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IMDb > West Side Story (1961)
West Side Story
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West Side Story (1961) More at IMDb Pro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.7/10   23,862 votes
Writers:
Jerome Robbins (conception) and
Arthur Laurents (play) ...
more
Release Date:
23 December 1961 (Japan) more
Genre:
Musical | Romance | Drama more
Tagline:
"BEST PICTURE!" Winner of 10 Academy Awards! - 1961 (post-Oscar) more
Plot:
Musical about two youngsters from rival NYC gangs who fall in love. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
Won 10 Oscars. Another 14 wins & 6 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(15 articles)
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User Comments:
It could hardly have failed more

Cast

 (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Runtime:
152 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Spanish
Colour:
Colour (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.20 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm optical prints)
Certification:
USA:Approved | West Germany:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Netherlands:MG6 | Brazil:Livre | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11 (re-rating) (1970) | Sweden:15 (original rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Peru:PT | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1986)
MOVIEmeter: ?
^ 57% since last week why?

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Riff and Tony repeat an oath of loyalty to each other: Riff says "womb to tomb" and Tony answers "birth to earth." On stage Tony's original answer was "sperm to worm," but this was changed for the movie because it was beyond the censorship standards of the time. more
Goofs:
Continuity: In the final scene there is a male onlooker dressed in blue on the left near Schrank's car. In the next wide shot he is standing on the right near the uniformed police car more
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.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Beverly Hills, 90210: East Side Story (#1.13)" (1991) more
Soundtrack:
Somewhere more

FAQ

A NOTE REGARDING SPOILERS
Is this movie based on a novel?
How old were Maria and Tony?
more
52 out of 69 people found the following comment useful:-
It could hardly have failed, 23 July 1999
10/10
Author: Spleen from Canberra, Australia

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.

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