Why West Side Story is my Alltime Favorite Movie:

[independentminded]

@Susanann

YOu definitely have a point there.

But, West Side Story is my all time favorite musical. …and it will always, be, because Hollywood does not make movies like that anymore.

I saw it over 30 times back in the 1960s’, when it was still in the theaters and before videotape and before it was shown on television.

Its even better on a big screen at a movie theater.

Yay, Susanann!! * West Side Story*, although it’s enjoyable on TV, is far, far better on a great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low! My love for West Side Story goes rather far back. I was first introduced to West Side Story via the music of the original Broadway stage production of WSS back in the summer of 1962 prior to entering the sixth grade. I was attending day camp out west, and a girl in the group that I was who’d recently received a copy of the LP soundtrack of the original Broadway stage version of WSS for her birthday brought the WSS album in and played it for the rest of the group. It was then that my love for West Side Story took off, since I fell in love with the music immediately. I didn’t get to see the movie until around six years later, at around Christmastime 1968, when I was a high school Senior. I saw the movie WSS when it was still in the theatres, and shortly before it went on TV, and fell in love with the movie West Side Story instantly. Since I was stlll a high school kid when I first saw WSS, I could still identify with kids being kids back then.

Fast forward to the spring of 1972, when someone in my evening Jewelry-making class brought in a small black and white TV in, because West Side Story was on TV that night. I watched it with the other students in the class, and loved it once again.
That summer, when I went on a six-week trip to Europe, someone in the group I was with had brought along a cassette tape of the sound track to the film version of West Side Story, which was played almost every evening, during free hours. My love of West Side Story was re-awakened that summer. Shortly after coming home from Europe, I matter-of-factly mentioned to my (late) dad over dinner one night that I wished that West Side Story would come back again. The conversation between me and my dad, although brief, went like this:

Me: Gee, I wish that West Side Story would come back again.

Dad: You never forgot it, did you?

Me: No.

At around Thanksgiving time that year, West Side Story was aired on TV, and I skipped an evening class to watch it. Need I add that I’ve been hooked on West Side Story for more than 40 years?!?

Pardon my rambling, folks.

[independentminded]

@needscoffee

Thankfully they moved Officer Krupke to a better position in the movie. It was one a jarring problem with the play, having a comical number right after the tragic scene.

That’s agreed, needscoffee. I, too think that the switching the orders of “Officer Krupke” and “Cool” around in the movie version of West Side Story was far more appropriate, although I can see why they did it the way they did in the stage version of WSS; The play WSS seems to have a streak of black comedy woven throughout it, while the movie is more dramatic and story-like, and depicts the various personalities of the various Jets and Sharks gang members.

[independentminded]

@ArchiveGuy

And yet, it shows that, despite all these strengths, two woefully miscast leads can do a great deal to undermine their collective efforts.

Make no mistake that the first 10 minutes of the film are nothing less than brilliant, and that the acting ensemble is by-and-large very strong (w/Russ Tamblyn the genuine standout; the wrong gang member won the Oscar that year) and the subsequent numbers are inventively staged and well-executed (and, in the case of “America”, an improvement over the Broadway version).

But a big chunk of the movie dies with Riff & Bernardo, and with only one good number (the magnificent “Cool”) with still almost an hour remaining, we’re left with Beymer & Wood, and they are B-A-D. So the movie (IMHO) slowly fizzes out and dies a slow death, with the final scene having neither the gravity or catharsis it rightfully deserves (though the Saul Bass closing credits do provide a final pick-me-up).

For me, a great movie should not be so lop-sided, but I can’t remember the last time I could even bear to sit through WSS start to front without FFW or chapter-jumps, since the most worthwhile moments–the songs & dancing–so seriously outweigh the rest (even more so than is typical for a musical). Without a doubt many great moments, but I wish I could say the sum was greater than the parts.

Hmmm…I don’t know. To each their own. While I agree that Beymer was definitely a weak, lacklustre Tony, I learned something during the last year or two that made me a bit more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Beymer and Wood had an extremely poor relationship offscreen, in real life, which clearly pained Beymer. In fact, she disliked him more than he disliked her; Wood actually tried to get Beymer kicked off the set on several occasions. Having learned that, and mentioned it here, I believe that it’s possible that Beymer might’ve played a stronger role as Tony if he and Wood had gotten along better.

I also think that Natalie Wood did OK as Maria, and I still believe that West Side Story, as a film, was a very strong one due to the reasons that I mentioned above in my thread.

[Malthus]

In terms of movies made out of musicals, my favorite has always been Fiddler on the Roof. The music and dancing are both exceptional and well worked into the plot - I particularly like the dance scene in the bar, where the cossacs start to dance with Tevia and his friends and at first they aren’t sure if these guys are hostile or not - but then it evolves in a glorious free-for-all.

I also love the bottle-dancers at the wedding. Totally bizzare and amazing.

[phungi]

I love me some WSS… not sure if this is widely viewed, but there was a great side-play on Officer Krupke in this season’s Curb Your Enthusiasm…

[Love_Rhombus]

Here’s a trailer for an updated version- West Side Story. Enjoy!

[filling_pages]

@valleyofthedolls

This is a tritone, no? From the R to the A in Maria?

I always think the Simpsons opening theme and Maria sound very much alike (both have tritones).

Yep. I once read an interview - this would have been in the late 90s - with Danny Elfman. In it, he said that his two biggest influences when writing the Simpsons theme were West Side Story and the Jetsons theme song.