Romeo and Juliet the Musical

West Side Story has to be one of my favorite renditions of a classic movie.  Unlike the Baz Luhrman version of Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story was much more enjoyable.  Probably due to the fact that it’s a musical.

A story/movie is always better with a little singing and dancing.

Oh, and the fact that the guy who played Action (Tony Mordente) is hands down the spitting image of Matt LeBlanc (Joey from Friends).  That was pretty entertaining.

It’s hard to put my finger on it, but there is something so different and special about West Side Story.  Perhaps it’s the 1960s New York setting or the two very distinguishable rival gangs, but the movie made the story of Romeo and Juliet so much more tangible for me.

As all of you know, I’m not a huge fan of the Rome and Juliet story, classic or revised.  But there were so many slightly altered aspects of the movie that created an entirely different story while still remaining true to the original Shakespearean play.  And I loved it.

I think the one change that really resonated with me was the ending.  When Tony is shot and falls right into the embracing arms of Maria is the most heart wrenching scene.  Being a rendition of Romeo and Juliet I obviously expected Maria to snap and immediately kill herself out of grief.  But I was pleasantly surprised when instead, she got up and yelled at everyone for what they did.

I was so proud of Maria for doing this.  By having Maria standing amid the crowd of opposing forces, waving a gun and sobbing, brought home the true gravity of the situation.  Her bravery, along with her dignified departure at the end of the last scene, is what really impressed me. 

I also loved the fact that after Tony’s death, when the Jets began carrying his body out of the park, a few of the Sharks came to help lift the body.  I also believe that Baby John was the one who draped a black scarf on Maria’s head at that moment too.  Those subtle touches of new-found camaraderie are what set that scene over the top.  It was a sad moment, but also a moment of enlightenment for the characters and the audience.  It showed just how much petty and unnecessary violence could affect the innocent (and those in love).

Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss

Wow, I have never regretted anything more than my decision to watch this movie. It...It hurts us. THE SEAL THAT IS MERCUTIO ONLY SPEAKS IN FAMOUS SHAKESPEARE LINES. IT BUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNS

This is Mercutio riding on Benvolio and they speak the most lines in the beginning and it is a mixture of bastardized Shakespearean lines and current lingo. And there is DO-WOP SINGING
"PARTYING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW" THAT IS A SENTENCE IN THIS MOVIE.

So, strangely enough this movie keeps some of the actual dialogue from the play. It is really upsetting more than anything because it alters the line just enough to slip a seal pun.

So, I didn't watch the movie in its entirety, I skipped to the end where they seem to kill off Romeo and Juliet but then Mercutio surfs in and yells at them to wake up. And they do. And then I want to knife myself in the eyeball.

But I do think that it is interesting that it was made with the intention of entertaining children. Romeo and Juliet is not a story I would imagine children enjoying. I mean, I know that children are filled to the brim with blood lust but most people ignore this about children.

We did talk about this in class about how there is an appeal for that child like impulsiveness. The way teenagers and kids just do things without consequence is something adults wish they could still do in the real world.

Sooo, if you hated Romeo + Juliet then you should totally watch Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss. It will change your whole perspective on what is bad about the varied versions of this story. This one isn't even good/bad. It is just the worst.

I'm doin' a throwback (both to the 80s and to our discussion of King Arthur)

I wanted to talk about my favorite version of the King Arthur stories. This may or may not be a particularly good version (I was a kid reading them so I can't vouch at all for the quality) and it’s very possible that I’m the only one in this class who has ever heard of these.

So, as a kid, I used to help my uncle out by helping him organize his comic book collection (there is an insane amount of comic books in there. Like boxes upon boxes upon boxes upon boxes.) Because of this, I used to see some old comic books that looked interesting and I'd put them off to the side so that I could read them when I took a break.

One of these comic books was Camelot 3000. The cover of the first issue is here in all of its 1980s glory:

(Sidenote, is Arthur wearing snakeskin stockings?)

So basically the plotline is that it’s the King Arthur legend set in the year 3000. All of the characters have been reincarnated into new bodies and they fight aliens. (yeah I told you, quality is questionable.) I believe they all retain their memories from their medieval selves, or they all eventually remember these memories over time.

I remember being really in love with the Tristan and Isolde storyline, which was the most changed part. And, looking back at how much I was fascinated by this subplot, it is very very VERY embarrassingly telling about my future. Tristan is reincarnated as a woman, and spends a large portion of the time struggling with gender identity and sexuality (as Isolde is reincarnated as a woman as well.) I can’t remember how Tristan ultimately identifies though.

Looking back I think this was one of the first ways that I was exposed to the King Arthur legend. Probably the one thing besides The Sword in the Stone. So I do think this helped shape my idea of the story. It's still one of the things I think of immediately when I think about the King Arthur stories.

Obviously some things are very different and the story is waaaaay darker than what I was reading (also something that went completely over my head as a kid was the Tristan’s reincarnation into a woman was supposedly punishment for the rape he committed. Which… has some terrible implications about what the writers thought about women as well as being really terrible.