Research Kit Usage Guide
Research Questions
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Has there been increased equality and inclusivity related to gender and race representation from the original west side story film to the new west side story film? In particular, how are females represented?
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Does either film pass the Bechdel test?
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What does the Bechdel test actually tell us about a film as far as representation?
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How do we measure the significance of Rita Moreno and Ariana de Bose winning the academy award for supporting actress for the role of Anita?
West Side Story 1961 Movie Poster (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbluegenes/5224591449)
West Side Story 2021 Movie Poster on a Billboard at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Premiere_of_Spielberg%27s_West_Side_Story_-_El_Capitan_-_Hollywood_Blvd._-_Los_Angeles_-_CA_-_USA.jpg
Audience
This research kit will most appeal to teachers of classes that have a focus on Latin American and female representation in media and cinema. It may also appeal to the Latin American or feminist scholar. It was created with a professor in mind that might use this in a college course or even an upper level seminar course in a high school.
Overview
Latin American history is scarcely talked about in public school education. The first time that I personally received actual extensive history or information on Latin America was for this class my junior year of college. It took 16 or so years for me to get an understanding of what Latin America is. This did not seem right to me, especially since parts of Latin America, like Puerto Rico, are part of the country that I have lived in my entire life and I encounter and have good friends who are Latin American everyday. So, my research kit seeks to find a way to bring light to the topic and pull in elements of the history of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in America while also focusing on another theme that interests me: female representation in the media.
A film that focuses on these topics is West Side Story which tells the story of rival gangs in New York City. Additionally, there are two versions of the film which allows me to assess change over time in representations of Puerto Ricans.
The original West Side Story film was a Hollywood blockbuster produced in 1961, directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise. This film is an adaptation of the West Side Story musical, which was created by Jerome Robbins as well. Filming took place in Hollywood on sets made to look like New York City. At the time, it was one of the only films that highlighted Puerto Ricans so, for many it was the first impression they had of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans as a group. This stayed true for a long time and many still say the West Side Story is the most popular media / film there is about Puerto Ricans. The newer West Side Story film from 2021 is an adaptation and recreation of the same story from the 1961 film directed by Steven Spielberg. This film as well was a big budget Hollywood film but filming actually did take place in areas of New York City such as Harlem and Brooklyn.
Film shows us power. Through analysis of film we are able to see who is in a position of power and how or why they might be in this position. Historically, film has been a male dominated industry; film is made by males for males. Films have portrayed women in ways that tend to the male gaze with a complete lack of regard to how this may affect the way women are viewed and treated in the film and outside of film because of the ideas film may reinforce. Scholars, film critics, and even the general public began using the Bechdel test in 1985 to analyze a film’s presentation of female characters. In order for a film to pass the Bechdel test, it must meet three conditions: there must be at least two named female characters who have a conversation about something other than men. This test is a very surface level analysis of female representation in a film but is an excellent starting place for a conversation on this topic. It is very simple, so it is a good place for those who are new to female analysis to begin.
Film also reveals positions of power in race representation. Similarly to female representation, American films have historically had a tendency to present stereotypes of minority groups that are not true and are harmful to the people they portray. Before film came to be, the prominent form of live entertainment was musical theater, specifically Vaudeville. In Vaudeville, you see many different playful acts of music and dancing put together to be a full performance. Once you see a shift to using film as a method of entertainment the elements and themes of musical theater and Vaudeville remain relatively the same, just evolving to fit a screen rather than for a live audience. You see this present in West Side Story as it was adapted originally from a musical to become a film and the original musical was based on a genre with roots in minstrelsy and vaudeville.
However, dating back to the era of vaudeville in the nineteenth century, depictions of people of color by white performers has been steeped in racism and stereotypes. West Side Story retains elements of its genre’s history. The audience for minstrel shows is all white however, and it gives them a laugh so they continued to use these troubling stereotypes. Since this was already a popular theme happening in theater, the shift to musical films brought the same themes of minstrelsy and blackface. We see the use of brown face in the 1961 West Side Story film throughout the film but one major place of discussion is with Rita Moreno as Anita. She was made to use brown face makeup to make her skin appear darker to better fit the character of Anita, a Puerto Rican female, even though she herself is actually Puerto Rican but she did not fit the profile of what they wanted her character to look like. The 2021 film however casts Ariana DeBose as Anita, an afro-latina actress, a big step up in race representation over the 60 year time gap, since we are now in an age where the use of such makeup would rightfully so likely become a major issue.
The 1961 film was created during the height of the civil rights movement which is a time that Puerto Ricans undoubtedly experienced discrimination and racism along with other people of color. Similarly, the Spielberg adaptation was created during the height of the Black Lives Matters movement, a similar social justice movement that sought to bring awareness to racism and discrimination specifically that African Americans face but other minorities, such as Puerto Ricans, have jumped in supporting the movement because of racism that they too have historically experience. These two time periods, though 60 years apart, pose very similar frustrations from people of color and seek for a social change in society. It is interesting to pull this into thought when analyzing both films created during these two major social justice movements to see if there are clear effects of this or any change in the Spielberg adaptation of West Side Story and if Puerto Ricans in particular are presented in a more positive light with less stereotypes.
In 2017, Puerto Rico was struck by Hurricane Maria, which killed over 3,000 people and left many others injured and devastated the island as a whole. It also destroyed the homes, workplaces, and other buildings of thousands of people. Puerto Rico was still feeling the effects of this hurricane in 2021 when the Spielberg film was released. This was a time when there were more Puerto Ricans coming to the mainland United States seeking to get away from the devastation that the hurricane had left their home. Both films seek to portray New York City in the time period of the 1950s, so there is not any mention of Hurricane Maria or its effects on Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican life, but it is still something that was affecting the people this movie is about at the time of the newer movie’s release so it is something to keep in the back of your mind as a viewer analyzing different aspects of the film.
The time period that West Side Story is set, the 1950s, was an important time for Puerto Rico politically. It was in 1950 that they were first recognized as a commonwealth and not a protectorate, signed into law by president Harry Truman, honoring them more as part of the United States and less as a territory that the United States doesn’t not accept as its own. There was often the mindset of Puerto Rico as American Land with its own people. They considered Puerto Rico to be owned by America but did not consider Puerto Ricans to be American. So, this shift towards Puerto Rico becoming a commonwealth and no longer a protectorate was a shift towards more acceptance of Puerto Ricans. Moving forward in 1951 Puerto Rico was allowed to establish its own government with a constitution. Almost 64,000 Puerto Ricans came to the mainland United States in 1953 when the largest migration of Puerto Ricans occurred, with a good amount of these people going to New York. West Side Story is set in the midst of this big migration.
Glossary of Key Terms
Bechdel Test: A film analysis tool to evaluate female representation that originated from a comic strip created by Alison Bechdel. The test has three conditions in which a film must pass:
- Are there at least two female characters? (some say they need to be named to meet this condition)
- Do they have a conversation?
- Is the topic of the conversation something other than men?
Black Lives Matter Movement: The Black Lives Matter organization has been around since 2013 but in 2020, George Floyd’s murder because of police brutality ignited the Black Lives Matter movement around the country and word of it spread internationally as well. This social justice movement sought to fight the police brutality, discrimination, and racism that African Americans faced and bring change to the way that situations are handled.
Civil Rights Movement: A social justice movement that took place in the 1950s and 1960s for African Americans and other people of color who experienced discrimination and racism because of their skin color to be treated with equality in the form of change in law in the United States.
Male Gaze: A term used when analyzing female representation in film to bring light to the over sexualization of female characters and look at how men are shown as the dominant gender and females are made to act in a way that appeals to what men want of them.
Vaudeville: A genre of entertainment that consisted of multiple acts being put together in one big production that often encompassed song and dance.
Annotated Bibliography
Primary Sources:
DisneyMusicVEVO. (2022, March 2). West side story – cast 2021 – america … – youtube.com. Youtube. Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoQEddtFN3Q
This is a video of the scene where the song America is sung in the new Steven Spielberg adaptation of the film West Side Story. This scene is discussed in 2 articles on this bibliography and is a good song to analyze for race representation because of the subject of the song, America and assimilation to an American way of life.
Questions: Do we see a change in how females and different races are portrayed in this scene compared to the original film scene? Does this scene pass the Bechdel test? Are there still any negative stereotypes shown here?
Gonyea, D., Hensel, D., & Estrada, M. (2021, December 14). ‘west side story’ stars Ariana Debose and Rachel Zegler defend their remake. NPR. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2021/12/14/1063788231/ariana-debose-and-rachel-zegler-say-west-side-story-gets-it-right-on-representat
This is a ten minute NPR interview with the two female lead actresses in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story sharing their opinions on the remake. In this interview we are able to hear directly from the two female actresses on their experiences remaking the film, giving them a voice rather than having a male speak out about it. I believe that this alone speaks to a more positive female representation and attitude about the newer film because the interview did not involve any male actors. This article does speak more to the representation side of the remake and whether or not they ‘got it right’ the second time around. The two female main characters argue that they did get it right the second time around because they were able to bring in their unique ethnic backgrounds and show real representation of what the communities look like. DeBose discusses her afro-latina background and how it is not often that you get to see people of her ethnic background in those main character roles. This speaks to a move in the positive direction from the original West Side Story to the second one as far as representation goes. It also brings in some of the ideas and critiques that went around about the original film and the lack of representation and other racism and stereotyping which could be pulled in to further emphasize a positive shift towards giving underrepresented communities the voice in films about them.
Questions: What other things have since also created the Puerto Rican narrative other than West Side Story? Has there been a more positive view of Puerto Rico since the newer adaptation of the film has been released? Are the female main characters represented positively? What does it say about the film that one of the female main actresses identifies as a queer afro-latina woman?
MovieClips. (2013, July 30). West side story (4/10) movie clip – america … – youtube. Youtube. Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSKk-cvblc
This is a video of the scene where the song America is sung in the original adaptation of the film West Side Story.This scene is talked about in two different sources in this bibliography. This is a good part of the film to analyze gender and race representation and roles. This can be compared to the newer America song scene to look for development in how females and different races are portrayed.
Questions: How are the females dressed? Does this scene pass the Bechdel test? Are the females being shown as submissive and assimilating more than the males, if yes why? Where are there negative stereotypes? What should be improved from this scene to the newer film?
Secondary sources:
Charles Ramírez Berg (1990) Stereotyping in films in general and of the Hispanic in particular, Howard Journal of Communications, 2:3, 286-300, DOI: 10.1080/10646179009359721
This is an article from the Howard Journal of Communications on different stereotypes that are present in films with a focus on the latinx population. This article discusses many of the stereotypes we see present and the implications they have had on people’s views of those that are represented in the stereotypes. This specifically sticks out for West Side Story because many of the stereotypes Charles Ramírez Berg discusses are present in the films, specifically in the original film. This shows that the original film portrays Puerto Ricans in a negative way and leaves open the question of if there is growth in a positive direction as far as representation for the Steven Spielberg adaptation.
Questions: How do you discern between a negative stereotype and something seems like a stereotype but just may be true about that group? Does having characters that are true to the ethnicity of the character they play help to overcome these stereotypes?
Episode 3: The Birth of American Music, 1619 Podcast, Nikole Hannah-Jones, produced by Andy Mills and Annie Brown, and edited by Larissa Anderson and Lisa Chow, Sept. 6, 2019.
This is a podcast episode with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Andy Mills and Annie Brown. It discusses some of the issues of minstrelsy and historical blackface use as well as stereotypes that I reference in the overview when talking about Vaudeville performances. This could be good for getting some of the history of stereotypes and minstrelsy and how this correlates to the West Side Story films.
Questions: In what ways do we see evidence of minstrelsy and stereotypes in West Side Story? Is there evidence in both films or just the original?
Gatta, C. D. (2021, October 29). West side story: 60 years as a cultural barometer. Shakespeare & Beyond. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2021/10/19/west-side-story-60-years-as-a-cultural-barometer/
This is an article from the Folger Shakespeare Library by Carla Della Gatta about more of the history behind the creation of the original West Side Story film. This tells us that the West Side Story film was originally not supposed to be about Puerto Ricans but was adapted to that concept to fit the scene of New York City better. It also brings in the idea that this was one of the only films portraying Latin Americans until Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, another film from class. Getting to understand the history behind the creative decisions when making the concept of the film helps to get a better understanding of why certain decisions were made when analyzing what certain decisions say about the film or the representation in the film. It also touches on some of the stereotypes of the latinx population in the film which is another focus for this research kit.
Questions: How would this have been different if the original idea was to make it about Puerto Ricans and not Jews and Catholics, would there have been less stereotypes and more attention to ethnic casting? Since the Steven Speilberg remake of the film happened with the concept already focusing on Puerto Ricans, did this allow for more culturally responsive adaptations since the central focus was never in question?
How west side story culturally defined the Puerto Rican diaspora – for better or worse: The takeaway. WNYC Studios. (2020, January 9). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/how-west-side-story-culturally-defined-puerto-rican-diaspora-better-or-worse
This podcast discusses the stereotypes and representation of Puerto Ricans in the original West Side Story and touches on what needs to happen and what people hope to see done with the remake of West Side Story, as it was written before the remade film had come out. Here they say that West Side Story was and remains one of the first and only representations of Puerto Ricans in mainstream media. They also touch on the history of the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico and what the relationship was like specifically when the original film was created and released. They also discuss the song America and how it is a well known and ‘iconic’ song of the film. The person being interviewed discusses gender and its effect seen in this scene. This relates to the NPR interview where they discuss this song from the two female leads in the remake and could be used to show some growth or change in female stereotypes and roles in this song scene specifically. This could also be a good place to bring in a specific scene from the films to analyze. They then go on to ask the people being interviewed if it is worth it to remake the original film or to move on and bring in a new story about Puerto Ricans. They say that this film brings in conversations about racism and stereotypes and brownface which are good for discussion on Puerto Rico. They argue that it can be a good thing with potential for a new more positive representation of this story and that it should only be the beginning of the story. This podcast could be used in many ways to talk about both gender and representation and implications of change from the original film to the remade film.
Questions: What was it that people hope to see change from the original film to the newer adaptation of the film? Are the desired changes dealing more with race or gender representation? What stereotypes are present in the original film that were corrected by the remade film?
Jennifer O’Meara (2016) What “The Bechdel Test” doesn’t tell us: examining women’s verbal and vocal (dis)empowerment in cinema, Feminist Media Studies, 16:6, 1120-1123, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2016.1234239
This article speaks towards my question of what does the Bechdel test actually tell us by bringing in the other side of the question; what doesn’t it tell us? Jennifer O’Meara suggests that the Bechdel test is shallow, extremely simple, and was never intended to be used as a tool to evaluate films based on female representation. She goes on to talk about everything that the Bechdel test is missing when talking about female voices and representation such as how long are the female characters talking for, what is the context, are they being mocked or repeated later on in the film, how are they visually represented, are they being silenced, or is there ethnic female representation? The article highly criticizes using the Bechdel test to judge movies for female representation and voices because some say that a single line in a film that passes the test allows for the whole film to be considered passing the test without any thought as to how much representation there is. This shows that my question on what the Bechdel test is and tells us may need to be further expanded on and bring in more of a discussion on what we should be using to analyze films instead.
Questions: So, is the Bechdel test not worth exploring? Is there another test that should be applied? Is it enough to just use the Bechdel test to analyze a film? Still we know what it doesn’t tell us, so what does it tell us?
Rivera, Magaly. “Puerto Rico’s History 1950 – 2022.” Welcome to Puerto Rico!, https://welcome.topuertorico.org/history6.shtml.
This website gives a good overview on some major points in Puerto Rican history. It begins in 1950, which is perfect for getting an understanding of the time period that West Side Story is set in, the 1950s. It then goes up until the current day. This can give you an idea of some of the changes and historical events that have happened to Puerto Rico since the release of the 1961 film up until the creation of the 2021 film.
Questions: What are some events on the history timeline that might relate to West Side Story? Do you see parallels from the movies to historical events that happened to Puerto Rico in the 1950s?
“West Side Story (1961).” Filmsite, https://www.filmsite.org/wests.html.
This website gives background and a summary of the story of the 1961 West Side Story film. This gives you insight into the producers, directors, and some other creative background information that might be useful for analysis and understanding the history of the film itself.
“2021 Film.” West Side Story, https://www.westsidestory.com/2021-film.
This website gives background information on the 2021 West Side Story film, similar to the previous source that gives the same information on the 1961 film. It gives information such as release information, streaming information, producers and directors, and other background information about the film itself. The website also has other tabs that give information on the original 1961 film, the original 1957 musical that both films are based on, and other adaptations of the story that have circulated the entertainment industry since.
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