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Moviola > Films > West Side Story West Side Story (PG) 152 mins Where can I see this film?
West Side Story is the award winning adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. The feuding families become two warring New York City gangs - the white Jets led by Riff and the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo. Against a backdrop of their implacable hatred, Riff's best friend (and former Jet) Tony (Richard Beymer) and Bernardo's younger sister Maria (Natalie Wood) meet at a dance and fall in love. Maria and Tony begin meeting in secret, planning to run away. When the Sharks and the Jets plan a rumble under the highway - whoever wins gains control of the streets - Maria sends Tony to stop it, hoping to put an end to the violence... West Side Story is 50 years old this year and we will be showing the digitally remastered version.
"From the moment the camera swings grandly down out of the sky at the start of the film and discovers the Jets, a gang of tough kids, twitching restlessly in a playground park, bodies move gracefully and fiercely in frequent spontaneous bursts of dance, and even the movements of the characters in the drama have the grace of actors in a ballet. This pulsing persistence of rhythm all the way through the film - in the obviously organized dances, such as the arrogant show-offs of the Jets, that swirl through play-grounds, alleys, school gymnasiums and parking lots, and in the less conspicuous stagings, such as that of the "rumble" (battle) of the two kids - gives an overbeat of eloquence to the graphic realism of this film and sweeps it along, with Mr. Bernstein's potent music, to the level of an operatic form." New York Times, 1961
"Today's gang-related crime culture might make this high-minded spin on Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers from 1961 look a little quaint. Leonard Bernstein's rich, eloquent and demanding score is still a powerful experience, however, and choreographer Jerome Robbins's street ballets look exotic and experimental - as well as being great spectacle." Peter Bradshaw, 2005
No official website. For more information, and to see a trailer and stills, visit www.imdb.com.
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