Search the Community

I’m back….with another diary about my all time favorite movie, West Side Story. As I have written on here before, West Side Story is a film that I never get tired of seeing over and over and over again. This diary is about a whole bunch of reasons why. Some of it will undoubtedly be familiar to all of you, and some of it will not. Afew days ago, on a forum called West Side Story/Live Journal, I noticed a post about the best romance films from the 1940’s through the 1960’s. Along with My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and a whole bunch of other films, some of which I’d heard of and others I hadn’t, I was happy to see that West Side Story was also included in this youtube video/list. As I looked at the list, realizing that most of the films that were listed and posted about on this particular youtube video, I came to realize that, although West Side Story was included as one of the best romance films of all times on this list, something else occurred to me: What makes West Side Story such a beautiful and strong film is the fact that it’s a combination of a number of things. Whatever anybody may think of the romance between the ex-Jet leader/founder, Tony, and Maria (who are played by Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood), the younger sister of the newly-arrived Puerto Rican Shark gang leader, Bernardo, the romance between Tony and Maria is an integral and important part of the very story behind West Side Story. While West Side Story is about Tony and Maria’s romance, which eventually goes up in smoke due to the hatred and conflict between the warring Jets and Sharks, West Side Story is also about a number of other things, as well. West Side Story takes place in a rough and run-down urban area, on the West Side of 1950’s-1960’s Manhattan, in the United States’ largest city: New York. West Side Story is also about urban gang warfare, racial and ethnic tensions and hostilities, and conflict with the law, as well, as well as love and romance between two people of different racial/ethnic/cultural groups, all of which occur in real life, throughout the United States and throughout the world, generally. West Side Story is also about rebellion and forbidden love, as well as tribal friendship and loyalties. It’s also about how our society has left groups of have-nots to compete with the crumbs that have been left to them by our society and our system, which is something that the Jets’ and Sharks’ competition for a small piece of turf is clearly indicative of, if one gets the drift. West Side Story is also about the cruelty and hatred that the Jets and Sharks not only inflict upon each other, but about the cruelty and hatred allocated to both gangs by law enforcement, but there are also very kindly and caring adults (such as Doc, the candy store owner, and Glad-Hand, the social worker, at the Gym), who try to help them, and steer them in a better direction. If West Side Story is about all of the above-mentioned things, it’s about exuberance, arrogance, love of dance, and fun, as well, which are all indicated in the Dance at the Gym and the America scenes. The Officer Krupke scene also indicates the humor (albeit rather wry) in WSS, as well. West Side Story is also about rebellion in the form of women/girls attempting to break away from the old, traditional values. Maria, Anita and Anybodys are the strongest women in West Side Story, for that particular reason. Maria rebels and falls in love with Tony, and Tony by falling in love with Maria. Anita, who clearly disapproves at first, unlike Bernardo, comes around to accepting Maria and Tony’s love, albeit grudgingly. Anybodys is persistent in gaining acceptance by the Jets as an equal and one of the gang, proving her toughness, resourcefulness, and her ability to take care of herself, and she finally does gain acceptance by the Jets. The Rumble scene in West Side Story is the climax, where tensions ultimately explode, thus resulting in the deaths of Riff, Bernardo and Tony, and yet the Cool scene is the anti-climax, where hot blood is cooled by Ice, who takes over the Jet gang leadership after Riff’s death during the Rumble, after both the Jets and Sharks flee the police and go into hiding. Yet, while West Side Story is about the harsher side of life in a run-down, rough urban area, there are gentler aspects, as well, such as the short-lived romance between Tony and Maria, the way both the Jets and Sharks romanced with their girls, and the fact that “Glad Hand” and Doc were gently trying to steer both gangs in a better direction. West Side Story is also about possible redemption between people through intergroup reconciliation, which is strongly indicated by the fact that several Sharks and several Jets come together to carry Tony’s body off after he’d been shot to death, partly due to jealousy on the part of Bernardo’s friend, Chino, also a Shark gang member, and partly due to retaliation for Tony’s having stabbed Bernardo to death in retaliation for his having stabbed his (Tony’s) old buddy, Riff to death during the Rumble. All told, West Side Story is a story that is greatly emphasized and told in the form of beautifully-choreographed dancing by the late Jerome Robbins, fabulous cinematography by Daniel Fapp and others, great scenery design as well as some local city streets filming on Manhattan’s West Side, and a brilliantly intense Leonard Bernstein musical score, as well as Stephen Sondheim’s great lyrics. All told, just the right people were chosen for the cast of this great, golden oldie-but-keeper of a classic film. I also forgot to say that Officer Krupke and Lt. Schrank also epitomized the cruelty that was shown to both the Jets and Sharks in the form of hatred and insults to their ethnic and/or familial backgrounds, as well. West Side Story, as a musical, for the reasons that I mentioned above, is one of the very rare musicals that is beautifully successful on screen, as well as on stage. The great colors that are used in this film, especially the use of a lot of red, indicate much of the passions that are ignited in this film, also.

West Side Story, which has been my all time favorite film, hands down, since having seen it for the very first time, at around Christmastime of 1968, during a big national re-release of this film, when I was a high school Senior, at a now-defunct cinema north of where my siblings & I grew up. Little did I, my friends or family know that my very first viewing of the film West Side Story would begin a love affair with this great classic film that would last all the way through the present! Not only did I fall in love with the film West Side Story instantly, but, since I was still a teenager in high school when I first saw this movie, I identified with the Jets, the Sharks, and their girls, regarding kids being kids and so on, but when I got a little older and began seeing it in the (mostly now-defunct) independent repertory movie theatres in and around Boston, I began to appreciate not only the very story, the music, the dancing, and the overall cast, but I began to appreciate West Side Story for the grand work of art that it really and truly is. In addition to the music, the dancing, the richly-colored costumes and cinematography and cinematographical technique, and the story behind this great film, I have noticed that one of the very strengths of the film version of West Side Story is that when it was transferred from stage to screen, it was kept as a larger-than-life-sized piece of theatre. Since parts of WSS were filmed in the streets of NYC's East and West Side, as well as streets of downtown Los Angeles, and other parts of it were filmed on a huge sound-stage, this film retained much of its theatrical quality even after being transferred to the screen. Sure, seeing the movie West Side Story on TV or an elaborate home-theatre system is enjoyable, but, regardless of how wonderful people regard elaborate, expensive home-theatre systems, absolutely nothing beats seeing West Side Story on a great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low, and sharing the whole experience with a bunch of other people, whether one knows them or not. Movie theatres also serve as temporary communities, where people of almost all ages, and all walks of life, can get together to share wonderful experiences like this. From the warring Jets and Sharks to the romancing Tony and Maria to the bitter, bigoted and cynical Lt. Schrank and his partner, the quieter, but equally cynical Ofcr Krupke, and Doc, the Candy Store owner, who wishes to help steer the kids in a better direction, the various characters in West Side Story seem to move much more fluidly and freely, in a much wider, more open space. The Jets, the Sharks and their girls all seem much more exuberant, as well. The scenery, too, is more expansive, and one can see all of everything. A new intensity is brought to an already brilliant Leonard Bernstein musical score, and the overall settings that are uncannily designed (and created) to look like rough and rundown areas of a big city. All told, the film West Side Story seems to take on a magical, almost 3-dimensional quality to it when viewed as it's truly meant to be viewed; on a great big, wide movie theatre screen! The theatrical quality and the richly colored costumes and cinematography, as well as the movements of the characters in the film West Side Story all seem to come much more fully alive. Even Richard Beymer's Tony (whom I've always considered somewhat lackluster), seems to become more vital and alive on a great big, wide movie theatre screen. The dancing in West Side Story, ever beautifully amazing to begin with, seems even more vital, exuberant and alive on a great big, wide movie theatre screen, also. The various emotions, from exuberance, to arrogant insolence and cockiness, to humor (West Side Story definitely does have parts that make me smile and even laugh out loud. as well as put me on the edge of my seat, and even to mist up a bit.) to toughness, to the Rumble, from death to possible intergroup reconciliation, also seem very much emphasized when West Side Story is shown on a big, wide movie theatre screen. Since West Side Story is a film that goes from fairly light and exuberant to dark and heavy, and back to a somewhat lighter emotion (a hint of intergroup reconciliation, when several surviving Jets and Sharks come together to carry Tony's body off after he's been shot and killed by Chino, in retaliation for Tony's having stabbed Bernardo, who'd been stabbed by Tony in retaliation for Bernardo's having stabbed his long-time buddy, Riff, this is yet another reason why West Side Story must be viewed on a great big wide screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low to really reap the benefits of seeing this film as the true work of art that it really is.