West Side Story (1961)

West Side Story is a musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet set in modern times with renamed characters. There are plenty of differences between the two works so it probably isn't completely fair to call this a film adaptation of the play, but they are similar enough. In this story two rival gangs on New York's West Side hate each other. The Jets is the old gang made up of all the white kids while the Sharks are made up of Puerto Rican immigrants. I found the first half of this film quit irritating as this war between the two gangs felt very stupid. Later on, the former leader of the Jets falls in love with the leader of the Sharks' sister. The two can never be together but they still try to. For a fairly romantic story, this part wasn't that bad. Overall, the plot was okay.

As I do not particularly care for musicals, I did not find this film particularly impressive. It did win 10 Oscars including best picture, so I'm probably not the best person to review this film. Given the reasonably interesting second half of this film I guess this wasn't too bad and I would say it's probably the best musical I have seen.

76/100
C

UP NEXT: Jean Renoir's The Grand Illusion

I once saw that movie


I didn't think it was that great

70

Score logged. That seems like a reasonable score.

....based on your score it is a lot better than Mama Mia at least. That also seems reasonable.

i persoanlly loved this movei... my uncle when he was in high school like 5years ago.. his school did there version of this movie and it was amazing.

As far as musicals go, this film as fabulous. The music of Leonard Bernsein is nothing short of brilliant.
The themes weave together throughout and you identify certain characters through particular musical sounds.

Natalie Wood (Maria) did not sing a note in this movie.....FACT!!

tigersaint wrote:

Natalie Wood (Maria) did not sing a note in this movie.....FACT!!

Marnie Nixon (or something) sung for her....she also sang for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.