MovieChat Forums > West Side Story (1961) Discussion > Why didn't she say it back?

Why didn't she say it back?


When I was a kid, I was borderline obsessed with this movie but one of the parts that always confused me and pissed me off then and now was in the scene when after Tony and Maria sing "Tonight" and he leaves, and looks at her lovingly and says "I Love You" and she replies with "Oh Yes....go quickly!" Why the Hell didn't she say it back?!! Was she not into him as he was with her? Everytime that part comes out, I put mute lol.

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[deleted]

didn't she say it in Spanish? Te adoro?

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[deleted]

I think another reason she didn't say it back was because she was trying not to rush into things, on top of the fact that her parents were in the next window and she was trying to get him away so that he was safe.

And like someone brought up, she did say te adoro just before he left. I used to have neighbors from Mexico, and when I asked the man of that house what te adoro meant, he said it means "I adore you."

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[deleted]

I asked the man of that house what te adoro meant, he said it means "I adore you."


I asked someone I knew in college who was Salvadoran, and she said that the "Te adoro" implies something even stronger than love.

THE RAP CRITIC:
http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/rap-critic

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I saw it again on PBS last night. How Anita responds is much different than how it reads. I thought it a fantastic scene and line, a cross between 'of course dummy' and a very sad resignation and prescience that they were in for a world of trouble and were helpless to it.

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I said Anita, I meant Maria, oops.

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Literally, "te adoro" means "I adore you," but it implies a feeling of intense, overpowering love; loving someone with all one's heart and soul, etc.

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I much prefer Freddie Prinze's classic comical take:

Us Puerto Ricans have taken the best racist blows, since the beginning of time. Take certain shows, like...West Side Story, for example. It practically dates Puerto Rican's back, about 2000 years. And we'd only been in the country 20! [audience laughter]
....... The most unbelievable scene in the whole thing, was 3-a.m... on the fire escape: the young lovers, Tony and Maria...Declaring their love for one another. Tony whispers, "Maria...I love you!" Maria whispers back, "You must be quiet, or my papa will hear you." Two seconds later, TONIIIIIIIIGHT!, TONIIIIIIIIGHT! [Pause. Audience laughter] Now, her father either would have had to have been deaf, or been wearing pillows in his ears! [Audience laughter] ... Had it been a black neighborhood, they'd have gotten shot! "What the H*** you doin' on the fire escape, at 3 a.m., sucker! Some people tryin' to sleep around here! Get me my gun, mama! You gonna be singin' all the way to the funeral parlor, baby!



Peanutlee33

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If that had been a black neighborhood, they'd have gotten shot! "What the H*** you doin' on the fire escape, at this late, sucker! Some people tryin' to sleep around here! Get me my gun, mama! You gonna be singin' all the way to the funeral parlor, baby!


To inject a bit of seriousness into this, had it been an all-white neighborhood, they probably would've gotten killed, also.

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Perhaps. But I couldn't help but share that classic stand-up comic bit, from the late Freddie Prinze. (It was the 1970s... The evolution of women's liberation, etc.) Perhaps listening to or watching the entire stand-up bit from Prinze would shed more insight. And he had other comments against WSS, in that bit.


Peanutlee33

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That is pretty comical, oprivr33. Thanks for posting it.

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