When telling any other musically-inclined person in my life that I was watching West Side Story, the usual response was “It’s about time!” And now I understand that sentiment.
West Side Story fits in with the other great musicals of the 1960s, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and Oliver! (which unfortunately I haven’t seen yet) in terms of scope, execution, and cultural longevity. The reason the surge of musicals came back at this time is because of the invention of color film, since now musical movies could be an even more accurate capturing of these vibrant and moving stage shows. And that’s what they are, a film version of famous stage shows. The two that I’ve seen this week, My Fair Lady and West Side Story, both contained labeled intermissions right in the film, if only for a short moment. Hollywood had no intention of expanding on or changing these great musicals that had done so well on stage, so they do just seem like live tapings of the Broadway versions, if only with bigger sets.
For anyone who doesn’t know, West Side Story is basically a musical version of a modernized Romeo and Juliet, set in 1957. There are two gangs of juvenile delinquents living in Manhattan, the Jets, shown above, and the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks.
The two gangs decide that a final brawl, or a “rumble,” will determine which gang gets to have absolute rule over the neighborhood, while the other will be reduced to nothingness. But first, the Jet’s inactive cofounder, Tony, falls in love with the Sharks’ leader’s sister, Maria.
It is total and unbounded love at first site. They decide in about a day that they must run off in order to be together.
The songs are beautiful, the dancing is spectacular, and the film actually speaks a lot to the racial issues going on in New York at the time. And that’s what makes movie musicals so perfect, that they can address those kinds of things without the heaviness of a drama. The Jets make many racially charged remarks against the Sharks, and the Sharks communicate their obstacles in America with each other. Bernardo’s girlfriend, Anita, is probably the most interesting character in the film. She recognizes that as a woman she has it easier in America than in Puerto Rico, but the men argue that due to money issues and racial injustices, they do not. The actress who played Anita, Rita Moreno, ended up winning an Oscar for the role. Not to mention she’s one of the entertainment industry’s eleven EGOT winners and therefore a certified badass.
But the film focuses more on Natalie Wood, who played Maria (and is Russian not Puerto Rican), because of her mainstream beauty. And she didn’t even provide her own singing voice!
Personally, I find Romeo and Juliet to be the least interesting characters in their story, because all they do is love each other to the point where their judgement is so horribly clouded that they both end up dead (don’t worry that’s not a spoiler for the film). But credit to the Academy, because Rita Moreno and George Chakiris (who played Bernardo) both won their respective Oscars, while none of the lead characters even got nominated (probably because they were both dubbed for their singing).
Another interesting theme is the government's inability to understand the youth culture of the time. The Jets and Sharks never intend to hurt each other, most of their fighting actually comes off as a little playful. But the police officers treat the kids like thugs, and by the end of the film, that is what they become.
The film is #51 on the AFI Top 100, but it doesn’t even crack the IMDb Top 250 (take that Fight Club). It also is the most Oscar winning movie musical of all time, with 10 Oscars, including Best Picture. It, however, was the second highest grossing movie of 1961, losing out to Disney’s 101 Dalmatians.
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