We’re so embroiled in reboots and remakes today that it may take a moment to assess what Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” is. This is not an upholstered modernization or a thinly disguised retreading. It is a feat of reconstruction. Spielberg, Tony Kushner and Steven Sondheim have taken the original play and reworked it from the inside out, delving into the DNA of “West Side Story” and its characters to recast, reconsider, deepen and clarify one. of the most iconic musicals of the 20th century.

It’s, I think, a better movie than the 1961 original, by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, in almost every way. The Sharks, the Puerto Rican gang that take on the White Jets in 1950s New York City, have been given a fuller new life, balancing “West Side Story” and correcting some of the original’s flaws in its stereotypical portrayals. Rachel Zegler’s María, Ariana DeBose’s Anita and David Alvarez’s Bernardo are, to a remarkable degree, what makes this “West Side Story” sing. And the story, as scripted by Kushsner, is more moving and complex than ever, fully realizing the tragedy of “Romeo and Juliet” while also shading the gang conflicts of the 1950s with notes on divisions and battles of gentrification today.

And, yet, as fully realized and impeccably crafted as this “West Side Story” is, I’m not sure it matches the power and strength of the original. As problematic as this movie was 60 years ago, starring Natalie Wood as Latina Maria, its power is impossible to ignore. There was Robbins’ electric choreography, expressionist color Panavision and Rita Moreno – my god, Rita Moreno – a dynamo of almost overwhelming talent. The 1961 “West Side Story” was propelled by a teeming, restless energy of mid-century America – a wave of moving bodies, syncopated with finger snaps. This “West Side Story” comes out of a different cultural moment, that of a tasteful renovation – three titans of the 20th century arts, such as master craftsmen of remodeling, moving and rearranging the trellis of scaffolding, bricks and emergency stairs.

Delayed for a year by the pandemic, “West Side Story” (December 10 in theaters) arrives with a eulogy, just after Sondheim’s death at age 91. “West Side Story”, originally staged in 1957, was Sondheim’s first musical. (Robbins designed it, with music by Leonard Bernstein, a book by Arthur Laurents, and lyrics by Sondheim.) Six decades later, it’s also Spielberg’s first musical. Spielberg, understandably, ultimately doesn’t get into song and dance with a little one-act act, but with perhaps the most beloved musical there is. (After all, he knows a thing or two about sharks.) When it comes to greatness on the big screen, there’s always no one who does it better.

What is immediately evident is that Spielberg, along with his usual cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, chose a paler, desaturated palette and a slightly more grainy and grounded sense of place. The opening shot flies over a giant pile of rubble – “slum clearance” to make way for Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side. (This track was a laughing stock at the screening I attended, at the Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Square.) With the wrecking ball coming up for San Juan Hill and a richer New York City to be built, the days are numbered for the Sharks and Jets. Their territorial war is ill-advised from the start; they’re both on the verge of having no territory at all. Lieutenant Schrank of Corey Stoll (superior to Officer Krumpke of Brian d’Arcy James) explains it to them: a remodeled neighborhood is coming that will have no room for Puerto Ricans like the Sharks or “the last of the can’t do -These are Caucasians. ”

It’s the storytelling, context and authenticity that give Spielberg’s “West Side Story” its own verve. He certainly still plays the hits, but the film feels less like a transfer from Broadway to the screen and more like a cinematic staging of a classic. The sets are often extraordinary. “In America” ​​goes from the soundstage to the streets in an on-air showtopper. “One Hand, One Heart,” in which Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria take their private marriage vows, has been uprooted at the Cloisters, where it shines with holy tenderness. Some classics – “I Feel Pretty,” performed in the Gimbels department store (where Maria works as a housekeeper) – may be too familiar to sound like new again. But songs like “Cool” are thrilling, in part because Spielberg’s nimble camera is in the dance, an enthusiastic partner of Justin Peck’s choreography.

But even though these are stationary pieces – and as beautiful as Zegler’s voice is – what makes them work so well is that they aren’t isolated, but emerge from the more fully formed interiors of the characters. . Tony has just been released from prison and remains in the basement of a new character’s pharmacy, Valentina (Moreno, connecting the past and present of the film). His best friend, Jets frontman Riff (Mike Faist, formidable), is eager to fight with the Sharks, and Faist plays him with a hint of meanness and despondency. Looking down on Puerto Ricans, he seems to realize, is all he has.

The Sharks, meanwhile, are led by Bernardo d’Alvarez: Anita’s boyfriend and Maria’s older brother. There is more discussion in this “West Side Story”, and that includes Spanish without subtitles that mixes with English. It’s one of the many details that strive to add authenticity to a drama with new layers of meaning. Not only are Bernardo, Anita and Maria fighting for their position in America, but they are making a place for themselves in this deeply American musical. (Each actor does it, beautifully.) The sparkling ethnic warfare at the heart of “West Side Story” here is less a ready substitute for the Montagues and Capulets than a metaphorical battleground for today’s discord, with much of pain and injustice go around, and maybe some measure of hope.

This backdrop highlights the romance between Maria and Tony, and two actors – the sensational Zegler and an ever better Elgort – have warm chemistry. From the first time they see each other through the whirlwind of a school dance, their eyes are fixed on one another. Much of Elgort’s performance, with a touch of melancholy sweetness from Marlon Brando, is simply watching Maria. Their relationship reached a crescendo in the duet of “Tonight”.

But that moment seems obscured by more than the exhaust metalwork that cages it. It is possible that there are some issues in the musical that cannot be overcome. Is it better to let a one-sided view of race in America step back into the past? It remains, for example, ridiculous how Maria ignores the death of her brother in the final act. It’s a disservice to his character that wastes some of the accumulated magic.

Yet this “West Side Story” succeeds most as a rebirth not only of Robbins’ musical, but of the best of classic cinema, made in the studio and on the big screen. It goes without saying that it is an endangered species today – because of the pandemic, yes, but also because of other deeper currents in the film industry. (The studio this was created with was swallowed up just before filming began.) “West Side Story” thus sounds as much like a revival as it is a swansong to a grand style of filmmaking that hopefully sounds like a swan song. will persist, as Maria sings, “sort of, someday, somewhere.”

“West Side Story,” a 20th Century Studios release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for footage of intense violence, strong language, thematic content, suggestive material, and brief smoke. Duration: 156 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

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Follow AP Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP