I am a bit conflicted about West Side Story. On the one hand, you have a film that is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. AFI has it ranked #51 on its list of the 100 best movies. On the other hand we have a film that is terribly dated and doesn’t hold up as well as some other musicals. West Side Story has some of the most recognizable songs to ever appear in a film, but it also has some songs that are so bad that they’re really hard to listen to. A lot of the dancing in West Side Story is spectacular, but a lot of the dancing feels out of place to the point where it looks ridiculous.
It is this dancing that I’d like to start out talking about. The opening sequence of West Side Story is one of the most ridiculous sequences I’ve ever been exposed to. There is a duality to it that just doesn’t work for me. It’s also one of the most iconic scenes ever shot. It starts out promising enough as we see members of the Jets gang snapping their fingers in unison and looking intense. The implication is that these are tough guys who have seen some tough things and been in some tough situations. The snapping is deliberate and cool. The guys look tough and cool. Then, inexplicably, they start dancing ballet. Now, I don’t know about you but nothing says tough to me like a bunch of plies and arabesques. (sarcasm). I can’t stress enough how much I was taken out of the scene by watching them dance in a ballet style as they’re supposed to be presenting a tough exterior. There was just too much of a disconnect for me in it. There was too much of a contrast between what I was supposed to be feeling and what I was actually seeing. It was one of those unintentionally funny moments that you never want to see in a film, and it took me out of the movie completely and lowered my hopes for what was to come.
Now don’t get me wrong. I have a total appreciation for the talented dancers that performed in this scene and throughout the film. The choreography of the opening of West Side Story is a-maz-ing. On its own, the dancing is superb and splendid. However, it’s misplaced in this scene. The scene and the dancing just don’t belong together.
I had never seen West Side Story before watching it this weekend. I had seen bits and pieces of it over the years, but I had never watched it all the way through. I always knew that it was an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet and that it takes place on the streets of New York rather than the streets of Verona. The role of Romeo is filled by Tony (Richard Beymer), and the role of Juliet is handled by Maria (Natalie Wood) in this contemporary version of the doomed star-crossed lovers. Obviously it isn’t a scene for scene remake of what might be Shakespeare’s best-known work, but the main story points are the same, with the exception of one major difference at the end.
I have mentioned in previous blogs when the Best Picture winner was a musical that musicals quite often feel like action films in that the story is only filler to get us from one musical number to the next. That is not the case with West Side Story. Since they had a great story to start with, it feels like this film’s songs were crafted around the story and thus they help propel the story for the most part. And there are some wonderful songs in this film. America is a particularly strong song for a lot of reasons. First, it’s a great song. It has a wonderful rhythm, melody and tempo. Unlike the opening number, the Latin dancing during the number fits perfectly and is intense and entertaining. Lyrically the song is terrific as the women sing about all of the great things that America is offering them and the men sing about all of the struggles that they face in America. It’s wonderful storytelling that all takes place within the confines of the song. This is truly one of the great examples of a song propelling the story forward while simultaneously developing the characters and it’s all in the lyrics. I don’t consider myself to be an expert on Musicals, but I’ve seen quite a few, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a musical number in a film that has as many qualities as this one. It’s entertaining, well-written, spectacularly performed and propels the story forward.
And there are plenty of other examples of iconic songs from West Side Story that come close to meeting that standard as well, like I Feel Pretty, and Tonight. But then there are some songs that are truly dreadful like the Tonight Quintet and When You’re a Jet. I’m sure many people will disagree with that opinion, but I was shocked at how terrible a song When You’re a Jet was. I understand that these songs were written for a different time and different sensibilities and that’s fine. Let’s just say that some of the songs have held up better than others.
Continuing on with the story, I think it was good. Obviously they had some of the best source material that you could think of, but there have been plenty of people how have screwed up Romeo and Juliet, and director Robert Wise and screenwriter Ernest Lehman did a top notch job of taking this classic piece of literature and turning it in to a contemporary story that contemporary audiences could have related to. The thing about West Side Story is that no one had ever seen anything like it before. Nowadays we see contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare all the time, but no one had done anything like West Side Story before, or at least not to that degree. Taking a 400-year old play and adding modern music to it and setting it in a modern city with modern ethnic gangs replacing the family feud that was in the original was a fairly revolutionary way to adapt that story. And yes, it is dated, but it was produced for the people of its time and it certainly served them well.
My own personal feelings for West Side Story are that, while I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it either. I have the utmost respect for the talents that went in to making it and I appreciate the spectacle that it was, especially for its time.
One pet peeve that I do have with the story is that Maria lives. I am a Shakespeare fan and somewhat of a purist, although I appreciate adaptations when they’re done well and with good faith. I disagree with the choice to have Maria survive, although I get why they made that choice. She needs to be there to condemn all of the others for their actions; however I would have liked to see her take her own life as Juliet did.
When you look closely at this film, it has all of the elements that you need to be great. It had Jerome Robbins choreographing it at his absolute best. Leonard Bernstein wrote the music, which is some of the most recognizable cinematic music ever produced. It had social commentary about the state of race relations as well as immigration, two hot-button issues that are still dealt with and debated today. It had a message that ultimately implores us to live peacefully together and shows the consequences when we don’t. The cast was led by Natalie Wood, who was probably never more beautiful than she was in this film. And while it’s somewhat awkward that she played a Puerto Rican, she pulled it off with emotion and style. She didn’t do her own singing, but that didn’t really bother me. Most of the rest of the cast performed their roles at equally high levels, and their singing and dancing was second to none.
Ultimately this is a film that, to me, somehow equals less than the sum of its parts. All of the individual components of the film are expertly crafted and taken alone work very well. However, like the opening sequence, when you put all of the components together, they just don’t quite fit right. I think the main reason for me feeling that way is that they film is dated. Now I love plenty of films that are dated and clearly are etched in the time in which they were produced. For some reason, the dated quality of West Side Story bothers me, and while I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, I don’t enjoy it as much as I should.
Did the Academy get it right?
Even with all of that said, I think the Academy got it right in 1961. The Guns of Navarone is a spectacular film that certainly worthy of Oscar consideration. The Hustler is an iconic film and was one of Paul Newman’s signature performances. However it’s a dark film that was shot in black and white, and the previous year’s winner notwithstanding, the Academy was moving away from presenting its award to black and white films. It’s interesting because one thinks of The Hustler as a downer and depressing sort of film, but it ends in a much more upbeat way than does West Side Story. Finally, Judgment at Nuremberg is a seminal courtroom drama, but (all together now) courtroom dramas with the Academy are always bridesmaids and never brides. Overall West Side Story was a powerful film with a great story and entertaining musical productions. It was a spectacle and certainly worthy of winning Best Motion Picture.
I teach film and media criticism, and your “review” could hardly be more personal & idiosyncratic. Such passages as “On the other hand we have a film that is terribly dated and doesn’t hold up as well as some other musicals. West Side Story has some of the most recognizable songs to ever appear in a film, but it also has some songs that are so bad that they’re really hard to listen to. A lot of the dancing in West Side Story is spectacular, but a lot of the dancing feels out of place to the point where it looks ridiculous” would not be acceptable from a college sophomore. Why is WSS “dated?” How would you distinguish “dated” from “terribly dated?” What does “hold up” mean, precisely? Which musicals “hold up” better than WSS & why? What do you mean when you opine that a song is “recognizable” or “bad?” Which ones are “really hard to listen to” & why? How would you distinguish “hard to listen to” from “really hard to listen to,” & how do you justify the difference? Nor do I detect any theory that undergirds your criticisms (or appreciations, in fact) other than your own personal & idiosyncratic taste. Both the scholarly and “popular” literature on musicals is vast. Yet, your “review” quotes not a single book or article or broadcast review is cited.
But you’re an employed reader, & you have a blog, & I’m not, & I don’t. I ‘spose I’m another pointy-headed, head-in-sand (or is it the clouds?) academic whose questions ought to carry no weight with any respectable professional filmmaker. But I’ve worked crew on SAG productions, am a Writers Guild member, shot 2d camera, have written two feature-length screenplays rep’d by a Hollywood agent. I could SHOW you what well-researched & -written criticism looks like, but I’m revising my screenplay once again–on spec. And I’m afraid that, now that I’m retired as a Full Professor, I don’t give away my critical scholarship for free any longer. I can say that if I got what you’ve written from a student, I’d say, “Consider this a first draft. Then read five books or 12 scholarly articles designed to interrogate the validity of your observations, & incorporate what you find into any revision.” A line from a ’30s newspaper movie should suffice: “Hello, rewrite.”
Thank you very much, Arnold, for your passionate comment. Congratulations on your success and the work you’ve done in the film making community. While the blog post is technically a “review”, it resides on a personal blog site, the purpose of which is for me to express my personal opinions on these films. I am in the process of watching every Academy Award winner for Best Picture and then writing down my opinion of the films on the blog. I’m getting through one film per week, and interrogating the validity of my observations isn’t the point. They are simply my observations and I’m writing the blog to express what I think and feel about the films, not regurgitate what someone else says I should think and feel about the films. Personal? Absolutly. Idiosyncratic? I would prefer original. These are all my original, unbiased feelings about these films, and people may take from my comments whatever they wish.
writer has not done his homework…,
the coreographer is not Jerome Lehman ( whoever he is) but Jerome Robbins, coreographer for the New York City Ballet at that time. I loved the dancing and found it lively and appropriate for the music including the JETS song.
Thanks for pointing out the error. I accidentally gave Jerome Robbins the last name of Ernest Lehman, who was the screenwriter. Clearly I needed to proofread a little more closely.