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| Tony (Richard Beymer) declares his love for Maria (Natalie Wood). |
Release Date: Oct. 18, 1961. Running Time: 152 minutes. Screenplay: Ernest Lehman. Based on the play by Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents. Producer: Robert Wise. Director: Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins.
THE PLOT:
The Jets are a West Side gang, made up children of poor whites on the outskirts of society, particularly Irish and Poles. Formed by gang leader Riff (Russ Tamblyn) and his best friend Tony (Richard Beymer), the Jets hold control of a tiny slice of territory that they are determined to keep.
The Sharks are a new gang, made up of young Puerto Ricans in the wake of the mass Puerto Rican migration of the mid/late 1950s. They came to New York with dreams of a better life, only to find most doors closed to them. Their leader, Bernardo (George Chakiris), was beaten by the Jets on his very first day in the city. Driven by resentment, they are determined to claim something for themselves.
Though he co-founded the Jets, Tony now works at a candy store and wants nothing to do with the violence of his old life. But at the dance where the challenge is issued, Tony meets Maria (Natalie Wood), Bernardo's sister, and falls instantly and utterly in love.
To head off the potential for bloodshed involving his best friend and his new love's brother, Tony urges the gangs to make their fight a fair, one-on-one fistfight. But Maria wants Tony to stop the fight from happening at all. Tony does this in the worst way possible, blundering into the fight after it has started - with all-too-foreseeable consequences...
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| War council: The Jets and Sharks meet to prepare for battle. |
CHARACTERS:
Maria: The innocent, idealistic "Juliet" of this tale. Bernardo wants her to take an interest in Sharks member Chino (Jose De Vega), but she complains in her first scene that she feels nothing for him. She falls absolutely in love with Tony, though she retains enough of a check on her romanticism to know that it's best they not be publicly seen together. That realism doesn't extend to the conflict between the Jets and Sharks, however, with her ill-advised request for Tony to stop their fight resulting in a bad situation spiraling completely out of control.
Tony: Even before he meets Maria, it's clear that he has moved on from the Jets. He has a job, he's working hard, and he has no interest in street conflicts. His initial solution to the Jets/Sharks conflict, to minimize the damage by getting the two gangs to agree to a simple fistfight, is probably the best anyone could do. If the relationship with Maria was just a couple weeks less new, he probably would tell her as much. But it's a new romance, his head is in the clouds, his brain is basically non-functional, and so he can't help but try to do what she wants, even if he really should know better.
Riff: Given that this is a direct updating of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, it's not surprising that it shares one of that play's issues: Namely, that the supporting characters are vastly more interesting than the two leads. Russ Tamblyn's Riff is the first character we meet, and he instantly captures the screen. He's dynamic and defiant, insistent that the Jets' territory may not be much but at least it's theirs. He's built his entire identity around The Jets, and he is fiercely protective of them.
Bernardo: George Chakiris won a Supporting Actor Oscar as Riff's Puerto Rican counterpart, the leader of The Sharks. Unlike Riff, he cares about more than just his gang. He enjoys a playfully amorous relationship with Anita (Rita Moreno), and he's concerned with looking after Maria, his sister. This should make him emotionally healthier, but he can't move past the resentment that drives him. The tragedy is that it's obvious that if he and Riff ever actually had a real conversation, they would almost certainly become fast friends - but they would require them to set aside their hatred for five minutes to discover as much.
Anita: Rita Moreno is terrific in her Oscar winning role. Anita is arguably the liveliest character in the movie. Unlike Bernardo, who disdains their new home, Anita has fully embraced it. The number, America, sees her exulting in New York life, even as Bernardo responds to each of her pronouncements by pointing out how opportunity doesn't seem to apply to them. America gets an instrumental reprise near the end, when Anita has a particularly bad encounter with the Jets that knocks her prior optimism right out of her and leaves her declaring, "Bernardo was right!" The contrast between her prior brightness and her rage in this moment is tremendously effective, and that script turn would see the 2021 remake's Ariana DeBose also win an Oscar for the role.
Anybodys: A tomboy who idolizes the Jets and wants to be one of them, no matter how many times the gang members spurn her for being a girl. She finally wins some approval from the gang when she helps Tony evade the Sharks. Happy to be one of the group, she helps instigate the Jets' poor treatment of Anita - but when it starts going too far, her attitude changes sharply, with her shrinking away in the background. To the film's credit, her reaction isn't focused on, but it's fully visible as she shifts from being enthusiastic at hurling insults to being appalled when that turns to physical action.
Lt. Schrank: Personifies the legal authorities - though Simon Oakland's Schrank probably wouldn't be anyone's ideal representative. He's an open bigot who complains that the Puerto Ricans will "turn this whole town into a stinking pigsty." He's almost as belligerent with the Jets, calling them "stupid hooligans" and referring to their parents as "tinhorn immigrant scum" - a reminder that the Polish and Irish also weren't considered "regular Americans." Oakland's bluster suits the character well, and the actor also brings a touch of world weariness that offsets it and makes the character more interesting than the script alone would suggest.
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| Anita (Rita Moreno), Bernardo's girlfriend, observes the relationship between Maria and Tony. |
THOUGHTS:
I've mentioned in past reviews of musicals that won the Best Picture Oscar that the musical is not my genre. In my reviews of An American in Paris and Gigi, I somewhat "curved" my final scores to account for this bias vs. the films' obvious artistic merit.
This is less of a factor for West Side Story, which not only drew me into its story and world - It did so immediately. The overture consists of a single static image of musical notes, with the color tint changing from orange to blue to red as the music plays, until the camera finally pulls back to reveal the title. It's a strong declaration of the filmmakers' confidence in their work.
Then the movie itself starts, and the opening sequence fully delivers on that confidence. The Jets and Sharks, and the conflict between them, are introduced cinematically. We watch as each gang baits and taunts the other until it inevitably becomes a fight. There's no real dialogue beyond occasional cries of "Jets!" and "Sharks!" Even so, we get a full sense of the conflict well before Lt. Schrank arrives to deliver formal exposition.
The leads are among the last characters to be introduced. It takes more than twenty minutes before Tony's first scene and a full half hour before Maria's. Initial focus is instead given to the conflict between Riff and Bernardo and their respective gangs. Only once the stage is set are the lovers introduced. This has the effect of dumping them into a conflict which neither is fully a part of, yet also a conflict neither can fully escape.
As I indicated earlier, it's the supporting cast that steals the show. Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris are superb. Natalie Wood is also good, doing well with the accent and absolutely nailing her emotional final scene. In my opinion, though, Richard Beymer's Tony ends up being the weak link. There's nothing wrong with his performance, but he lacks screen presence and tends to fade into the background when he's not directly at the center of a scene.
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| The Sharks eagerly prepare for battle in Tonight Quintet. |
TWO DIRECTORS AND THE MUSICAL NUMBERS:
Two directors were hired to make West Side Story. Robert Wise had experience and a commendable tendency to bring movies in ahead of schedule and under budget. Jerome Robbins had no film experience, but he was a well-regarded theatre director and choreographer who was given much of the credit for West Side Story's stage success.
The plan was to play to each man's strength. Wise would direct the dramatic sequences, while Robbins would helm the musical numbers. Then the plan made contact with reality. The musical sequences were shot first. Robbins choreographed and painstakingly rehearsed on set until, by 45 days into production, the film was already almost a month behind schedule. Unsurprisingly, Robbins was fired, with Wise finishing the remaining musical numbers. Wise continued to stay in contact with Robbins and incorporated his suggestions, however, and Robbins retained his co-directing credit.
There's an interesting balance in the musical sequences. The dramatic scenes play out in purely cinematic terms. The musical numbers balance that against nods to the theatrical origins. This is particularly true of America, in which Anita and Bernardo have a couple's argument in song on a rooftop that isn't even pretending not to be a stage set. That mix, cinema but with respect shown to theatre, is startlingly effective.
The showstopper is Tonight Quintet, which sees the major characters converging on the rumble: the gangs to have their fight and Tony to make his ill-advised attempt to stop it, while Maria and Anita look forward to what will happen after. The irony that all five singers (Maria, Tony, Riff, Bernardo, Anita) are looking forward to what they think will happen, but all five of end up shattered by what actually does transpire.
This sequence also shows both the theatrical and cinematic techniques at play. The first part of the song occurs in settings easily replicated on stage: the Sharks in an alley, the Jets on a rooftop, Maria singing through her window, Tony from inside the candy store. Shots are fairly static here, and it plays out under exaggerated reddish lighting. As the song progresses, the theatrical elements drop away in favor of location shots, and the camera is now in motion. The nearer the fight draws, the less stagy and more "real" and immediate the action becomes.
Unsurprisingly, given my ambivalence toward musicals, there are a couple of numbers that I could have happily lived without. I know both are considered iconic, but I had to fight the urge to reach for the fast-forward button during both I Feel Pretty and Somewhere (heresy, I know).
Still, most of the songs and musical pieces fit well within the narrative and worked for me - and a few, notably the Tonight Quintet, were absolute highlights of the movie.
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| Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria (Rachel Zegler) in Steven Spielberg's 2021 remake. |
THE 2021 REMAKE:
West Side Story was a tremendous success at the box office and won ten Academy Awards. That's probably why it took so long for a direct Hollywood remake. When a film has been that recognized, it probably should create hesitation as to how a new version can compete.
But when Steven Spielberg wants to make a movie...
The 2021 remake of West Side Story was a passion project from Spielberg. It casts Ansel Elgort as Tony and Rachel Zegler as Maria, and features the original film's Rita Moreno in a small but pivotal role (to all intents, she's Doc from the 1961 version). The story is now explicitly set against a background of 1950s gentrification, with the Jets and Sharks fighting over territory that will soon be unaffordable to both of them, lending an extra sense of futility to the entire conflict.
In place of the 1961 film's nods to the stage version, Spielberg makes the film as purely cinematic as he can. Anita and Bernardo no longer sing America on a rooftop: They, the Sharks, and the Sharks' girlfriends now sing it in the street in front of the development site for the new apartments. There are more exterior shots in general, and the mid-film rumble is directed in a way that emphasizes tension - though in my opinion, it loses the 1961 version's sense of realistic chaos.
I suspect most younger viewers will prefer Spielberg's version. I find myself preferring the older one, mainly because I feel more of a connection to the characters (well, minus Tony, who comes across more strongly in the newer film). Both movies are good, though, and I see no reason not to appreciate each as a product of its own time.
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| Riff (Russ Tamblyn) and the Jets play innocent to the police. |
OVERALL:
With strong directing, an engaging story, and several excellent musical numbers, West Side Story fully earns its status as a classic. The only things keeping me from granting it full marks are a weak male lead and (in my opinion) a couple of songs too many. But remember, I have a bias against musicals. I could easily see this being a "10" for many.
As for me? I still giving it a strong...
Rating: 9/10.
Related Post: Singing Through a Time of Change - The Musical, The Best Picture Oscar, and the 1960s.
Best Motion Picture - 1960: The Apartment
Best Picture - 1962: Lawrence of Arabia
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