West Side Story (1961)

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. Their hatred escalates to a point where neither can coexist with any form of understanding. But when Riff’s best friend (and former Jet) Tony and Bernardo’s younger sister Maria meet at a dance, no one can do anything to stop their love.

Maria and Tony begin meeting in secret, planning to run away. Then the Sharks and Jets plan a rumble under the highway – whoever wins gains control of the streets. Maria sends Tony to stop it, hoping it can end the violence. It goes terribly wrong, and before the lovers know what’s happened, tragedy strikes and doesn’t stop until the climactic and heartbreaking ending.

West Side Story is a 1961 American romantic musical tragedy film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris, and was photographed by Daniel L. Fapp, A.S.C., in Super Panavision 70.

Released on October 18, 1961, through United Artists, the film received high praise from critics and viewers, and became the second highest grossing film of the year in the United States. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including Best Picture (as well as a special award for Robbins), becoming the record holder for the most wins for a movie musical. The film earned $19,645,000 in North American rentals. Because of profit participation, United Artists earned a profit of $2.5 million on the film.

About the Film

West Side Story (1961) is an energetic, widely-acclaimed, melodramatic musical – a modern-day, loose re-telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet tragedy of feuding families, although the setting is the Upper West Side of New York City in the late 1950s with conflict between rival street gangs rather than families. West Side Story is still one of the best film adaptations of a musical ever created, and the finest musical film of the 60s. It arrived at a time when the silver screen was realizing tremendous competition from TV and other genres of cinematic entertainment.

Like many other musicals of its time, Hollywood again looked to a successful Broadway stage play (first starring Carol Lawrence and Larry Kert) for its source material (e.g., in earlier years, South Pacific (1958), Oklahoma! (1955), and Carousel (1956) were chosen, among others) and it was no different for this film. An almost completely new cast was assembled, except for actor George Chakiris (who played Riff, NOT Bernardo, in the London production).

After her success in Spendor in the Grass (1961), Natalie Wood was chosen for the lead female role after Barbara Luna was considered. And Richard Beymer, known for his performance as Peter Van Daan in George Stevens’ The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), took the lead male role which was also considered for Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley. Chita Rivera, the Broadway actress who played the part of the tempestuous Anita, was replaced by Rita Moreno, known for her role as Tuptim in The King and I (1956). Supporting actor Russ Tamblyn, known for many roles in films such as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and Peyton Place (1957), played the role of Riff.

Awards

Its ten Academy Awards make it the musical film with the most Academy wins, including Best Picture. Three other films (Ben-Hur, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) won 11 Oscars, but they were not musical films.

— Academy Award for Best Picture – Robert Wise, producer
— Academy Award for Best Director – Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins
— Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – George Chakiris
— Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Rita Moreno
— Academy Award for Best Art Direction – Set Decoration (Color) – Victor A. Gangelin and Boris Leven
— Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Color) – Daniel L. Fapp
— Academy Award for Best Costume Design (Color) – Irene Sharaff
— Academy Award for Best Film Editing – Thomas Stanford
— Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture – Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Irwin Kostal, and Sid Ramin
— Academy Award for Best Sound – Fred Hynes (Todd-AO SSD), and Gordon E. Sawyer (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

Directed by: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
Starring: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, Simon Oakland, Ned Glass, Tucker Smith, Tony Mordente, David Winters, Eliot Feld, Bert Michaels, David Bean
Screenplay by: Ernest Lehman
Production Design by: Boris Leven
Cinematography by: Daniel L. Fapp
Film Editing by: Thomas Stanford
Costume Design by: Irene Sharaff
Set Decoration by: Victor A. Gangelin
Music by: Leonard Bernstein, Irwin Kostal
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: October 18, 1961