West Side Story (1961)
Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris; d. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins
In 1957 a new musical hit the stage in New York City. After having a breif but successful run in Washington, DC, the musical play quickly became a smash both critically and with the audiences on Broadway. Bosting such talents as composers Leonard Bernstein (who wrote the music) and Stephen Sondheim (who wrote the lyrics), playwrite Authur Laurents, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and actors Carol Lawrence, Larry Kert, and Chita Rivera (who would later go on to co-star in Bob Fosse's
Sweet Charity), the musical was high in quality. It was groundbreaking as well as successful for its effectiveness in making an updated version of
Romeo and Juliet in the backdrop of upper west side Manhattan, its portrayal of ethnic tension amongst juvenile delinquent gangs, all while making it a powerful and effective musical. When Hollywood came knocking at this musical's door, it promised to attatch many more great talents to its name and spread its legacy beyond the Great White Way. Unfortunatley, all of the original Broadway cast was left in New York City in extange for younger, more popular Hollywood stars who, for the most part, had to lip-synch their singing parts but could dance anyhow. But, what a cast: Natalie Wood, the already popular Hollywood star who made a name for herself in
Rebel Without A Cause, even though she had already been in pictures since she was a kid, Rita Moreno, a moderatley unknown Puerto Rican actress who would go on to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in the movie and thus start an impressive career, George Chakiris, who also won a Supporting Oscar and had already performed in the play in London but not in the same role, and Russ Tamblyn, who had previously been nominated for an Oscar in his role in
Peyton Place. Recent honorary Oscar recipitant Ernest Lehman (
North By Northwest,
The Sound of Music) was asked to do the script. Bernstein, Sondheim, and Robins were still on hand for the movie, with Bernstein having to write extra music to score the film, and Sondheim having to chance some of his risky lyrics (especially for the biting song "America"). Robins was aksed to direct the picture as well as choreograph it, but he had assistance from the great and diverse director Robert Wise (editor of
Citizen Kane and director of
The Day The Earth Stood Still and
The Sound of Music, among many others), a collaboration that was not without a few arguments. But when the movie was released any uneasiness on the set was hard to detect. The movie became a hit and so did the soundtrack, which was and still is the best-selling musical soundtrack ever and still remains in the top 50 best-selling soundtracks of all time. When Oscar time rolled around, the movie received a whopping 11 nominations and won an equally whopping ten, including Best Supprting Actor and Actress, Best Director, Best Score (Musical), and Best Cinematography. Today it stands as one of the most poignant musicals of all time, timeless as its theme and even becoming its own legendary story despite the fact that it's based on a Shakespeare classic. That unforgettable play which spawned the timeless musical movie classic was called
West Side Story.
The story in question takes place in upper west side Manhattan, in a place where the Lincoln Center stands today, where two rival gangs are battling each other for a peice of land. The all-Anglo American Jets, the most feared gang in the area, is facing stiff competition from the growing Puerto Rican population in the area, which have spawned the equally fear-inticing Sharks. The Jets are lead by Riff (Russ Tamblyn), a sardonic JD (juvenille delinquet) who's a natural leader for the jazzy-speaking Jets. Bernardo (George Chakris) is the hard-headed leader of the Sharks, a person who is still caught up in the old traditions of Puerto Rico and is extreamly unhappy with the American system of crime and prejudice. His younger sister, Maria (Natalie Wood), has recently come to America and he is keeping a watchful eye over her. Maria, a spunky girl who's excited about being in America, is bored with the hum-drum life she's living when she expected to live an exiting, face-paced life in the city. She's engaged to be married to Chino (Jose De Vega), a member of the Sharks and a person whom Maria is not very interested in. Maria gets her fist taste of being American, or so she believes, when she's allowed to go to a school dance that takes place the day the Sharks and the Jets have another, what seems to be, typical fight on the Jets' "turf." Maria explains her fustration and boredom to her friend and mentor Anita (Rita Moreno), who also happens to be Bernardo's girlfriend, while Anita is making Maria's (white) dress for the evening. It is at the dance where she runs into trouble, or at least in Bernardo's eyes: She sees and falls in love, on the spot, with Tony (Richard Beymer), an ex-Jet who is now working in a drug store with an old man named Doc (Ned Glass, who also had a breif role in
North By Northwest and a bigger one in
Charade). Tony gave up the gang life because he was tired of the voilence and the fighting, but now his best friend Riff is relying on Tony to "come through" for the Jets and help them defeat the Sharks. But like Maria, Tony falls head over heels for her at the dance and can think of nothing else as he meanders out into the streets after having met her. The two start a heated but clandestine romance as they must hide it from their ethnically divided peers. Only Anita and Doc know about the relationship, and both keep it on the hush-hush but are obviously concerned for the two. The problem is with their relationship they are so in cloud nine that they forget the problems that surround them. Maria's brother and Tony's best friend are two leaders of rival gangs who hate each other to the core, and not even the olive branch-bearing Tony can stop the two from battling each other in an all-out rumble over who gets the Jets' "turf". What happens is as equally as tragic as Shakespeare's romantic classic but with a not-so clear resolution of the tension between the gangs.
Where do I even begin praising such a film as
West Side Story? Without a doubt in my mind this is the best musical I've ever seen. It may have flaws in terms of some of the acting but the movie is so strong in many other parts that it cancels out any of the weak performances that were given by only a small percentage of the cast. The real stars of this movie is its supporting cast, lead strongly by Rita Moreno and Russ Tamblyn. Moreno definatley diserved her Oscar and it would have been nice to see Tamblyn be nominated. George Chakiris, though, does a great job as Bernardo and an equally great job of covering up that accent! The supporting cast also boasts the best dancers of the film and even some of the non-lip-synching actors! The lead actors, Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, are good also but the strongest performance comes from Wood. Beymer's performance of Tony was very flawed and gave us the impression of Tony being a crazy boy instead of a crazy boy in love. The worst performance comes from Ned Glass with a horribly overdamatic performance, but then again his character was given some of the film's most overdamatic lines. The greatest performance comes from Moreno, a highly emotional potrayal of Anita, an Puerto Rican girl who's enthralled with America's dazzling bulidings and economy, but becomes disenheartened when she sees the extreamly racist and brutal side of America.
The direction of the film is superb, but what else can you expect when you have Robert Wise on hand? The best thing about the direction and cinematography is that it really emphasizes on the realism that the play was trying to give the impression of. Robbins' great choroegraphy was intended to have a natural feel so audiences wouldn't be supicious of dancing gangsters. Obviously this doesn't work for some but it works for me. While the movie does obviously have artificial Hollywood lighting, much of the camera positioning, colors, costumes, and sets give the movie a realistic look and feel. Notice how the camera keeps a distance from the dancing and is often behind spectators in the dance number for "America", or the dark lighting in the "Cool" number and many scenes towards the ending of the film. The movie also benifits from being shot on location in Manhattan. Ernest Lehman's script is excellent and perfectly balances the racial tension, romantic story and entertainment level and provides some very memorable lines. He was nominated for an Oscar for his script but did not win. The music by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, who reportedly did not make a very happy collaboration, is obviously the most memorable part of the film and without a doubt the best part of the film. Who could forget songs like "America", "Cool", "Tonight", "Maria", "I Feel Pretty" and the wonderful musical numbers that accompanied them? Bernstein's music is a great combination of Latin and jazz, and Sondheim's lyrics still dazzle even though some of the sizzle that was displayed in Broadway was taken out of the movie (the original "America" was rather brassy and almost a cat fight between Anita and another Puerto Rican girl). It's interesting to learn that
West Side Story spawned a craze in Broadway in which every musical had to have at least one Latin number. The influence of
West Side Story is especially heavy in one scene in
Sweet Charity which seems to have taken a bite out of "America".
The second best thing about this movie, besides the music, is its musical numbers. To meat at least the dancing seems natural. What's so great about the choreography is in the opening sequence and the rumble scene the dancing also effectively substitutes for physical fighting. Personally I think the best musical numbers have to be first the mambo sequence, which perfectly sums up the tension among the gangs and has some pretty amazing dancing, secondly "America", and thirdly "Cool", which dance movements portray the uneasiness felt by the Jets after the rumble.
If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing this excellent musical I urge you to see it. If you're not a fan of musicals, fine, but for anyone else who's got the heart to watch it but haven't seen it yet, again, I say see it. It's a true cinematic gem.
© Vert A Go Go Reviews 2001