Review of West Side Story (1961) by Terry E — 28 Mar 2009

An old film but still a good one unless you have see the original stage show. However, this film has one of the best openings ever. The overture plays over a colour changing line drawing that is impossible to fathom until the final few seconds when suddenly all becomes clear. This is followed by an aerial tour of Manhattan which culminates on zooming in to a group of lads in a playground. Their power and prestige is obvious as the intro moves into the extremely well done opening act/dance sequence tracing the fall of the Jets and the rise of the Sharks. Unfortunately, for me this is the high spot of the movie and it all rather goes downhill from there on in, until the final death/reconciliation scene.

To look at other aspects, of the movie though. The cast is, on the whole excellent. The one exception, in my opinion, being Richard Beymerâ??s (Tony) performance which just doesnâ??t work for me. He isnâ??t helped by the fact hat whenever he walks, he looks like a Thunderbirds puppet and his singing voice really isnâ??t that great.

Anything else wrong with the movie? Well yes. Some of the songs are moved around and the words changed (PC considerations even existed in 1961). One or two of the â??exteriorâ?? sets looked horrendously like sound stages, the dream sequence from the play is missing completely and Russ Tamblyn had great trouble lip synching during the â??Jetâ??s Songâ??.

But, taking all that into consideration, this modern(ish) update of Romeo and Juliet is well worth seeing, but just donâ??t expect a happy ending.