Movie Song of the Week: "America"

The more I hear various political officials claim to be part of the "Resistance", the more I want to repost this song.

After all, it can be argued that in his own way, Bernardo was a resistance leader and in any event, any serious discussion of "resistance" that leaves out Hispanics doesn't seem worth talking about.

Movie Quote of the Week

Ah, we still have nothing, only more expensive.
--George Chakiris, West Side Story (1961)

Movie Song of the Week: “America”

Just to show that not all my tastes in movie musicals are strictly -- ahem -- black and white, there's this tune. It's one of the most famous songs from the 1961 movie West Side Story, which incidentally was the first movie musical I ever liked enough to buy its soundtrack album.

Although this song has often been described as a mindless celebration of assimilation, it has always seemed to me to be a lot more complex than that, especially the way it's presented in this movie. I have yet to hear another song that so adeptly sums up the complicated love-hate relationship so many Latinos like myself have with America. True, I myself have never experienced any of the prejudice that Bernardo and his friends complain about in this movie, but I know older relatives who have.

And yet... I love America. If for no other reason than the fact that it gave my late father the opportunity to achieve a success he never could have achieved in his native Mexico...

Movie Quote of the Week

In America, nothing is impossible.
--George Chakiris, West Side Story (1961)