West Side Story (1961)

Directors:

Jerome Robbins
Robert Wise

Writers:

Ernest Lehman (screenplay)
Arthur Laurents (book)

Release Date:

23 December 1961 (Japan)

Genre:

Musical | Romance | Drama

Tagline:

"BEST PICTURE!" Winner of 10 Academy Awards! - 1961 (post-Oscar)

Plot:

Musical about two youngsters from rival NYC gangs who fall in love.

Plot Keywords:

Love | New York City | Rival | Puerto Rican | Dance

Awards:

Won 10 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

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

Runtime:

152 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

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 (certificate #19949) | West Germany:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Netherlands:MG6 | Brazil:Livre | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11 (re-rating) (1970) | Sweden:15 (original rating) | Ireland:PG | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Peru:PT | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1986)

Filming Locations:

10th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Trivia:

Filmed on-location on West 61st Street.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: There are several instances of gang members (most notably the Jets) mouthing the wrong words during the songs.

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.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Drive: Partners (#1.2)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Prologue

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.