West Side Story

West Side Story was the winner of the Best Picture Oscar for 1961; in fact it won 10 Oscars out of 11 nominations. As good as The Hustler was, I can't say that I wouldn't have voted for West Side Story--it was an innovative feast for the senses, and really hasn't been duplicated as a film that effectively told a story through music and dance.

The film, of course, was based on the Broadway musical, an updating of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Set in a part of New York City that no longer exists (it was razed to build Lincoln Center), the story concerns rival gangs, the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. In the midst of the tension between the two gangs, Tony, a former gang member, falls in love with Maria, the sister of the Sharks' leader. Tragedy ensues.

The play was conceived by Jerome Robbins, who enlisted Leonard Bernstein to write the score, Stephen Sondheim to write the lyrics, and Arthur Laurents to write the libretto. Bernstein was after changing the nature of the Broadway musical--up until then, most musicals were lighthearted romantic comedies. His music, almost operatic in nature, combined with Robbins' balletic choreography to create something new in American musical theater. In my opinion, which is not an audacious one, Bernstein wrote the greatest score ever for a Broadway musical.

For the film, Robert Wise was hired to direct. Robbins would choreograph, but eventually became co-director. He was so demanding, and insisted on so many takes, that he was eventually fired, but kept the credit; when he and Wise won the Oscar for Best Director (the first co-directors to do; since then only the Brothers Coen have done it) neither thanked the other. Robbins also won a special Oscar for his choreography.

The film has many attributes, Bernstein's score included, but I noticed that when articles appeared on the film's 50th anniversary this October, the encomiums were written by dance critics. In the documentary that accompanies the DVD, it is notable that Sondheim says that on the surface, West Side Story is about racial prejudice, but really it's about the theater, and how to tell a story using dance.

I've known some people who could never get West Side Story. The prologue, one of the most thrillingly brilliant segments in any American movie, focuses on Russ Tamblyn as Riff, snapping his fingers along with his gang. The only sequence that was actually shot in New York, the scene shows the rivalry with the Sharks, who fight with balletic moves. I remember a kid I knew who couldn't get past the fact that gangbangers would never dance like that. True, and the dancers in the film don't look all that tough--their dancers, after all. But the movement is just breathtaking, and if you can just sit back and let that scene wash over you, the rest will come easy.

And there's so many other great numbers, both personal and intimate, such as "Maria," and "Tonight," sung by Tony and Maria on the fire escape, to the production numbers such as "America" and "Cool," or "Quintet," one of the most amazing pieces of music ever written for the American stage, when the Jets and Sharks are heading for their rumble, Anita (Rita Moreno) is readying for her date with Bernardo (George Chakiris), and Tony and Maria reprise "Tonight," to the heartbreaking "Somewhere."

I've learned all sorts of interesting trivia about the film--I did know that Marni Nixon's voice was dubbed in for Wood, who did record for the film, but her voice wasn't deemed good enough. The same fate befell Richard Beymer as Tony. Some of the actors up for Tony included Warren Beatty (who was currently dating Wood), but it was Elvis Presley the producers wanted. Colonel Tom Parker turned them down, insisting that he didn't want Elvis depicted as a gang member. Auditioning for Maria were Audrey Hepburn, who withdrew because of pregnancy, and Valerie Harper, who would go on to play TV's Rhoda. It is a shame, though, that more Latino actors were not used--Moreno was the only one. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and Chakiris, a Greek-American, was the Best Supporting Actor winner.

The film certainly seems dated in some respects. Juvenile delinquency was a problem in the 1950s, but I doubt these characters would scare any current gang members. Use of terms like "daddy-o" give it a quaint feeling. But there is some trenchant sociology going on. Consider the character of Anybody's, a tomboy trying to join the gang, only to be rejected because she was a girl. That she is called "anybody's" suggest things the film leaves to the imagination.

And consider the wonderful number "Gee, Officer Krupke," the only pure comic number in the film. Sondheim, in his inimitable way, uses jokes to highlight the deadly cycle that impoverished children went through--being handed from judge to psychologist to social worker. Finally the Jets, in song, sum it up as "We're no good, we're no good!"

Musicals enjoyed a long life in Hollywood, and though they've had a bit of a revival in recent years, their days of glory are over. West Side Story was the apotheosis of that period.