Pat Chavez

Just terrific. I went in highly skeptical but, and I hate to say this, I liked it better than the 1961 version. I still love so much about that version (especially the moment Tony and Maria meet during the dance), but Spielberg's is quite a notch better. I think that is probably due to the fact that Spielberg based his on the original - which is the STAGE version, not the 1961 film - and the stage version is much edgier than the 1961 film. (I'm guessing that they watered down that film to appeal to a national audience.) Anyway, Spielberg's film restores the strength of the original themes, sticks closer to the song order of the original (which makes much more sense) and thank god doesn't feature actors with odd yellowish-brown shiny goo smeared all over their faces as Puerto Ricans.