By: Lindsey Campbell Photos by: Lindsey Campbell
There is nothing new under the sun. My high school English teacher told me that regarding the Beowulf legend.
A phrase originating in the Bible (Ecclesiastes 1:9), “there is nothing new under the sun” has become very well known and often quoted.
In true movie fashion, I shall attempt to apply this to film, highlighting one movie as an example. I started thinking. Surely this phrase would not apply to movies? I have long defended film as an art form. If there is nothing new in the world of film, how can it be art? Does it not merely become reproducing and repackaging in a different way?
Let me stop you right there.
Film is an art. The stories may be inspired or loosely based on another work, but it is what the filmmakers do with that material that makes it fresh and special.
There is a plethora of films based on or inspired by William Shakespeare’s works. She’s the Man (2006), Romeo Must Die (2000), The Lion King (1994), Kiss Me Kate (1953), and A Double Life (1947) are a few examples. If you are interested in learning more about all the films inspired by Shakespeare, a Google search will yield many results. The example being used today, however, is West Side Story (1961).
The basic plot for West Side Story is about two New York City gangs; the Jets, white guys, led by Riff and the Sharks, Puerto Ricans, led by Bernardo. Their hatred of each other is so strong that they cannot reach any form of understanding about anything. When Riff’s best friend (and former Jet), Tony, and Bernardo’s younger sister, Maria, meet at a dance, they fall in love immediately. Maria and Tony begin meeting in secret, planning to run away. When the Sharks and Jets plan a rumble, the winner is to gain control of the streets. Maria sends Tony to stop it, hoping it can end the violence. It goes terribly wrong, and before the lovers can ride off into the sunset, tragedy strikes and the unimaginable happens.
Does that sound like Romeo and Juliet? Yes, in a much more urban setting. Cinema audiences rarely tire of romantic tragedies with a touch of comic relief.
It gets better. Did I mention it’s a musical?? Musicals are fun. Especially if you sing along.
Rather than have them sit around and complain about how much they have to struggle here, the filmmakers cleverly put these issues in the form of song and dance. The singing helps to express the feelings of the Sharks in an entertaining manner.
It is a festival for the eyes with the shots of New York City and the suits and colorful dresses at the dance. The dance numbers are well choreographed and executed. It is easy to enjoy this movie for the brilliant work of art that it is if you allow yourself to be swept away by the love story and mesmerized by the performances of the dancers.
I have often been told that there are no new films, just old ideas being manufactured into newer and fresher material. The Caribbean-American poet Audre Lorde once said, “There are no new ideas, just new ways of making them felt.” In a way, this can be applied to this tragic love story between two doomed lovers. The film West Side Story is based on a Broadway play from the 50s. That Broadway play got its inspiration from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet was inspired by “Romeus and Juliet,” a poem translated (it had been handed down for nearly 200 years in two languages) by Arthur Brooke. Brooke was probably the primary source, but the story ultimately goes back to the fifth-century A.D. Greek romance of Ephesiaca.
The creators of these new movies seek to make the audience feel something in a way they never have before. That is why I can accept that not every idea is completely new.
Listen, West Side Story took the world by storm in 1961. That year the film swept the Academy Awards, winning an astounding 10 Oscars – the most won to date for a musical. It may have been based on an older concept, but it is truly its own work of art. Hey, the Academy agrees with me here.
Ultimately, it comes down to this: many people do not even realize a movie is based on something else when they watch it. That is art and the beauty of filmmaking. That is why the industry has grown instead of faded away. People like stories and people like to be transported from reality on the silver screen. Keep on churning out good stuff, you people with creative minds; kudos to you all.
*Portions of this blog taken from a research paper I wrote for a History of Fiction Film class.
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