| As usual, I waited in excitement and anticipation for yet another screening of my all-time favorite film, the great, golden oldie-but-keeper of a classic film, West Side Story. Since part of the stories I like to write about my viewings of the film West Side Story on a big, wide movie theatre screen are the stories of my adventures and either seeing it at a really wonderful indy movie theatre (one of the three independent movie theatres left in our area), going to another part of the Bay State, or even to a neighboring state for a screening of WSS, I always make sure to tell about my adventures there, too.
Sure, I've attended screenings of the film West Side Story in and around Boston, Cambridge and Brookline, and even farther out in the Bay State, like this past Monday, and even in neighboring states such as NY, CT, NH and RI, but this time, I ended up driving about an hour and a half out to the Strand Theatre, in Clinton, MA, which is in the northwestern central part of the Bay State. Leaving home at around 5:00 in the afternoon (later than I'd planned on leaving), I swung west onto the Mass Turnpike, only to hit a rather large, slow-crawling traffic jam. What a drag, I thought. This is all I need. I had heard on the radio as I was driving out that a couple of buses on the west-bound side of the turnpike had caught fire or something and, while the state had managed to clear the mess, the damage, the radio broadcaster said, was done. Never a great time of day to travel out of town anyway, an already-hellish situation was made considerably worse in this instance. The traffic was slowed to a real crawl and backed up from the New Balance (sneakers) building in Allston out to Newton Corner, left over from the earlier bus fiasco on the westbound side of the Pike. The slow 20-mph pace of the traffic at that point rather taxed my patience, but eventually it passed, and, after Newton Corner, although the traffic was still pretty heavy, things went more smoothly and I had no more trouble for the rest of the trip out there. Whew! I though I might be there until six or so! Fortunately, I made it in good time, only losing 20 minutes at the most, I think.
Since this is the time of year to really appreciate the lush greenery, and the Bay State at large is beautiful at this time of year, it was well worth it, for it was also a very pretty drive out there.
The Strand Theatre was a cute little old-fashioned-looking movie theatre, smaller than most, with a single screen, with the same kind of "retro" look of old-fashioned theatres, and they show Classic films every Monday night, all year around. Now, Clinton, MA is a cute, quaint little town, but I definitely would not want to live out there! It's way too far out on the frontier for my liking, especially in the wintertime! I'm not sure, but I think that the movie theatre may have even had a balcony, although I didn't see anybody sitting up on it. There was an old-fashioned-looking concession stand, and they served pizza, zucchini sticks, onion rings, bacon burgers and a whole bunch of other stuff. I obtained directions from google map, wrote them down, and embarked on my drive out there.
I parked where I could, walked into the theatre box office, obtained my ticket (only $5.50 for general admission for all), lined up at the concession stand for some zucchini sticks, onion rings, bottled water and a cookie, and then staked out my seat in the middle of the theatre. As the young girl at the box office had pointed out, there was a good bunch of people of all ages, and, while the theatre didn't sell out, there was a great crowd, nonetheless.
This particular print of West Side Story, although it was a DVD format, was pristine, and it looked like it may have been a Blu-Ray DVD. As usual, I felt like I was seeing it for the first time. It's an old film, West Side Story, but it always feels new to me every time I see it, for some reason. Despite the fact that not all the scenery
showed, due to the fact that it wasn't as wide as a regular film screening, everybody in the theatre, including myself, had a wonderful time. The various facial expressions and personalities of the various characters in the film were far more noticeable, and there seemed to be more people in the background than before. This is another thing about the film West Side Story for me: I manage to notice things about this great film that I didn't notice before.
The various characters, including Richard Beymer, who I've always regarded as a rather weak, lacklustre Tony, seemed more three-dimensional and more vital, and the brilliant Bernstein musical score, the costumes and photography, the beautifully-choreographed dancing, and the well-done fighting and rumble scenes, as well as The Dance at the Gym, were terrifically done. What a wonderful story WSS also has, and, to quote Bosley Crowther of the New York Times, when the film West Side Story was first released and won ten (yup, you all read right...ten!) academy awards including Best Picture for that year "It's a timeless masterpiece"! To me, West Side Story is the classic that never grows old! It's different than most other Classic films of that era or earlier, or even later, which, while quite likeable (there are a number of other classic films that I've seen more than once), seem to have a more childish, pettier quality to them which makes them more dated. Not so West Side Story, in which the story, although it's fiction, it's somewhat closert to reality as a neighbor of mine put it sometime ago.
Hey...I know that in real life, street gangs don't go dancing around and through the streets, and people don't necessarily and always fall in love at first sight. However, I like to watch a fiction movie like this for enjoyment.
One of the reasons that I was looking foward to the screening of West Side Story, as always, is such a wonderful, welcome alternative to much of what comes down today in the name of movies, which, nowadays, are often pretty bad. So, I bide my time and wait until really good movies come to the Brattle, the Coolidge, and the Somerville Theatres.
Anyway, a wonderful time was had by all, including me, and I might write a bit more about West Side Story, but show knows?
All of the above having been said, what's on everybody's minds?
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