Spielberg Remaking WEST SIDE STORY - Subtitles Are (Apparently) Racist!

[andy b]

I noticed that on the credits too -- it's as if they want to plaster Bernstein and Sondheim's names on there so much that it adds "cred" to the project.

As to why -- I think it might be contractual. It's like there's a credit for the original stage play and then they get another credit for THIS film. So Bernstein and Sondheim wrote the original music for the show, and then THIS film uses all of their music -- I guess.

Andy

This goes back to I think the 1950's (that I personally know of) or maybe a bit earlier than even that, it is on the original Lugosi Universal Dracula!

When a film version was / is made of a stage production, the credit to the original source has to be given & then if needed a new credit to represent the version that is new. Strange & I am certainly no Contract or Legal person, but I do know from designing & dealing with the marketing it was always the case. There is also normally a guide passed over to marketing as to the credit size in relation to the size of the title & key personnel. Older campaign (UK) or Press (USA) books sent out to promote films always had a "contractual %" guide / block, so if anyone was "doing their own" they would know what size was acceptable to Title etc.

I certainly have no idea why it went on or still does, but I guess, some place there is a bit of legal paper & to be safe everyone still does it?

Never like the original & no intention of seeing this, but maybe it will bring a few good songs to a new audience, honestly I doubt it, but I tend not to wish ill on people, so if it does well, more films will be made, so that can only be good. Also if it does well it may keep a few cinemas open longer & that will please Monterey Jack.

regards
andy b

[AndyDursin]

I just am never going to understand why of all the musical movies, why he would choose to remake one of the best. Just no win here for him.

Also odd that there are a million people listed in the credit block and David Newman isn't one of them. I guess he did some orchestral transitions? Dudamel gets a prominent credit for his conducting etc.

[Paul MacLean]

I like how he's got that "teal / orange" thing going.

Very 2004.

[Monterey Jack]

Now I'm hearing that "up to 40%" of the spoken dialogue in the film is in Spanish...unsubtitled Spanish.

Someone on Twitter going on about how subtitles makes Spanish people feel "othered". God's sake, it's "racist" now to understand what people are saying?

[AndyDursin]

As a sidenote, I also love how movie criticism has regressed from essays by Kael, Ebert, etc. down to random Twitter users whose banal four sentence reviews ("CRUSHED IT!") are now used to form "articles" in the "press" that are little more than comments from random shills who went to a preview screening. It doesn't matter the movie, they're always positive and are used as PR pieces for the studios.

At any rate -- I saw some random Twitter user who was being quoted in one of these breathless "reaction" stories who called the lack of subtitles "invigorating". How is it "invigorating"? Is the US part of the Latin America market? Sorry Spanish is not an official language. Many people don't speak it. Seems to me it's not "invigorating" but positively stupid and not "inclusive" at all.

I can see this now becoming a news "item" -- maybe they just want it to get publicity up for this DOA looking film nobody cares about. But either way, reactions like this one you mentioned MJ are not going to help this film. I also love how she calls anyone who doesn't speak Spanish "white people". There are plenty of "People Of Color" who don't either. "Inclusivity" only ever works in one direction.

[Eric Paddon]

Gee, if subtitles are "racist" I can't WAIT to hear their take on the subtitles for the "jive" scenes in the two "Airplane" films!

[jkholm]

Excellent way to keep people out of the theater and wait to see the movie at home when they can turn on the subtitles.

[Paul MacLean]

Excellent way to keep people out of the theater and wait to see the movie at home when they can turn on the subtitles.

And low ticket sales will be blamed on "racism".

[Monterey Jack]

Reminds me of when Mel Gibson desired to release The Passion Of The Christ sans subtitles. Guarantee it wouldn't have grossed $612 mil worldwide if no one in the audience could have understood what the characters were saying.

Isn't this just the reversal of those viral videos when some racist is yelling when he hears a foreign language being spoken in their presence about "Speak ENGLISH, this is AMERICA...!"? I doubt authentically racist people are going to be rolling out for West Side Story anyways, so why not throw us Gringos a bone and allow us to understand what the characters are saying? Shouldn't having the songs being sung in English be "racist", too?

[jkholm]

What are they planning for the overseas releases of the film? Include subtitles for only the dialogue spoken in English?

[AndyDursin]

There is a definite sense of disconnect here between sane people and those who think subtitles are racist. This is definitely a new one to me. How does it make a movie "authentic" to NOT INCLUDE SUBTITLES. Speaking in the native tongue is one thing -- not putting words on screen for those who don't speak the native tongue is something else. Is your goal to exclude a segment (or in this case, the vast majority) of the audience? Generate negative publicity to keep people away? This is all very new -- and very dumb.

All you need to know is that woman deleted her tweet, the one where she said ""White people gonna be big mad tho and good." As if she's blissfully ignorant that white people wrote all the music and the dialogue and directed it and produced it and...gee I don't know, I'm also pretty sure most black people don't speak Spanish. Actually I think most of the USA doesn't speak Spanish regardless of what color you are.

It truly is a new world of stupid we are living in.

[AndyDursin]

The hell is he talking about

“

That was very important and that goes hand-in-hand with my reasoning for not subtitling the Spanish,” Spielberg continued. “If I subtitled the Spanish I’d simply be doubling down on the English and giving English the power over the Spanish. This was not going to happen in this film, I needed to respect the language enough not to subtitle it.”

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/12/steve ... 234683792/

[Paul MacLean]

The hell is he talking about

“

That was very important and that goes hand-in-hand with my reasoning for not subtitling the Spanish,” Spielberg continued. “If I subtitled the Spanish I’d simply be doubling down on the English and giving English the power over the Spanish. This was not going to happen in this film, I needed to respect the language enough not to subtitle it.”

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/12/steve ... 234683792/

And when this film is shown overseas? Like in Mexico, or Spain, will they dispense with Spanish subtitles? Are Asian audiences going to have to try and "figure it out" with no subtitles whatsoever?

[Monterey Jack]

We're living in one strange goddamn era when being able to understand what someone is saying in a foreign language through use of subtitles is somehow denigrating said language and all who speak it.

[mkaroly]

The hell is he talking about

“

That was very important and that goes hand-in-hand with my reasoning for not subtitling the Spanish,” Spielberg continued. “If I subtitled the Spanish I’d simply be doubling down on the English and giving English the power over the Spanish. This was not going to happen in this film, I needed to respect the language enough not to subtitle it.”

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/12/steve ... 234683792/

Lol! Spielberg has lost his mind. PASS!