By Marilyn Ferdinand
The United States is a young country with an old history. Rising to the highest heights of power in the blink of an eye through rapid expansion across a broad land rich in natural resources, achieving unity more than 100 year before the much more ancient Europe even made a start at it, and now prematurely gray as it struggles to adapt to a global economy and a shattered self-image, the American story has been a tough one to tell. The mirrors held up to Americans have often been fractured and one-dimensional, and perhaps with the exception of the Great American Novel, Huckleberry Finn, no work of art has broken through as a wide-ranging reflection not only of who we want to be, but also of who we really are. So it may be a bold declaration to make, but if I had to pick the one work that has been and will continue to be the greatest telling of the Great American Story, it would be West Side Story.
The enduring legacy of West Side Story could not have been predicted based on its reception when it premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York in 1957. It garnered generally good reviews and had a respectable initial run of 732 performances, but that was nowhere near the 2,717 performances of My Fair Lady during the same Broadway season. Its hold on the imaginations of an international audience would not be secured until it was in a form that could be disseminated widely. When the film, codirected by its theatrical director/choreographer Jerome Robbins and Hollywood veteran Robert Wise, came out in 1961, it was a smash hit, earning the equivalent of $300 million in today’s dollars in the United States alone and winning 10 Oscars, including Best Picture. The huge audience for the film has made WSS a perennial favorite of school, amateur, and professional theatrical companies the world over. What is it that has attracted so many admirers across time and continents to this musical?
The extremely high standard of the classical/popular score spanning styles from mambo to opera, the tight choreography that comes from life itself, and the sarcastic/tragic lyrics that offer not platitudes, but truth, place West Side Story in a class by itself. However, WSS’s power does not come from its technical virtuosity alone. Riding on the timeless popularity of tragic love as rendered by William Shakespeare in Romeo & Juliet while delivering that play’s crucial message about the costs of hate, West Side Story also poses a direct challenge to the complacent belief in the American Dream and the elusive principle for which it stands, “liberty and justice for all,” through the most American narrative of all—immigration. Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, book writer Arthur Laurents, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim—all members of despised and persecuted groups in American society—crafted a coming-of-age tale for America itself and those who would lose themselves in its myth through its focus on adolescents struggling to mature and find a place for themselves in the world.
Some people may be familiar with WSS’s original working title, “East Side Story,” as the musical was first conceived by Robbins in 1948 as a tale of rival Jewish and Irish-Catholic gangs on New York’s Lower East Side. However, it would take eight years for the embryonic idea to come to fruition, during which time the team would jettison their outdated conflict for an updated approach that would reflect the sharp rise in Latino gang violence in America’s big cities. The creative team centered the rivalry among the children of poor European immigrants precariously established in New York City and those from the American territory of Puerto Rico arriving during “The Great Migration” of the 1950s. As Sondheim’s lyrics to “America” ironically suggest (“Nobody knows in America/Puerto Rico’s in America”), the members of the Sharks might have an earlier claim to being American than do the teens who make up the Jets. This conflict already distinguishes WSS from Shakespeare’s blood feud of two aristocratic families as a pointedly American concern.
Laurents, who was brought in to write the book based on the strength of his treatment of anti-Semitism in the play Home of the Brave, quickly took to the new focus. Robbins made exploratory trips to Spanish Harlem to study the dance styles of Puerto Rican youths, and Bernstein’s love of Latin rhythms fed his creativity as the men continued to work on an array of projects before they were free to turn all of their attention to their theatrical masterpiece. When Bernstein realized that he would be unable to write lyrics for WSS while under pressure to compose Candide (interestingly, another musical that tracks, albeit satirically, with WSS’s themes of true love and striving for success in an Enlightenment version of the American Dream), up-and-comer Stephen Sondheim was contacted and persuaded to join the team despite his misgivings about this “step down” from composer to lyricist.
The film version of West Side Story features a magnetic cast of dancers and actors, with George Chakiris and Rita Moreno as standouts. Natalie Wood was put in the unfortunate position of being an Anglo playing a Latina and disliking the man she was supposed to be passionately in love with, but her professionalism (if not her dismal Puerto Rican accent) carried the day. All of the singing was dubbed, understandable considering the difficulties of the Bernstein score, and does not, in my opinion, detract from the overall effect. The film takes few liberties with the stage version, with the notable and welcome exception of moving the panicked “Cool” from before the fateful rumble between the Jets and the Sharks to just after it, thus bumping the comic “Gee, Officer Krupke” to an earlier, more appropriate location after the first encounter the Jets have with the cops. In addition, Wise opens up the otherwise soundstage-bound film by shooting the opening “Prologue” on location in New York, thus creating a mise en scène of the contested turf that lingers in the audience’s mind as the rest of the film progresses.
Robbins, comfortable with stage choreography, manages to combine the best of both worlds throughout the film. He opens up his choreography in the “Prologue” to illustrate the Jets’ exuberant dominance of their turf. The ultimate gesture of cool—finger snapping—begins the “Prologue,” as the Jets survey their domain. Robbins moves them wordlessly from playground, to street, to basketball court in a combination of random, everyday movements by individual Jets that build to a coordinated dance. Jets leader Riff (Russ Tamblyn) whoops happily as some children run past on the street and leaps joyfully with his gang, only to run immediately into Sharks leader Bernardo (Chakiris). Bernardo handles their taunts, only to strike an obviously symbolic red stripe on a wall with his fist. Robbins dances Bernardo and two Sharks down a narrow gangway, snapping their fingers in a show of their own cool as they run over the word “JETS” painted on the street. Small gestures again build, only this time aggressively, and the “Prologue” ends in an all-out brawl. Camera cuts, overhead shots, close-ups of smug and resentful looks form a dance of their own, one the dancers assault by running directly at the camera lens, forcing it to cut away. Robbins may have been a novice filmmaker, but his dancer’s understanding of space and how a frame can open and choke it is second only to Gene Kelly’s.
Against the sense of belonging gang life provides to kids whose untethered home lives are mentioned in passing (“Gee, Officer Krupke”: “Dear kindly Judge, your Honor/My parents treat me rough/With all their marijuana/They won’t give me a puff./They didn’t wanna have me/But somehow I was had.”), the possibility of a real connection between Bernardo’s sister Maria (Wood) and former Jets leader Tony (Richard Beymer) is hopelessly fragile. Tony and Maria fall in love at first sight during “The Dance at the Gym”; in an otherwise statically shot dance sequence (Wise, left on his own when Robbins was fired during the shoot, conservatively follows Fred Astaire’s philosophy of full-frontal framing), the lyric “I saw you and the world fell away” from the enthralling love song “Tonight” is produced visually, as all but the lovers fade into a white haze.
Another superb sequence is “Cool,” in which the Jets struggle to regain their composure after the murders of Riff and Bernardo. The song and dance take place in a dark, low-ceilinged parking garage to mirror the very dark turn of the plot and how trapped the gang is. First, Ice (Tucker Smith), a new character added to fill in for Riff as the Jets’ leader once the song had been moved, sings in barely covered shock at the harm they have just witnessed about how the Jets need to keep cool “‘Cause, man, you got/Some high times ahead/Take it slow and Daddy-o/You can live it up and die in bed!” The gang struggles to contain their emotions, doing a parody of the polite dancing they engaged in earlier at the community dance where Maria and Tony met. Finally, the gang moves in crouched unison like a soft crab hiding in its hard shell, their solidarity reinforced, their desire for vengeance deferred but not defused. Belonging is more important than living, and so the cycle of violence is doomed to repeat itself.
One of the great challenges for Robbins and his terrific crew of dancers was to hit their beats to the multiple time signatures contained in Leonard Bernstein’s majestic symphonic score. Moreno, who played Bernardo’s girlfriend Anita, said that dance coordinator Betty Walberg had to count the beats out loud for the dancers as the music played. Since I’m no music expert, I will quote from Misha Berson’s valuable book Something’s Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination about some of the hallmarks of the score:
1) The frequent use of minor chords
2) Melodies that don’t neatly resolve but hang suspended
3) Fingers snaps and claps, as prominent percussion elements
4) Driving rhythms from a trove of percussion instruments (including trap drums, xylophone and vibraphone, timbales, and bongos)
5) Cross-rhythms that overlap two signatures to create a sense of agitation and unease
6) Swiftly cascading and ascending string lines
7) Jazzy bursts of brass and winds
8) Latin accents
In addition, many music scholars have commented on Bernstein’s use of tritones—playing a key note followed by a note three whole tones away from the key note—which is an important method of introducing dissonance in Western harmony. Berson comments that tritones were considered diabolus in musica (“devil in music” for being hard to sing in tune) during the Middle Ages. While many people consider “Maria” one of the most beautiful songs in the score, it is sobering to realize that its first two notes form a tritone; considering that Maria’s admonishment to Tony to stop the rumble ends in the deaths of her brother, Tony’s best friend, and Tony himself, she certainly does seem to have done the devil’s work, however unwittingly.
Bernstein’s operatic elements are my favorite parts of the score. Anita and Maria’s duet “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love” is a cry of anguish, one for a lost love, the other for a love she is helpless to deny. Anita’s minor-key “A boy like that wants one thing only/And when he’s done he’ll leave you lonely/He’ll murder your love/he murdered mine” counterpoints with Maria’s “I hear your words/And in my head/I know they’re smart/But my heart, Anita/But my heart/Knows they’re wrong.” Reminiscent of Mozart’s operatic quartets, the “Tonight Quintet” offers musical variations on “Tonight” with lyrics that cleverly interweave the word “tonight” with the expectations of each party—the Sharks and Jets getting ready to rumble, Anita dolling herself up for a post-rumble tumble with Bernardo, and Maria and Tony planning for an endless future.
Again and again, the songs and characters of West Side Story communicate the need to belong. “The Jets Song” affirms “You’re never alone/You’re never disconnected” when you’re a Jet. The Shark boys and girls are torn between their longing for their first-class status in Puerto Rico and their newfound opportunities in “America.” The girls assert “Here you are free and you have pride,” to which the boys respond “Long as you stay on your own side.” “Life is alright in America/If you’re all white in America.” Maria and Tony, caught in the ethnic divide, find their sense of place in each other, which they affirm in the moving “Somewhere,” a place that is destroyed when Tony is gunned down by Maria’s formerly gentle suitor Chino (Jose De Vega). And a very interesting character nicknamed Anybodys (Susan Oakes) exemplifies a different kind of exclusion; dressing and acting like a boy, she rejects her sexual identity and is, in turn, rejected by the Jets. But she refuses to go away or give up on being a part of the action.
In the end, when violence has claimed three lives and ruined Maria’s, Anita’s, and Chino’s hopes and prospects, the creators of West Side Story decided that shame would bring the Sharks and Jets together to carry Tony’s lifeless body away. This note of hope may seem unrealistic. But it does recall another American Dream, one elucidated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that, in fits and starts, has started to come true. Perhaps West Side Story helped Americans find a new and more worthwhile image for a more mature and realizable Great American Story.
How West Side Story made the ‘Elite 70′:
Sam Juliano’s No. 1 choice
Judy Geater’s No. 2 choice
Dennis Polifroni’s No. 3 choice
Pat Perry’s No. 5 choice
Marilyn Ferdinand’s No. 12 choice
Greg Ferrara’s No. 27 choice
Allan Fish’s No. 57 choice
WEST SIDE STORY is my favorite musical film of all-time. When preparations were being forged to go ahead with this project, I received a request from Marilyn to do this film. Initially I was over-protective, as I felt that as my top film I wanted to do this myself. But eventually, after flirting with the possibility of going with two essays I yielded, since my plate was full with other essays. Of course “yielding” to someone as talented a writer as Marilyn Ferdinand is in one sense a no-brainer, and the end results here have proven that she was the person for the job!
This is a stupendous piece, one of the best of the countdown, and in every conceivable way a stellar treatment of the most awarded and celebrated musical film of them all, one that has received successful revivals, school productions and reverence among Jr. and Sr. High School teachers, who have taught the play as a companion piece to the Bard’s ROMEO AND JULIET, which of course is what WEST SIDE STORY was based on, and closely follows with a few notable exceptions.
Marilyn’s examination of the “Great American Story” is both exhilarating and telling, and she’s quite right to stress it’s continued influence on an increasingly ethocentric America. But her examination of the film’s artistry, it’s magisterial music, it’s advent from stage to screen, and it’s successful transference from one form to the other, make this a dynamic piece that speaks to America’s youth and fervent fans of this musical landmark.
Why do I feel this is the greatest of all musical films? First off, it contains what is arguably the greatest score ever written for a musical property. (Only Kern and Hammerstein’s SHOWBOAT can be brought up for comparison) The score is intensely operatic, it contains soaring songs and songs infused in the racial makeup of the story. But, just having a great score is not enough in adapting a stage play. WEST SIDE STORY captures the spirit of the stage work, by employing fluid, often electrifying editing and choreography (Yes Jerome Robbins was a spectacular force here) a brilliant pacing and excellent performers. (Yeah, Richard Beymer is the weak link in the cast, but he is superbly dubbed, and his wimpy almost wooden demeanor is actually what Shakespeare envisioned in his Romeo) Several of the film’s incomparable score stand among the greatest ever written: “Somewhere,” “One Hand One Heart,” “Tonight,” “America,” and even “Maria,” which originally was derided for being too sugary, but now is seen as one of the most beautiful melodies Bernstein has ever written.
And then there is the film’s visceral centerpiece, which is a stunning rebuke to those few who are unconvinced that this film is great because of it’s cinematic style, and NOT because it simply boasts that great score. The sequence I am referring to occurs not far from the half-way point when Wise and Robbins string together an electrifying looks at the rival gangs preparing to do war, and all the film’s major protagonists being seen in preparation stages, with a spillover of some of the film’s major melodies, highlighted by the soaring operatic intensity of “Tonight” which Tony sings while leaving the store. It is probably the most exhilarating sequence in the history of the musical film, and it leaves the viewer stunned and breathless.
The film’s famous opening needs no further confirmation from me, and the ending, where the show’s writers part with the Bard (leaving Maria to face her pain alone) could only leave the hardest of hearts unshaken.
Sam – I’m glad you are pleased with the results, as I know you wanted to write this yourself. I was attracted to write this because of the dancing, a specialty of mine that I find most film reviewers don’t pay enough attention to. But, of course, WSS is the whole package, with a score unrivaled in the history of music theatre except by the man who wrote it (I think Candide is a masterwork as well). I may be the one person who doesn’t have a problem with Beymer – I thought he was very sincere. I think his kind of goofy face is off-putting to some people, though he was considered handsome in his day. And yes, the camera brought more than access – it made the film sing and dance in a new, exhilarating way.
Marilyn,
A terrifically powerful and moving essay from you here and worthy of a film with a great deal of serious thematic elements and one of the essential of the Musical world. I think you have definitely written your masterpiece here. I was especially impressed with your dissection of Robbins’ contributions to the film and how it play out visually. The film is of course tragic in the spirit of Romeo and Juliet, but contains a lifeblood and essence that helps it rise above just being an “adaptation” in my opinion. I do wish the dubbing wasn’t done, but I understand that it was done often in this era. I actually really enjoy Natalie Wood’s singing in Gypsy, and think she’s a fine singer. I always prefer to hear the actor sing in his/her own voice and provide that direct emotional connection through the sounds they’re making. Alas….
Remarkable piece Marilyn. It’s an inspiring read.
Interesting to note again, that we kind of have an outlier in the voting, this time Allan, who places it far below the others.
Jon – Thanks for your kind words. I worked hard to see that this great musical had something with the depth and breadth it deserves. I’m glad others think I hit the mark. As for Wood’s singing, just pick up the DVD and listen to the outtakes – she’s awful. The tritones certainly tripped her up. I wish it hadn’t had to have been dubbed, but this music is just too hard for the people they cast to sing.
Haha! Enough said I suppose. I was going off of Gypsy alone.
Marilyn, I never bought the re-release tag line that this show only gets younger, but I give the creative people credit for trying — Laurents was tweaking the thing up to his recent demise. The film is forcefully made, and you and Sam are right to cite the “Tonight” montage as a cinematic and musical highlight. The direction and editing is so assured that they can make a simple shot of the detective driving his car seem tremendously dramatic with that music going. Sad that some lyrics still had to be censored in 1961, so that Anita sings “as long as he’s here” instead of “as long as he’s hot” of Bernardo. I’ve always wondered about leaving Maria (and Chino) alive but as I write it occurs to me that West Side Story doesn’t want the grown-ups to have the last word, as they do in Romeo and Juliet, and the only satisfactory way to prevent that is to spare Maria so she can have the last word. The reconciliation of the gangs isn’t exactly convincing, but I grant the creators their desire to end on a note of hope. The film has aged, but I suppose it’s aged well.
Sam – The film has aged only insomuch as the ideology of Robbins, Bernstein, and Laurents comes from an earlier era of art as political action. Sondheim, the youngest of the bunch, was already signaling the age of irony to come, one that has filled audiences and artists alike with a sense of impotence. I think leaving Maria alive was essential – she speaks for the war widows from every war, and her feelings are real, not agitprop. She has prematurely aged just like America, and is crucial to my view of this film as the Great American Story.
Marilyn, a superior piece of writing that touches all the bases of WSS as both a musical drama and a film. This is probably the musical movie that got more people interested in musicals than any other single work. That was certainly the case with me. Before WSS I was interested in the music from musicals more than in the complete package. The Romeo and Juliet plot has been recycled many times but I don’t think it has ever been translated to a different time and place and situation better than here, all without sacrificing any of the appeal the story has always had to young people and those who recall both the anguish and the exhilaration of youth. WSS crystallizes all the universal adolescent feelings of not belonging and places them in a specific historical-social context that still makes it easy for anyone to identify with. Robbins gives the movie its kinetic sense of movement, but I think Wise gives the film its cinematic urgency and sense of urban realism. When I saw the first part of “Somebody Up There Likes Me” I immediately saw why he was hired for WSS. Sam, for me there is no argument that this is the greatest score of any musical, the most moving collection of songs ever found in one place. Not only do the gorgeous melodies of songs like “Tonight,” “Maria,” and “Somewhere” haunt anyone who loves music, but the operatic elements that both Marilyn and Sam refer to turn this musical world into an exploding, expanding universe. The only person I have ever heard put down the music of WSS is Stephen Sondheim, who complained in an interview that Bernstein wanted to write “pretty” melodies, so he was obligated to write pretty lyrics to go with them. He said the only song in the play he liked was “America”! (Granted, this is a hypnotic song, propelled not only by its rhythms but by its caustically satirical view of injustice and false promise as expressed by its victims.) Without question the best stage-to-film adaptation of a musical ever.
R.D. – The generational divide between Berstein and Sondheim, their different views of the capabilities of art and human beings, and Sondheim’s problems with being relegated to the role of lyricist when he saw himself as a composer certainly must have inflected his feelings about the musical. He was, however, happy with the repositioning of “Cool” and very unhappy that he didn’t take his percentage points as part of his payment.
And so it shows itself… The top 4 in the count unfold and its really not hard to predict where and what will present itself in the next few days. WSS is, easily, my favorite stage to screen musical and for good reason. The adaptation of the stage set to the streets of NYC were a natural progression and it lends an urgency to the bigotry on display in the story of racial prejudice. That said, the score by Leonard Bernstein is so epic that it could be performed without voices and actors and still stir you to the core. As it is, Robert Wise perfectly brings a cinematic feel to the material that expands the ideas of Sondheim and Bernstein but never loses the piece’s theatricality in the process. Its an epic, bold and brilliant work that borders on opera with its dramatic intensity. AMERICA could be one of the greatest song and dance moments in all of film history. Rightfully, this film makes the top 5!!!!
Dennis – Being predictable isn’t so bad when the films warrant it, and surely West Side Story does. Agree about the score, too, it’s powerful and varied.
My feelings on West Side Story are well known. It should have been the best stage musical to film adaptation, but with two such mediocre leads and serviceable direction of the non-musical sequences by Robert Wise, they fudged it. If they’d had a Maria who could sing – and a Tony, too, for that matter. If the stage originals were too old, even Shirley Jones (if they could darken Wood’s skin to make her look Puerto Rican, they could have done the same for Jones, who had two advantages, being able to sing and act).
What really hurts, though, is that in the dance sequences of Jerome Robbins you can see what might have been. They are electric, alongside Seven Brides the most electric ensemble dances of the cinema, but Warners bottled it and didn’t let him finish it. It’s still enough to make it a **** excellent film, but it could have been so SO much more. Such a shame…
Alan – I agree about the Robbins-directed dance sequences. When you think about how much money the film made, to efforts to keep his budget-busting experimentation in check by firing him seem shortsighted (though that is hindsight). I love when the camera dances, and how much better a dancer could you have to direct the dance sequences than Jerome Robbins!
I’m not as down on Wood and Beymer, though they do tend to take a secondary place to the rest of the film, throwing it a bit out of balance. Wood’s acting was great, IMO, and she was delightful in “I’m So Pretty.”
Allan Fish is entitled to his opinion, but I find every point he makes as completely contrary to what the film has accomplished. I think it is the best stage-to-screen adapatation of all time, so I don’t quite understand what he means by “they fudged it.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The Wise sequences are just as good as the ones directed by Robbins. According to what Mr. Fish is saying, the entire film should have been dancing. That was not the way the work was written, nor how it was done on stage. Natalie Wood was excellent, so again I don’t know how to take this contrarian stance. I don’t think a film of this material could possibly have bettered the results.
Marilyn Ferdinand has written a tremendous review, taking a unique angle.
Thanks, Frank. I agree that Wise added a great deal of cinematic urgency to the film, but Robbins was better at directing the dance sequences. That’s why they divided the directing duties the way they did.
Oh I agree Marilyn. I just don’t feel that the Wise sequences are a detriment as Allan Fish claims.
That’s not at all what I am saying, Mr Gallo. If you don’t like the contrarian stance, that’s fine, but I’m certainly not alone and only the myopic would think otherwise…
You are not alone. But your lot is sparcely inhabited. Not that it matters, mind you.
I also don’t think they needed to darken Woods’ skin to make her look more Puerto Rican. People from that region come in many different skin colors (sometimes even in the same family). In New York I have meet Puerto Rican girls that look just as white as Natalie Woods to be honest.
A great piece, Marilyn, with a lot of fascinating background information – I definitely agree that this has one of the greatest of all musical scores, and will never forget the impact the film made the first time I saw it. I’m surprised to hear that Sondheim didn’t like the songs and thought Bernstein’s music was too sweet, because to me the lyrics and music fit together so perfectly!
Judy – Some of the lyrics actually were Bernstein’s, though I can’t tell you which. Based on the kinds of musicals Sondheim would go on to make, it’s easy to see that WSS just wasn’t his style. Thanks for your kind words.
Awww, you made me ink!!!!
Thanks, boo boo!
Marilyn,
A fantastic essay here, superbly written with plenty of detailed backstory and strong felt thoughts.
I have been in love with WEST SIDE STORY since my parents took me to the Rivoli Theater on Broadway sometime in 1962 to see the film during its long road show engagement. I was young but was l blown away by it all. This was not like the musicals I had watched on TV with Astaire or Garland or Rooney. This musical had street kids, gangs, a jazzy score and characters I could relate too. Soon after I bought, actually my parents bought, the soundtrack and practically wore the vinyl out. Even at that young age I knew the music was powerful; I could not explain what made it so but just felt it emotionally. Within the next year or so, after the film’s showings expanded to other theaters across the city, I went back and watched it on three more separate occasions, once staying to see it twice in the same day. I knew the soundtrack and the film by heart.
Yes, the film has some problems, the cast members are too old, and Richard Beymer is poorly cast. I personally don’t have a problem with Natalie Wood though a more ethnic looking actress would have been better.
That all aside the Robbins choreographed dance sequences are stunning, the score is arguably the best ever for a musical combining among other flavors jazz and opera. The opening sequence is striking the TONIGHT number before the rumble builds up to an almost orgasmic climax that leaves one stunned and enthralled. Great film and a great write up.
John – Thanks. My connection with this musical is with the dance numbers, unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life. I was astonished at how well the dancers could tell a story without saying a word, and Robbins’ choreography is so urban, electric, and unexpected. The influence of his work runs all the way through the dance giants of today, from people as varied as Twyla Tharp and Paul Taylor.
Marilyn, your essay is a joy to read.
First of all, it’s exciting in its heading straight for the capacity the film carries, to usher audiences into deep matters, often not a factor for people watching musicals.
Secondly, your fascinating background for the production sets in relief a figure I’ve tended to underestimate until quite recently, namely, Jerome Robbins. For years we’d go to State Theatre for the New York City Ballet—but only to marvel at the Balanchine ballets and then think the Robbins stuff was OK, too. We’ve begun to realize his work was far more than OK, and your presentation of his contribution to West Side Story casts much valuable light upon his art.
Jim – There’s no question that Robbins was influenced by Balanchine, and therefore, may come off as a lesser light. I recently picked up a DVD of Robbins’ work set to classical pieces and danced by the Paris Opera Ballet, and it’s amazing how even in a more impressionistic ballet, his dances have a force and energy that pops. People tend to put down people who straddle the fence between popular and classical – Bernstein himself had to contend with that prejudice, but the work must serve the purpose for which it was intended. Both men did so with extreme felicity, and I commend them both. Thanks for the kind words.
I love how you begin your wonderful piece, Marilyn, by working in the Great American Story. Reviewing this film is a daunting assignment, but one would never know by reading your knowledgeable, flowing, assessment — especially because Sam had to give up his “baby” in the process.
Despite whatever problems the screen version may have for some people, one cannot deny the emotional impact of the score. I can identify, however, with Allan’s reluctance to give this film an unqualified rave as I, too, have similar reservations. As I recall from when the film was first released, some reviewers focused on the perceived flaws in casting, dubbing, and the unreality of gang members prancing around city streets — including, of course, those sequences not staged by Robbins. (I hadn’t been aware he was fired during the shoot.) That said, I think the film is beloved not despite its perceived flaws but because of them. The casting of Beymer, in its wrongness, somehow seems right, and it’s how hard to imagine anyone but Wood despite the widespread assessment by critics at the time of her “Wooden” acting.
My own connection to this tale is that my former (now deceased) lover was cast in the original touring company of the stage version.
“especially because Sam had to give up his “baby” in the process.”
LOL Pierre!!!!!!!!!!!
Pierre – The more I see this film, the more I have to agree that its perceived flaws (if they are major at all) are part of its strength. I’ve read also that the gangs seem too clean-cut to be this violent, but in fact, Riff is killed by accident, Tony’s was a true crime of passion, with Chino’s violence the only truly calculated murder – and coming from a rather genteel character at that. Gangs weren’t always the ruthless professionals we have come to think of them as – they were made up of disenfranchised kids with lots of problems. Kids. That’s what makes this film so powerful – it stays true to a story about kids. Thanks for your generous praise.
Marilyn – Congratulations on a magnificent post!
This essay is engaging and exhaustive – you address WSS from every relevant angle – from dance to song to cinematography to its social and historical significance, and it’s a truly engrossing read I knew you would have the dance and social context nailed, but I really appreciate your insightful comments on the score as well. (I never knew that the tritones were considered “devil’s music – but, as a singer, I can completely agree with that!) .
BTW: I would like to alert readers here that Fathom Events – the organization that screens the live opera performances from the Met to movie theatres around the US – will be showing WEST SIDE STORY in theatres sometime in the near future. (I saw the trailer recently, but don’t recall the dates; I’m sure they’d be available on their website.) If you have never seen WSS on the big screen, it’s something you should definintely experience!
Looks like WEST SIDE STORY is on the big screen this Thursday, November 9, a 50th anniversary screening – see here for details: http://www.fathomevents.com/classics/event/westsidestory.aspx
Indeed Pat! I have been promoting this myself the past few weeks. I’ll be there with my entourage! Ha!
Two years ago I saw the film on the big screen at the Syphony Arts Center on 80th and Broadway, but it was a “singalong.” Marni Nixon was on hand for an on-stage interview before, and the audience was quite in the singing mood! I had mentioned this experience on that week’s corresponding diary.
Wednesday, Nov. 9th. Not Thursday. Already have my tickets in hand. This is a film I’ve wanted my family to see on the big screen for years, and now the opportunity has come. Terrific write up for this great piece of work.
Pat – I actually thought of you while I was working on the music portion. I really wanted to get it right – for you! – and I knew I had to step out of my comfort zone to do this film justice. The music is so epic and so much a part of what makes WSS so important – and hey, this is a MUSICALS countdown.
As for live preformances, check out the CSO’s. They will be playing the score and projecting the movie at the same time some time this month.
Sam – That experience with the live performance and Marni Nixon must have been wonderful!
I actually saw WEST SIDE STORY for the first time on the big screen at a now-defunct revival house in Indianapolis, and it have never forgotten it.
Marilyn – I will definitely look into the CSO screening. I really enjoyed thier live accompaniment performance with LORD OF THE RINGS at Raviinis this summer.
A masterclass in covering all the bases and unifying them under a focused theme and personal passion – fantastic essay, Marilyn! Absolutely one of the countdown’s best.
I’ve seen this film dozens of times, usually on a hacked-up VHS tape when I was a kid, but most recently on the big screen in a theater. I’ve often stated my preference for pre-50s musicals, with a more kinetic, dynamic style and less of an effort to streamline music and story together – but your great piece reminds me how it wasn’t always so, and what it is that drew me to a film like West Side Story in the first place. Some of the most stirring, electric music (and yes, dancing) the screen has ever seen, and the story and score serve to amplify one another, so that the whole package sweeps you off your feet.
I like your focus on Cool too. As a kid, I had never focused very much on that number, but when I saw it at the recent screening the audience burst out in spontaneous applause, more spontaneous to my ears than that which greeted the fantastic America (whose power and energy, of course, we were all prepared for, whereas Cool came as a bit of a surprise I think) – it’s a hell of a sequence.
Joel – Thank you. I’ll admit it – this one made me sweat. “Cool” is actually my favorite number in the film because it is so moody, urban, and unexpected. “America” is, for me, a very traditional musical number both musically and from a dance perspective; even the lyrics have the call/response of cleverness that I find in a lot of musicals. I love how the girls are used in the dance, and the setting is so amazing.
I think the credit sequence and the opening establish the mood and setting in a way that pulls you in, unrelenting till the final murder on the playground. I actually liked Beymer in his role. I much enjoyed reading this outstanding review, which as others say really stands out among essays in the countdown.
Thank you, Frederick. As this countdown has been filled with outstanding pieces from the many great authors participating, I can only say I’m humbled by the praise.
I expected WSS to be in the top 3. I guess a certain B/W depression era film snuck by it rather surprisingly. It will be fun to see the remaining prominent movies and what order they fall in. Another countdown is about to bite the dust. How quickly these lists breeze by…
Maurizio – Obviously, the outlier vote on this pulled its ranking down. I myself didn’t put it in my top ten for various personal reasons, but that 30s musical would not have made it to the top 3 for me simply because Ruby Keeler dances so badly in it.
Yeah she always seems to be on the precipice of falling over and landing on her face when she decides to move her feet. Still there is a certain charm in watching her stagger about uncontrollably for me.
The dancing and stunning score are the most brilliant ever put on screen for a movie musical. Bernstein and Robbins are in top form here and their dance and musical numbers are perfectly in sync with the story, in fact, the best scenes are the ones without dialogue.. As filmmakers, Wise and Robbins opened up the closed limits of the stage with a vista of widescreen film space. Never, ever watch this film in full screen.
The heart races during the opening Prologue, The Dance at The Gym, America and Cool. Teenagers have changed much since West Side Story first premiered in October, 1961. But 50 years have not changed its power to enthrall.
The sociological slant of the review is fascinating. Very well written.
Peter – Thank you. The sociological perspective is important given the intentions of most of the creative team. I’m glad it intrigued you.
Just chipping in with a ‘brava’ to Marilyn for her review. WSS was one of those films/scores I thought I knew without having seen. Frankly I was a bit sick of it, having heard the numbers treated as so many lollipops by opera-trained voices, or ravaged by amateur productions. However, I had the great luck of seeing this not a few weeks ago in a restored version on a big screen with an stonkingly good sound system. The visceral impact of the music alone, the richness and complexity Marilyn describes so well, had me transfixed … I think I started crying about 15 minutes in from the sheer wonderfulness of it all. Noone in a very large cinema moved a muscle until the very last note and the very last frame had finished, and then some. It was like we couldn’t tear ourselves away.
Thanks, Helena. Anyone who has the chance to see this on a big screen should. You describe very well its overwhelming effect that can never be forgotten.
Agree that Helena’s comment is terrific.
Just want to say that tomorrow night (Wednesday, November 9) is the big one for WEST SIDE STORY fans, and nationwide they are offering up big-screen viewings in multiplexes all over. I will be attending the 7:00 P.M. showing in Edgewater with Lucille, Dennis and a group of other friends. This will be spectacular I am sure!
Yeah, this is definitely one of the top musicals ever. It has a few flaws (I still think it’s silly for gang members to dance, but I like it, too, and I’m not sure Natalie Wood was well-cast), but it’s songs and score are second-to-none, it’s dance choreography is wonderful, and it’s funny one minute and powerfully emotional the next. Definitely deserves its spot, I think.
Oh, and it’s a really great essay, too. Meant to say that.
Thanks, Stephen
A thoughtful essay, but I must take exception to Marilyn’s comment about “few liberties taken..with the notable exception of moving the song ‘Cool.’” A more important change dramatically was moving “I Feel Pretty” from the stage’s original Act II opening (immediately following the fatal rumble) to before the bridal shop wedding of “One Hand, One Heart.” Doing this robs “I Feel Pretty” of all its dramatic irony, which was copied directly from Shakespeare’s scene of Juliet immediately following that play’s fatal duel (rumble). I’m a college English professor, and I always use the film version of WSS as an example of how sequencing directly impacts dramatic irony.
Manning – I appreciate your comments and I am well aware of the loss of irony that came with this move. However, this is not intended to be a literal interpretation of Shakespeare, and within the context of this show, I believe the move works better this way than trying to maintain the Shakespearean comic relief and structure of the original.
I just sat through West Side Story again on Blu Ray. The term “sat through” as opposed to “watched” only serve to highlight not only my previous grievances but that they have, if anything multiplied.
There is so much wrong with this it just isn’t true. Here’s a film that tries to take itself away from the theatrical origins onto the streets, then gives up the ghost half way through filming and intercuts with sets so obviously phoney and theatrical, and lighting patterns so obviously artificial, that the electricity of the original in nullified.
The highlights remain the numbers staged by Jerome Robbins, but Warners lost their nerve and went for the safe, by the numbers style of Robert Wiseto take over completely. The sequences between the numbers are frequently stodgy and leave one with an itchy bum. They glare every bit as much as that tacked on ending to Welles’ Ambersons which, not uncoincidentally, was also shot by Wise.
Natalie Wood is not only mediocre but cannot remotely convince as Puerto Rican or hold onto her accent, Richard Beymer has the charisma of a paper plate, George Chakiris won an Oscar for looking cool (or maybe jnust to recognise that he actually did his own singing), Rita Moreno is good as Anita, but even she is dubbed and leaves one wishing for Chita Rivera as much as Carol Lawrence for Maria. .
The main problem, however, is the jarring clash of styles which create an enigma. Some of the most electrifying moments are those on the streets, but if they go onto the streets they needed to STAY on the streets and ditch the sets (except for sequences such as the night-time America, which didn’t need a real location).
Sadly, it’s the model case of a stage show which was great and had arguably the greatest score of any stage musical, but that in itslf does not make a successful film. Christopher Tookey said it was a film absolutely full of faults but still gave it 10 out of 10. I am not so lenient.
For fans of the film, however, the Blu Ray looks a treat.
A sitz bath with some epsom salts should do wonders for your bum.
I expected no change in your opinion. i completely disagree on every point, especially on Natalie Wood who was excellent. But it is like beating a dead horse, and I’m not about to kill one to waste my time anymore.
In spirit and in energy this is as brilliant an adaptation of a Broadway show that has ever been made.
Your track record with issuing high grades to musical films is virtually non-existent. I will move on. Anyway I also saw WEST SIDE STORY on the big screen this past Wednesday night, and came aways exhilarated again.
Er, track record for high ratings for musical films non existent? Erm, the usual Juliano exaggerated bollocks. I just rate musicals great that are great, not things that could have been.
What embarrasses is how people refuse to believe that anyone other than me has problems with it. Talk about myopia.