The year 2001 was a rather strange and sad year, generally, with the dearth of decent movies, the horrifically freaky events of 9/11/01's attacks on the WTC Towers in NYC, and, also for me and my family, the passing of my father in late January of that year after a long illness.
Now for the crux of my essay:
That year, I had the great fortune and honor, courtesy of some old friends of mine down in the Big Apple, to attend a special 40th-year-anniversary screening of West Side Story, at NYC's renowned Radio City Music Hall.
In mid-August of 2001, I'd just come home from an eye-dilation examination when I received a call from my old friends down in NYC who knew that West Side Story was my alltime favorite movie. When they asked me if I wanted them to send off for some tickets for me for the special 40th-year-Anniversary screening of West Side Story at Radio City Music Hall in early October, I instinctively said a resounding "yes" . After a snafu, the tickets were obtained, and I was excited about going.
Saturday, October 6th, 2001, was the big day. Since West Side Story is my alltime favorite film, I drove down to the Big Apple specially to see it, as well as old friends and relatives. What a Saturday night out that was! Radio City Music Hall was packed with an exuberant, friendly crowd, and there was much applause and finger-snapping from the audience.
The beautiful film, West Side Story, had been re-printed, cleaned up, remastered and restored to its former glory, and everything, including the scenery, the brilliant Leonard Bernstein musical score and the richly-colored costumes and photography, seemed even more brilliant, and seemed to take an a magical, almost 3-dimensional quality when shown on the great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low.
From the warring Jets and Sharks to the romancing Tony and Maria, to the fiery, fiesty Anita and the equally fiery, but more sardonic Bernardo, to the bigoted, bitter Lt. Schrank to the kindly Doc, the various characters in West Side Story seemed to move much more freely and fluidly, in a much more wide open space. Richard Beymer's Tony (who I admittedly have always regarded as somewhat weak and lacklustre) came off as being much more vital and alive on the great big, wide movie theatre screen.
My friends and I had a wonderful time, and it was fantastic that, especially less than a month after the 9/11/01 attacks on the WTC Towers, that 5-6 thousand people, including ourselves, had gotten together in one place for such a fantastic special event, and a wonderful evening.
My cousin and her husband, who reside on NYC's Upper West Side, who were going upstate that weekend, graciously allowed me to stay overnight in their condo apartment, and I also got to see them and hang out for afew hours before they departed for upstate New York.
All told, it was a wonderful weekend, which provided a wonderful, (and badly needed) uplift after a strange, sad year.
Now for the crux of my essay:
That year, I had the great fortune and honor, courtesy of some old friends of mine down in the Big Apple, to attend a special 40th-year-anniversary screening of West Side Story, at NYC's renowned Radio City Music Hall.
In mid-August of 2001, I'd just come home from an eye-dilation examination when I received a call from my old friends down in NYC who knew that West Side Story was my alltime favorite movie. When they asked me if I wanted them to send off for some tickets for me for the special 40th-year-Anniversary screening of West Side Story at Radio City Music Hall in early October, I instinctively said a resounding "yes" . After a snafu, the tickets were obtained, and I was excited about going.
Saturday, October 6th, 2001, was the big day. Since West Side Story is my alltime favorite film, I drove down to the Big Apple specially to see it, as well as old friends and relatives. What a Saturday night out that was! Radio City Music Hall was packed with an exuberant, friendly crowd, and there was much applause and finger-snapping from the audience.
The beautiful film, West Side Story, had been re-printed, cleaned up, remastered and restored to its former glory, and everything, including the scenery, the brilliant Leonard Bernstein musical score and the richly-colored costumes and photography, seemed even more brilliant, and seemed to take an a magical, almost 3-dimensional quality when shown on the great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low.
From the warring Jets and Sharks to the romancing Tony and Maria, to the fiery, fiesty Anita and the equally fiery, but more sardonic Bernardo, to the bigoted, bitter Lt. Schrank to the kindly Doc, the various characters in West Side Story seemed to move much more freely and fluidly, in a much more wide open space. Richard Beymer's Tony (who I admittedly have always regarded as somewhat weak and lacklustre) came off as being much more vital and alive on the great big, wide movie theatre screen.
My friends and I had a wonderful time, and it was fantastic that, especially less than a month after the 9/11/01 attacks on the WTC Towers, that 5-6 thousand people, including ourselves, had gotten together in one place for such a fantastic special event, and a wonderful evening.
My cousin and her husband, who reside on NYC's Upper West Side, who were going upstate that weekend, graciously allowed me to stay overnight in their condo apartment, and I also got to see them and hang out for afew hours before they departed for upstate New York.
All told, it was a wonderful weekend, which provided a wonderful, (and badly needed) uplift after a strange, sad year.
Somehow, somewhere!
