Steven Spielberg names the most daunting challenge of his career: “That’s not lost on any of us”
Steven Spielberg is no stranger to filmmaking challenges. He is one of the most skilled directors of his generation, achieving feats of cinema that have wowed generations of audiences. No director since Alfred Hitchcock has mastered the art of suspense so adeptly, and there’s a good argument to be made that Spielberg’s ability to blend that suspense with character development is even more impressive than what the Psycho director accomplished.
Over his decades-long career, Spielberg has made logistical nightmares look easy. He made a murderous shark, an island of dinosaurs, and a sympathetic extraterrestrial more believable in the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s than most directors can make them now with an army of CGI artists. No challenge seems too big for him, whether it’s a war epic or an autobiographical family drama. But it turns out that there was one film that the director was scared to make. Speaking to FilmInk in 2021, Spielberg admitted that remaking West Side Story posed an entirely new set of obstacles for him.
“This film is probably the most daunting of my career,” he said. “West Side Story is arguably the greatest score ever written in the theatre, and that’s not lost on any of us. It’s very intimidating to take a masterpiece and make it through different eyes and different sensibilities without compromising its integrity.”
There were many facets to the challenge. Aside from the musical being one of the most celebrated of the 20th century, the 1961 screen adaptation starring Natalie Wood is a beloved piece of cinema despite widespread criticism over the use of white actors for playing Puerto Rican characters.
Spielberg signed on to direct the adaptation in 2018 after screenwriter Tony Kushner had gotten to work on the script. When it was announced that the Jaws director would be the one to helm the remake, there was widespread scepticism given that his filmography had never suggested a particular interest in musical theatre. Even after the director promised to stay as faithful to Steven Sondheim’s music and original artistic vision as possible and cast Latino actors for the Puerto Rican roles, there were plenty of questions about why a remake was needed in the first place.
“I believe that great stories should be told over and over again,” he explained in the interview. “In part to reflect different perspectives and moments in time into the work.” However, he made it clear that he hadn’t made the decision lightly. “You have to demand of yourself, over and over again, justification for treading on what feels like sacred ground,” he said, adding, “The riskiness of this enterprise was not lost on any of us.”
When West Side Story was released in 2021, it achieved widespread acclaim from critics. Some even proclaimed it to be better than the 1961 version. However, it bombed at the box office, recouping only $76million off a $100m budget. It did go on to be nominated for seven Oscars, with Ariana DeBose winning for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for her role as Anita, but it was a far cry from the box office successes that Spielberg is used to.
