” was skewered by critics. And, “In the Heights” and “Dear Evan Hansen” cost far less to make than “West Side Story.”
The article doesn't mention the lack of subtitles for the Spanish dialogue, but it's a topic in the comments over there. Somebody says "I actually wanted to check it out but when I heard there were no subtitles on purpose, I decided it wasn’t for me," and he gets pushback, e.g.: "What a fragile square." "Now you understand the gist of exclusion that many have endured on the screen for 100 years in American movies and theater!"
I wonder if they're considering adding the subtitles now. I don't see how they can after making the withholding of subtitles into a meaningful gesture. It is meaningful. But some people — the fragile squares? — don't like the meaning.
ADDED: Isn't the point of "West Side Story" to appeal to our fragility and squareness? Peace and quiet and open air/Wait for us somewhere....
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87 comments:
go Woke! GO BROKE!!!!
Alternative and more accurate explanation: Its a boycott of a few themes in current events. I didn’t click to the link to see if they mentioned this. I’d reckon they didn’t.
I’d tell you what the boycott is about but if you don’t know already you probably don’t care…
The lack of subtitles was annoying, but not critical. It was a stupid mistake in an otherwise great movie. I gave it a 10.
The original West Side Story my beo e of the most beloved musicals of all time
By white liberals.
It is despised as a racist piece of shit by most Puerto Ricans.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
Are all the movies in Mexico or anywhere south of the US border subtitled in English? Whose really fragile here? This concept of "fragility" has everything to do with accusing the other side of your own weaknesses. The lack of subtitles doesn't bother me, I just never could understand the appeal of West Side Story when there are a couple of recent film productions of Romeo and Juliet that are first rate. But if a somebody doesn't want to spend his time and money to be lectured to by Hollywood, and chooses to stream something or go to a hockey game instead, or whatever, I can't see how that is "fragile."
Scott Adams, who I think is sort of a midwit, nevertheless comes up with some pretty good analyses of these things. He calls that "word thinking," since the whole thought is about the words, and never breaks through to the underlying realities involved. Of course, it's possible that it's just rhetoric that purposely uses fallacies as part of an attempt to increase the cultural power of Spanish, and that the person knows what they are doing, or they are NPCs just repeating memes planted by people who know what they are doing.
I know a whole lot of Puerto Rican's who were born here (2nd gen, 3rd gen) who are drying to see this movie, but speak not a lick of Spanish. What are they to do?
Questions that should be asked first - what audience did Spielberg and the studio think was there for a remake of a 1950s musical? Is there any expectation of significant international box office?
I would have been surprised if this movie had a big opening weekend and will be surprised if its box office receipts make back the money spent in production and marketing.
I'd have been surprised if the movie had met those metrics back when I was in my teens and 20s, and the audience for West Side Story can't have grown since then.
If you buy a ticket to or pay to view this and almost any other recent movie, you may as well just write a check to the DNC. It's an uncomfortable fact that some otherwise reasonable people don't like to face.
You're an enabler.
But I like my movies! Tough shit. You're an enabler.
The original West Side Story was on TCM a couple months back, and twenty minutes in I decided it was an unwatchable mess whose only virtue might be as a time capsule of that era. Why Spielberg would waste his considerable talent on such a passé project is a mystery for the ages. Who is he trying to impress?
I saw it and loved it. I'm definitely not MAGA, but I don't remotely consider myself woke or progressive.
What I am is someone who likes great stories told in an authentic way. I loved the Natalie Wood version and have seen it at least ten times. But I found this one to be night and day better.
If you love musicals but are hesitant to see this for political/culture war reasons, I really think you're missing out
No complex explanation required: This is typically what happens when a powerful figure long past their prime (Spielberg) releases new work. The conditions and social generation that gave rise to earlier success are no longer present.
Late career failures routinely happen to "A list" musicians and actors.
Movie? What's that? Where you go sit in a room in the dark with a bunch of unmasked people using cell phones and pay $10 for a cup of soda or bag of popcorn? Who would enjoy doing that?
I read about the lack of subtitles and didn't care until I read that this was done intentionally to annoy me. Being a person who does not go out of his way to be annoyed, I think I'll take a pass.
I like the music and the story of the original, but I don't trust Hollywood (even Spielberg) to resist the temptation to "update" the film to make it "relevant" for the "times in which we live."
At this point, it doesn't really matter to me if Spielberg actually did play it straight. Trust, once lost, is very difficult to recover, and I find I don't miss going to the movies all that much.
Maybe they'll like it in China.
I think the chief failing of the new West Side Story is that it is unnecessary. The original film is a classic, featuring performances by some of the all time great singers, dancers, and actors. What could a remake possibly achieve, other than to suffer by comparison? To my mind, it makes as much sense as remaking Casa Blanca with Henry Cavill instead of Humphrey Bogart.
I thought 'In the Heights' was the remake.
Very good. Somewhere there is a place very different from this ghetto, where young people are expected to continue old, increasingly meaningless hatreds. Why would you assume you can leave the ghetto and still speak Spanish whenever you feel like it?
Man of La Mancha: the little shithole in Spain where he grew up is just too small to contain his ambition. Don't worry, he's not going to sing in Spanish. For Broadway and Hollywood purposes, he's Spanish like Hilaria Baldwin is Spanish. Fiddler on the Roof: it's possible to re-discover a really old-fashioned ghetto with a kind of affection, laced with reverential awe. But: the young women complaining about the match-maker is just the start of a move to the new world, where Yiddish will seldom be heard. Are they going to re-make the movie with Yiddish and no subtitles?
I hate, loathe and detest the notion that excluding subtitles for English-speaking honkies is some kind of empowering gesture for Spanish speakers. "Now you know what it feels like" is a goddamned stupid emotion to drag up if you want people to go see a movie.
Interesting comments over there. Most of them are attributing the lack of interest to the audience's preference for Marvel movies. Probably some truth to that, but one question keeps coming to mind; why do we expect a reboot of a 60+ year old musical to be a box office smash?
The vignettes I saw in the trailer did not measure up to my memories of the original.
"Now you understand the gist of exclusion that many have endured on the screen for 100 years in American movies and theater!"
This says a lot more about the person who made that comment than the person who decided to pass.
I'm not going to watch a foreign movie without subtitles or dubbing, and I don't feel like there's a need to rail against it. Just move on, without irony.
English is the language of this nation, official or not.
Any meaningful dialog in a foreign language should be subtitled in a movie intended for mass appeal.
Barbara Billingsley knew this...
Apparently, when you’re a Jet you are NOT a Jet all the way.
Entonces…
The movie was entertaining. No need to over-analyze. As for subtitles, being bi-lingual, I think they would have been helpful to non-Spanish speakers.
Eh, the Spanish was interjected with English enough that it was not a big deal. I thought the lack of subtitles actually helped it flow better. I loved the movie and think it's by far the best version of WSS yet.
The only two problems with the movie are (1) Tony Kushner adding so much new dialog that the momentum sags (it is all quite good, but in the aggregate it then bloats towards Romeo and Juliet's Angels in America's West Side Story) and (2) changing Tony's killing of Bernando into a more intentional act made the emotional core of the ending less believable.
The added most-moving-thing about the movie was Spielberg's dedication in the end credits.
Perhaps the people behind "West Side Story" should consider that the majority of moviegoers have no idea what the movie is about.
They see gangs today, and they're thinking about the Bloods and Crips, gangbangers and rappers and Mexican cartels, not these wholesome boys. And interracial relationships don't carry the sexual charge it did when you can see plenty of them (and their children) in public.
"West Side Story" worked back then because it had a high-art sheen in the dancing and the music. You can earn culture points by watching it. But Speilberg is not high art; he's middlebrow through and through.
So why should I see a tragedy about street gangs of the 1950s in these times? That's the question they couldn't answer, and the box office reflects it.
If I move to a country that speaks a different language, is it the "gist of exclusion" that I will then experience?
Maybe, just maybe, remakes suck.
"Now you understand the gist of exclusion that many have endured on the screen for 100 years in American movies and theater!"
What is this silly person talking about? Subtitles and dubbing have been commonly used for many generations, all around the world, to enable filmgoers to enjoy foreign language films. It's Spielberg who is doing the excluding here. If he made that choice so that the audience would feel the "gist of exclusion," well, I don't think that's what people are primarily looking for in a movie experience. I mean, it doesn't all have to be exploding sharks, but it is supposed to be entertaining.
We hate musicals and will probably never watch it.
Possibly what the earlier version lacked was a Red Diaper Baby writing the script.
I saw it this week at the Cine Capri (AZ extra large screen) - it was empty. As I was watching it I thought this is one of the 10 best movies I have ever seen. The Heights sucks by comparison. Loved leaving the subtitles out.
The music, dancing and singing are great, but cinematography was spectacular. I saw the original on TV as a teenager and could not remember much of it except that the end was really sad, etc (per Romeo and Juliet subject, etc.), and watching the movie I kept hoping Spielberg might somehow change it (maybe some aliens could land and whisk off Maria and Tony to an ET zoo). But no.
Here is the problem with the movie - it's the worst f-ing downer of an ending of any movie in the history of cinema! It works with the bard's play, but not with a musical! It's why i never watched the original west side story a second time even though I love musicals. It's like ending the Sound of Music with the whole Von Trapp family being gassed in one of the camps). JMHO
Here I thought young immigrants used American movies to learn the language faster.
I watch a LOT of Netflix movies w/subtitles. If they weren’t there- wtf is the point of watching?! Scenery?
Good for “them” for making a 1/2 Spanish movie- now they have their targeted audience and all is equal.
But you can’t say it was done for the money.
That a cake &eat it thing.
Now you understand the gist of exclusion that many have endured on the screen for 100 years in American movies and theater!
Everyone wants subtitles, but in their language only. What about non-English speakers who don't speak Spanish? What about Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, etc.? Will we have so many subtitles that the actors themselves will be unseen behind a screen of solid text?
I don’t like being preached at by anyone, particularly lefties.
Spielberg said “ I felt that subtitling the Spanish was disrespectful to the second language of this country… It would make English the dominant language, because then there would be two being spoken: the English by the characters speaking and the English that would [be written] underneath the spoken Spanish words…. It was out of complete respect, to give dignity where dignity is earned and deserved to be given.”
While there may be some merit to the dignity issue of language, I wouldn’t use that as an excuse to rub non-English speech in the faces of English speakers just so that you can make a shitty political point. When the Klingons are speaking without subtitles, we all get the drift of the meaning without it being a leftie meal of Brussels sprouts, liver, and a side of lima beans that we must choke down for our own good.
- Krumhorn
I was going to comment, but gilbar got here first. Americans are sick of being put in boxes. Stop with the woke shit. Maybe THIS time it will dawn on them, that everybody hates it.
when I heard there were no subtitles on purpose, I decided it wasn’t for me," and he gets pushback, e.g.: "What a fragile square."
What a fragile square!? Gee, what a clever argument. He really put that guy in his place! Now all he has to do is canvas the country and frog march all the fragile squares to the theatre and the film will make money.
I'm always amazed (and not in a good way) at people who think a snarky comeback rights all wrongs.
You mean foreigners don't subtitle Anglo movies in their own countries?
Spielberg arranged a pre-release screening for Sondheim. Sondheim had tears in his eyes after seeing the film. He was described as extremely pleased. For some reason, the critics panned the movie. What do they know?
It seems like I've been being told to watch this movie for weeks. I will always pass on being told that I have to do something. Rather like seeing Hamilton, which I've also not done. Don't tell me what to do. Don't tell me what to say.
Personally, I am mildly interested. I like musicals, and I quite literally grew up with the movies of Steven Spielberg in the 80s and 90. But I think I’ll wait till it comes on streaming, where I can also turn on the close captioning strategically, should I choose.
I probably will watch it eventually when it comes to cable, but I was unimpressed by either the trailer or the physical beauty and grace of the actors. They just don't measure up. In fact, I'm finding that quite a few recent movies are featuring actors that are rather plain and uninspiring, and who don't seem to understand the craft of acting. People watch movies, go to the theater to see characters, not insipid substitutes going through the motions. As for the woke themes - yeah, not interested in those either. If this is your creative impulse, to follow formula, then you're not a real artist. Real artists don't take instruction from the Central Committee.
I don't get it. Refusing to have Spanish subtitles for the Jets dialogue denies Latinx moviegoers the ability to understand key plot points. No wonder the only demo that matters is staying away in droves.
The worlds tiniest violin is playing "Cry Me a River".
100 years of going to a theater and not being able to understand the dialogue because you don't speak the native language. Cowboy up and learn the language, buttercup.
Every county has a national language. Every county produces movies with actors speaking in that countries language. If you go to the theater in that country and you don't speak or understand the national language, guess what, you won't understand what the actors are saying. Boo F***ing
Hoo.
I've tried to watch foreign produced movies on Netflix that have been overdubbed in English. For me, it's unbearable. And, my eyesight and reading speed makes watching a movie (and not just movies) with subtitles nearly as bad. So, I watch something else, or nothing at all.
To be totally equitable, Spielberg could release a version with the entire dialog subtitled in every language used on voting materials. That would be enjoyable.
I saw a great production of Cyrano de Bergerac in Stratford, Ontario, starring Colm Feore that was 80% in English, 20% in French--no surtitles. It all seemed pretty seamless. (I wonder if they did the same production for Francophone audiences 80% French, 20% English). Also at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre a visiting company from India did A Midsummer Night's Dream in a mix of English, Tamil, and Hindi--the audience got the story and the jokes.
West Side Story's opening may be about the culture wars. But there is already a great movie of West Side Story--maybe the best movie of a musical ever made. My high school band/chorus trip in 1962 was to Chicago to see West Side Story on a big screen in the Loop. It is hard to imagine a similar trip today: 50 rural kids being turned loose in Chicago for several hours to explore the Art Institute and Marshall Field's store, expected to show up at the theater for a matinee, and a 140 mile trip both ways on yellow school buses that maxed out at about 55mph and had no seat belts. It was a different world.
I saw the old movie version of WSS as a kid, on TV. It was ridiculous then, and it is ridiculous now, because of the treatments of the gangs. Even the DeCaprio LA gang version of Romeo and Juliet was better.
I love opera, including the crazy stories told, despite the foreign languages being completely incomprehensible to me. But West Side gang kids dancing around like a Vegas show routine is a choreography too far.
'It's like ending the Sound of Music with the whole Von Trapp family being gassed in one of the camps).'
I would love to see that version.
The Von Trapps were insufferable (except for the hot daughter) : )
"For some reason, the critics panned the movie." None that I've read. Seems to be getting near universal acclaim. I, for one, am puzzled that Spielberg chose to do it. I'm mildly interested, but, as much as I like Sondheim, I'm not sure his time hasn't passed. Songs from the great musical of the past seem to endure, but the shows themselves? The music in Disney films and stage musical is not much different from the old stuff--in fact, it's often less inspired. But I doubt we'll see a new version of Oklahoma onstage or film soon.
Another Hollywood movie remake flops with all the usual tropes:
A remake nobody wanted
A remake that altered the original to push some agenda that interests a tiny few
The agenda twist that only interests a few is marketed as the reason to see this remake
Those few interested people see the movie
The majority that had no interest in the remake or agenda is blamed for not being interested in the agenda
The majority will point out how bad the remake is to the original
The critical reviews will draw more interest than the movie itself
The critics of the remake will be called Russian bots (because Russia means Trump and all things bad to them)
China will ban the film for whatever reason and nobody will mention it.
(special note, while China has banned Spielberg's West Side Story, LGBT media has squawked only about the Middle East banning the movie)
It is all so obvious, common, and boring.
"It's like ending the Sound of Music with the whole Von Trapp family being gassed in one of the camps"
Hilarious and apt.
My Dad bought tickets to a WSS production that came through the Lyric Opera in Chicago maybe 3-4 years ago, he wanted to take my daughter. Sadly, he passed before the show happened and so my sister and I took her with the tickets instead.
Beyond the somewhat somber reason behind the outing, the ending of the show had us silent and down for much of the ride home. Of all the shows to have that happen with, WSS sure was a downer.
Great songs and that theater is lovely, but the story is just so dated and overall it felt flat to me. I don't plan to see this one, but compared to a lot of other musicals coming out I'm glad my daughter and her musical theater class are going to see this movie.
I expect to hear her singing Maria all weekend. Will be a nice change from Christmas songs.
Someone should remake ET.
Blogger tim in vermont said...
Are all the movies in Mexico or anywhere south of the US border subtitled in English?
Can't speak for Mexico but in Puerto Rico, yes. Original English audio and spanish subtitles.
A lot of animated movies will be dubbed in Spanish and you will have both playing side by side in different salons.
And there are a Hell of a lot more people here that understand English (most everyone to some extent) than there are people who understand Spanish in the US.
If I ever have to see the movie, I will understand the Spanish withoput subtitles. not many will. It is stupid not to have them.
I almost always have subtitles on when watching movies. While I can generally hear the dialog, the subtitles help follow along. When I went to movies in theatres, I liked the Spanish subtitles for the same reason.
John LGBTQNY Henry
Get Woke, Go Broke.
Sondheim had tears in his eyes after seeing the film.
And then he died.
Am I drawing the wrong conclusion?
Yancey Ward said...
You mean foreigners don't subtitle Anglo movies in their own countries?
That's different because shut up.
I was fortunate enough to participate in West Side Story on stage in high school. I still love the music, the story was okay.
"What a fragile square." "Now you understand the gist of exclusion that many have endured on the screen for 100 years in American movies and theater!"
As someone who comprehends enough Spanish that I could probably understand the diaglogue I won't see it at the theater and might watch it as part of a subscription.
The real elephant in the room here is the idea that it is good for people who don't understand Spanish to see the movie so they can feel the discomfort of those who watch movies made using the English language.
The problem is that vengence does not produce justice. I want to avoid people who promote revenge since they do not want my good. Instead it seems they want to exercise their anger and hatred, which will not do them or me any good. As such, when I read this motivation for a lack of subtitles in English I decided not to see the movie as I did not want to support vengence and hatred. That simple.
Dept of Veering:
If, instead, Spielberg had helmed an updated version of WSS, the featured tension would be between black and Latino gangs, which is current and real, and the love story would follow suit. The songs would be a challenge, not musically, but lyrically, which, of course, is muy substantial.
When will Hollywood learn to stop producing re-makes of classic movies?
Conrad said...
... I mean, it doesn't all have to be exploding sharks, but it is supposed to be entertaining.
12/13/21, 8:42 AM
Sharknado! Now there's a movie I'd take over West Side Story.
Was West Side Story ever Beloved? I'm sure it was popular in NYC and Hollywood and in the big cities in general..but... did blacks, hispanics, and Asians ever love it? Most Puerto Ricans I know hate it. Yes, it's probably doing well with the "Broadway audience" aka white women and gays.
I think the whole movie should be in spanish. That that Anglo-America.
"Now you understand the gist of exclusion that many have endured on the screen for 100 years in American movies and theater!"
That's such an odd sentiment. What are filmmakers supposed to do, add subtitles of every conceivable language on the screen? Dub every movie into a dozen different languages?
I wouldn't consider the lack of subtitles to be particularly noteworthy as an artistic decision, but Spielberg is dressing it up as social justice. I don't think he thought things through, though. Spielberg said using subtitles would have been "disrespectful". If he's serious about that, then I'm sure he'll insist subtitles not be added to the film in all international markets.
They will be, obviously, and if you asked Spielberg about the contradiction I'm sure you'd be taken on an extensive detour into Nuance Town.
You know- in the spirit of inclusion- why not subtitle the whole f/king movie, eh?
My fair lady and the sound of music were "Beloved muscials". As was Singing in the Rain, the king and I, the Music man, Mary Popins, and Hard Day's Night. Not to mention Top Hat or Meet me in ST.louis.
Charlie Currie: haha
We’re on opposite poles saying the same thing!
I just assumed this film was coming out on Christmas and already made plans with family to see it with them when I visit.
I watch a show called Narcos. It's a show about the drug war that takes place in central and south America. Most of the show involves Spanish speaking people talking to other Spanish speaking people, so the dialogue is in Spanish.
Since the producers actually want gringos and gringas to watch the show too, they include subtitles. They aren't bending to U.S. imperialism, they are just trying to get as big a potential audience as possible by not excluding people who don't speak Spanish. It's called knowing your audience. Spielberg is just being a virtue signaling idiot here and deserves to lose money on the deal.
The article doesn't mention the lack of subtitles for the Spanish dialogue, but it's a topic in the comments over there. Somebody says "I actually wanted to check it out but when I heard there were no subtitles on purpose, I decided it wasn’t for me," and he gets pushback, e.g.: "What a fragile square." "Now you understand the gist of exclusion that many have endured on the screen for 100 years in American movies and theater!"
Anyone who feels "excluded" from America because they don't speak English is welcome to leave, and go someplace where they don't feel excluded.
You want to make me, a normal American, feel excluded? Congratulations! You've achieved your goal.
I'm excluded. Therefore I didn't buy a ticket
I wonder if they're considering adding the subtitles now. I don't see how they can after making the withholding of subtitles into a meaningful gesture. It is meaningful. But some people — the fragile squares? — don't like the meaning.
The meaning was "Greg, we don't want your money." I love that meaning. It means there's something I don't have to spend any money on!
Here's our meaning: insult us and we won't do business with you.
The fragile hipsters don't like our meaning. But we don't GAF
I've been watching a couple of Scottish mystery series on Britbox. Without subtitles for those, I'm lost.
I've been watching a couple of Scottish mystery series on Britbox. Without subtitles for these, I'd be lost.
It seems like I've been being told to watch this movie for weeks.
Funny. This post is the first I've heard about it.
Shows how much attention I pay to the entertainment industry.
I loved SS's explaination. Do English-speaking Americans, hertiage americans, get that SS is shitting on you? They're probably too stupid to get it. I'm more offended by his "explaination" than his using Spanish without subtitles.
Frankly, who really cares that the Puerto Ricans speak Spanish? Seems rather a good thing. And I'm sure you can understand what they're saying even if you're not fluent in the language, in the same way you can sometimes understand what the French are in "The Longest Day" without subttitles.
Funny. Gilbar & others above are calling this "get woke, go broke." But the WaPo Op-Ed page currently has a piece denouncing the movie as not woke enough: Maria isn't Puerto Rican, but half-Colombian! Also, why is this musical the only way Puerto Ricans can get onscreen in this country? (The author ignores the very existence of "Into The Heights," but then that doesn't have people of the precisely right ethnicities playing all the parts either.)
People, let it go. It's a movie.
The original West Side Story is sufficient. It was supposed to be a contemporary retelling of Romeo and Juliet. There's nothing contemporary about the remake. Add to that that I don't like Spielberg's directing skills. I can't think of one movie he made which I thought was improved by his acumen. And I recognize that this puts me in the minority, but I don't like his work.
It's like ending the Sound of Music with the whole Von Trapp family being gassed in one of the camps
I'd pay to see that.
No subtitles.
Fuck deaf people.
I'm a little surprised that nobody here demanded subtitling in the name of the Hearing Impaired, raising an aggrieved cry that this specially-protected group could be so coldly excluded in the name of Wokeism. But there you have it: Steven Speilberg Hates the Handicapped.
As I said before, I'll just wait and then either see it on cable or stream it. And you know what I'm going to do? Turn on closed captioning during the Spanishy-bits. It'll be West Side Story with an especially loud Bronx Cheer for Spielberg, just to be sociable.
Blair,
Really? Not even Schindler's List?
Chicago's "West Side Story" would have a bunch of gangbangers blowing each others' brains out while taking out out both Maria and Anita with random gunfire sprayed into apartments with lights in the windows.
"Gee, Officer Krupke", with its litany of social pathology, family disfunction, and feckless social work would become a new anthem of tolerance:
My father is a bastard
My ma's an S.O.B
My grandpa's always plastered
My grandma pushes tea
My sister wears a mustache
My brother wears a dress
Goodness gracious, we're Chicago's bes'! Yes!
(bam-bam-bam-bam-BOOM!)
Joe Smith 5:52 nails it. If it isn't ASL-subtitled, screw it.
I understand that there are a lot of Spanish-speakers in the US. But they hardly exhaust the non-English citizenry. In San Rafael, CA, the road signs were in English, Spanish . . . and Vietnamese. Here in Salem, OR, we have, in addition to the Spanish-speakers, a lot of Russian-speakers, and a lot of Sikhs. The Indian grocer has a sign up, asking for Punjabi-speakers to apply. Do these people get subtitles? They do not. And no one cares particularly, b/c these people aren't Recognized Victim Group Members, so they don't register in a country where the RVGMs are Spanish and Arabic-speakers, and no one else.
NB, I meant "Arabic-speakers," because the people pushing this stuff honestly think Muslims all speak Arabic. Farsi? Urdu? Never heard of 'em.
Maybe shutting down the theaters and telling the public they're all gonna die of covid if they don't stay six feet apart wasn't a great idea. People have found other amusements.
And the folks still insisting on wearing masks aren't gonna go, period.
Here is the problem with the movie - it's the worst f-ing downer of an ending of any movie in the history of cinema! It works with the bard's play, but not with a musical! It's why i never watched the original west side story a second time even though I love musicals. It's like ending the Sound of Music with the whole Von Trapp family being gassed in one of the camps
I wouldn't recommend opera, then. After a couple of hours of glorious music, the lead soprano or tenor (or both) usually end up stabbed, shot, or otherwise dead from consumption or suicide.
'Steven Speilberg Hates the Handicapped.'
Handi-capable, thank you very much : )
Really? Not even Schindler's List?
Especially not Schindler's List. I'm sure somewhere in a textbook under the title of Bad Directing Decisions, there's a picture of that little girl in her stupid red coat. He's just awful.
James K,
I recommend to you Le Nozze di Figaro. If I had to choose one opera, that'd be it.
Schindler's list - the musical.
Speilberg's comeback movie.
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