West Side Story

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, the musical had become one of the most popular motion picture genres. The list of past hits was impressive, including titles like Singin' in the Rain, South Pacific, The King and I, Oklahoma!, An American in Paris, My Fair Lady, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Carousel. Consequently, Hollywood moguls were always on the lookout for new source material, regardless of whether it was original or adapted. So, whenever a new Broadway musical captured the public's attention, an attempt was usually made to transform it into a screen event. West Side Story debuted on Broadway in 1957, several years after the idea was conceived by Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins. The concept underlying the play was to transfer Romeo and Juliet to a contemporary setting and present the story as a musical, resulting in an intriguing mix of romance, tragedy, violence, and singing & dancing. Robbins and Bernstein walked a tightrope to keep the elements properly balanced; it would have been easy for one aspect or another to have emerged more strongly than the others, thereby unsettling the entire production. Audiences loved the play. It stayed for two years on Broadway before going on tour then returning to New York for a grand re-opening. Thoughts of a movie blossomed soon after it became apparent that West Side Story was a hit. So, with Bernstein and Robbins working in concert with director Robert Wise, the film version went into production in 1960. After opening in October 1961, it became an international hit and won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The movie transpires in New York's Upper West Side during the late 1950s. The feuding Monatgues and Capulets are represented by rival gangs: the Jets and the Sharks. The former group is comprised of first-generation New Yorkers whose parents came across on boats during the early decades of the century. Their rivals are Puerto Rican immigrants who are newly arrived in the United States. The constant skirmishing of the Jets and the Sharks is primed to explode into an open war, but not before Tony (Richard Beymer), a founder of the Jets (who is no longer with the gang - he has gotten a job), falls in love with Maria (Natalie Wood), the sister of the Sharks' leader. In true Romeo and Juliet fashion, these two defy conventions and risk everything, including their lives, to be with one another. And, also as in Shakespeare's play, there are no happy endings. To its credit, West Side Story does not shy away from difficult issues. It explores both the senselessness of gang strife and the prejudice faced by immigrants. Yet, by today's standards, its views on both seem a little naïve. However, the film's approach to violence is unique. West Side Story is almost bloodless - even the stabbing and gunshot scenes are sanitized. All the fights are highly stylized and divorced from reality. The characters dance around each other while in the process of stalking and attacking. Yet there's a real sense of menace to some of these scenes, due in large part to the choreography and Bernstein's dissonant score. We end up feeling the violence more than seeing it. It doesn't always work - the power of the scenes in which characters die is arguably lessened by this approach - but it enables a grittier story to be told within the musical framework.