Steven Spielberg and his version of “Love Without Barriers”: “I needed corrections”

Hollywood had an outstanding debt with “Amor sin barreras” in the eyes of Steven Spielberg: the musical about the experience of Puerto Ricans in New York hardly had Any Puerto Rican performers in its first film adaptation. Something that the American filmmaker decided to amend in his new version, which arrives today in national cinemas.” It is the first production of ‘Amor sin barreras’ that has a completely Latin cast to give life to the ‘Sharks’. It was something that needed to be corrected,” Spielberg said in an interview with EFE. Since the project was announced in 2014, the director was aware of the expectation of bringing one of the great Broadway musicals back to the big screen and now, that the result is on the screen, he says he was satisfied with the work done. I never watch my own movies. It’s weird, but I don’t. I roll them and move on to something else. However this time during the premiere I sat next to my wife and enjoyed every second,” he acknowledges. “And I think we’ve done things right,” he adds. The first reactions to the film have been favorable, and applaud the work that the award-winning filmmaker did when he encountered a double challenge: it is his first musical and, in addition, a story articulated around racism at a time when sensibilities are on the surface. Although the 1961 film is one of the most successful in history thanks to its ten Oscars, including Best Picture, over time it has become one of the most obvious examples of the problems of representation that dragged Hollywood.Natalie Wood, of Russian origin, embodied the role of Maria; George Chakiris, of Greek origin, gave life to Bernardo and most of the Puerto Rican characters were played by white actors with dark makeup. The only outstanding Puerto Rican in the cast, Rita Moreno (who won the Oscar for her role as Anita), who was made up with a much darker tone than her own to exaggerate her Caribbean condition. It’s not a correction that’s because of this new ‘woke’ era,” Spielberg explains. “We were indebted to the people of Puerto Rico.” Thus, the director of “E.T.” and “Jurassic Park” created a specific role for Moreno and counted on her as executive producer to correct the elements of the script that did not reliably represent the experience of Hispanic immigrants in the United States. even incorporating dialogues entirely in Spanish; no subtitles.” Spanish is the second language of the U.S. so I thought it would have been disrespectful to subtitle it, because it has to coexist with English and without any support,” says Spielberg.La strong presence of Spanish drew attention during the premiere of the film in New York. Spielberg explained that his goal is for Spanish- and English-speaking spectators to gather during the screenings, and “hear laughter from groups that understand certain things in Spanish.” Despite the changes described, the plot of the remake is faithful to the musical written and composed by Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents and the late Stephen Sondheim.La film marks the debut of the actress of Colombian origin Rachel Zegler, with a somewhat more astute interpretation of the candid Maria; while Ansel Elgort is Tony. Rounding out the cast are Ariana DeBose as Anita and David Alvarez as Bernard.

Original source in Spanish