West Side Story (1961)

• Year: 1961
• Released: 23 Dec 1961
• Country: United States
• Adwords: Won 10 Oscars. 28 wins & 10 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055614/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/west_side_story
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/west-side-story
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 720p
• Language: English, Spanish
• MPA Rating: Approved
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Musical
• Runtime: 153 min
• Writer: Ernest Lehman, Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins
• Director: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
• Cast: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer
• Keywords: musical, based on play or musical, rivalry, showdown, street gang,

	7.6/10
	86/100
	93% – Critics
	84% – Audience

West Side Story Storyline

On the west side of New York City, the Jets and the Sharks are Polish and Puerto Rican gangs respectively who hate each other and who battle each other for territory in their neighborhood. Their feud makes a small connection when at a gymnasium dance, Tony, one of the founders of the Jets but who is now inactive in the gang, and Maria, the recently arrived sister of the Sharks’ leader Bernardo, spot each other across the crowded room and fall in love at first sight. For many of the male gang members, that connection is the last straw in their feud that leads to the decision to have a rumble to determine territory once and for all. Conversely, Anita, Bernardo’s girlfriend, supports Maria’s decision to romance whomever she wants, even a Jet. However, even Anita may be able to endure so much in her stance to support true love. As Maria and Tony try to meet each other clandestinely at any opportunity, Maria makes a request of him to foster peace between the Jets and Sharks, which inadvertently leads to a series of tragic events not only for the collective but personally for Maria and Tony.

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West Side Story Movie Reviews

the dumbness of some story elements ruin the movie for me

The music is nice, so I’ll give it a 4 for the songs. As for the rest of the film, I just don’t see why it has received so much attention (particularly from the Oscars). Perhaps the problem lies within me because I just can’t get past the fact that this is a musical about two effeminate street gangs. I saw the movie all the way through as a kid, but in my 30s I tried watching it again and just couldn’t keep watching. When the Jets and Sharks (or whatever their names were) started fighting, I found myself laughing uncontrollably as they danced and pranced and skipped across the stage! I am originally from Washington, DC, and ANY gang behaving like THAT sure wouldn’t last long!

One of the most electrifying musicals ever made!

This is probably the best musical ever made. It is fantastic!!! It is loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, but it means that west Side Story had an inspiration, and it is told movingly and powerfully. Right from minute one I knew we were going to be in for a treat. The prologue was brilliantly staged, as was the rumble, which I found a bit disturbing to be honest! Quintet was thrilling also. Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood are wonderful as the two lovers, Wood is very heartfelt and Marni Nixon’s singing for her is the very definition of angelic, as is Russ Tamblyn as a very energetic Riff. George Chakiris is also good as Bernado, though I would have given the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Tamblyn, but it is Rita Moreno as fiery Anita who impressed most, easily one of the best supporting turns of any musical. The songs are fantastic, one of those musicals where every song works, some are funny; “America”(amazing choreography) and “Officer Krupkee” and some heart rending ones; “Tonight” “One Hand One Heart” and “Somewhere”. The choreography was enough to have you on the edge of your seat. Everything is right about this movie, and I am shocked it isn’t in the top 250, because it should be for it is one of the greatest film musicals! 10/10 without question! Bethany Cox

As Maria Said, So Pretty, Witty, & Bright

It’s hard for me to write a review about West Side Story because all the superlatives have been written and said over and over again. What I think the main contribution of West Side Story to our culture is to interest urban American youth of the Fifties in both the classics and the American Musical Theater. A typical boy or girl going to Andries Hudde Junior High School and Midwood High School from 1959 to 1965 as I did was acquainted with the music and lyrics of West Side Story from radio, records, and television and if you saved up for a Broadway seat.

You might not have gotten Oklahoma, you might have thought Carousel was quaint and you sure thought South Pacific was for your parent’s generation, but West Side Story spoke to you. It was about young people just trying to belong, if you will looking for a place, in time and space for us.

And wonder of wonders not only could the American Musical Theater speak to you, but when your English teacher told you about the guy who wrote the story that this was based on, well maybe that guy who writes in incomprehensible English, that William Shakespeare guy, maybe he had some other relevant things to say. West Side Story promoted literacy and taste for a generation and you can’t get a higher accolade than that.

It’s a difficult production also because it involves skill in acting, in dance, and you’ve got to have a great singing voice to deal with Leonard Bernstein’s music and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics. They got a really great cast together on Broadway with Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence, Chita Rivera, and the rest. They all sang and danced and acted these Shakespearean based roles beautifully. Unfortunately there wasn’t a movie name in the lot.

Acting and dancing can’t be faked on the silver screen, but singing can be dubbed as it was for leads Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood. A lot of Rita Moreno’s songs were dubbed as well though that America number is all Rita. She’d actually done musicals before, The King and I and The Vagabond King remake are two of them. The voices of Jimmy Bryant and Marni Nixon fit them perfectly.

West Side Story is pretty, witty, and bright and the witty part comes from two ensemble numbers Officer Krupke done by the Jets and America done by the Pyerto Rican Sharks. Listen very closely to the entertaining social commentary made by Stephen Sondheim. These numbers together with the accompanying Jerome Robbins choreography are some of the best examples of all the components of a successful musical working together.

The ballads like Tonight, I Feel Pretty, A Place For Us, require almost opera like voices to sing them. I’d get either the Broadway cast album or the cast album for this film as a must for a recording collection. I happen to have a bootleg recording of Judy Garland and Vic Damone doing a selection from Garland’s TV show. It is beautiful and priceless.

One other thing about West Side Story that is endearing for me. Pay close attention to the role of Anybody’s. It may be the first time that a transgender individual was portrayed in a major motion picture, let alone one that was the Best Picture of 1961. IMDb gives very little in the way of information about Susan Oakes the actress who played Anybody’s. But her performance is nothing less than a harbinger of what Hilary Swank did as Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry.

Like the kids from Romeo and Juliet and 16th century Verona, Italy, West Side Story is about young people just trying to find a place in time and space, finding a new way of living away from the dumb prejudices of their elders. They almost break free too.

West Side Story won 10 Academy Awards including a joint Best Director Oscar for Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress for George Chakiris and Rita Moreno and a flock of technical awards. It set a standard for stage and screen to be both entertaining and contemporary.

And it’s so pretty, witty, and bright.