West Side Story (1961)

Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.

Directors:

Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise

Writers:

Ernest Lehman (screenplay), Arthur Laurents (book)

Stars:

Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer

Won 10 Oscars. Another 18 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Natalie Wood	...	Maria
Richard Beymer	...	Tony
Russ Tamblyn	...	Riff
Rita Moreno	...	Anita
George Chakiris	...	Bernardo
Simon Oakland	...	Schrank
Ned Glass	...	Doc
William Bramley	...	Krupke
Tucker Smith	...	Ice
Tony Mordente	...	Action
David Winters	...	A-rab
Eliot Feld	...	Baby John
Bert Michaels	...	Snowboy
David Bean	...	Tiger
Robert Banas	...	Joyboy

Storyline

West Side Story is the award-winning adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy, "Romeo and Juliet". The feuding families become two warring New York City gangs- the white Jets led by Riff and the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo. Their hatred escalates to a point where neither can coexist with any form of understanding. But when Riff's best friend (and former Jet) Tony and Bernardo's younger sister Maria meet at a dance, no one can do anything to stop their love. Maria and Tony begin meeting in secret, planning to run away. Then the Sharks and Jets plan a rumble under the highway - whoever wins gains control of the streets. Maria sends Tony to stop it, hoping it can end the violence. It goes terribly wrong, and before the lovers know what's happened, tragedy strikes and doesn't stop until the climactic and heartbreaking ending.

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Plot Keywords:

gang | new york city | puerto rican | tragedy | interracial romance | 

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Taglines:

Unlike other musicals 'West Side Story' grows younger!(re-release)

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

23 December 1961 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Amor sin barreras

Filming Locations:

Church of Saint Paul the Apostle, Columbus Avenue & West 60th Street, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$43,656,822

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Mirisch Corporation,Seven Arts Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

153 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) 70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints) Mono (35 mm optical prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In a few scenes, a poster can be seen for Palisades Park, which was a real amusement park that straddled the border of Cliffside Park and Fort Lee, New Jersey, from 1898 to 1971.

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Goofs

The door of Doc's store has a screen to keep out thieves, but the windows do not.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[the Jets dance across the streets of New York, eventually coming to a playground where they toss around a basketball. The ball is intercepted by Bernardo, leader of the Sharks]
Riff: [snaps fingers at Bernardo] Come on.
[Bernardo drops the ball, Riff picks it up]
Riff: Beat it.

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Crazy Credits

The credits at the end of the movie appear as graffiti on street signs.

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Alternate Versions

The Special Limited Edition DVD released by MGM in 2003 restores an intermission that was intended to be included in the original roadshow version but was subsequently dropped in order to create what the filmmakers termed a "rising tension" in the story. The intermission sequence was supposed to have taken place right before the song 'I Feel Pretty' and brings the film's total running time to more than 152 minutes. This break was used, however, for the film's first television showing in 1972 on NBC. It was broadcast in two installments, one each on separate nights, the first part ending at the break, and the second part beginning at the "I Feel Pretty" sequence.

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Connections

Featured in A West Side Story: The Film and the Philharmonic (2013)

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Soundtracks

Intermission
(1957) (uncredited)
Composed by Leonard Bernstein

User Reviews

It could hardly have failed

Note the opening credits. I use the term "credits" loosely, because there aren't any. There's just a reddish orangish title card which changes colour ever so slowly while they play the overture. Now THAT takes courage. Obviously Wise was certain that Bernstein's music provides so much interest on its own that it would have been redundant to do anything but play it. And he was right. Bernstein simply wrote better music than any other Broadway composer of his day - much better music - and whether or not "West Side Story" contains his very best music, it's his very best musical. It would take a special effort to make a bad movie out of it.

In fact Wise handles things very well. We get the same silent sweep over New York that he later gave us over Austria in "The Sound of Music" - the sweep that says, "I'm going to show you New York" (or Austria, as the case may be). The filming and the colours are stark and intentionally artificial: it does feel as if we are being shown a city. Performances are all fine.

Of course, most of what makes this film great was already present in the musical. But what's wrong with that? Surely Wise shouldn't HAVE to spin straw into gold. A wise man - sorry - just accepts it with good grace when he is handed gold to begin with.