Review of West Side Story (1961) by Mat R — 11 Oct 2010

If you're not drawn into musicals or romances then maybe the first half of the film might bore you or make you fall asleep. If you can stand romances or musicals, then you'll find the first half to be okay, but not thrilling. And if you're a big fan of musicals and romances, then you're most likely to love the first half. But, regarding the second half, weather you like musicals and romances or not, it is most likely that you'll find yourself absorbed into this Shakespearean tragic love story, with violence and music.

West Side Story is a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare famous play, Romeo and Juliet. The film is set in the streets of Manhattan, where there is an urban war going on for quite some time between two gangs: Puerto Rican immigrants, their leader being Bernardo, called the Sharks, and a white America gang, their leader being Riff, called the Jets. In the mistd of this all, a member of the Jets, Tony, who's trying to leave behind the inmature games, meets Maria, Bernardo's sisters, and they fall in love. Maria at first is unaware of the rivalry between the gangs, but things start to complicate when a final battle between the two gangs is called upon.

If you are wonderin to what group do I belong from the ones I listed in the first paragraph of this review then I belong to the second: I am okay with musicals and romances, not a big fan nor do I hate them, and the first half of the film I found all right, but it was the latter half that draw me into the world of this film.

The first half wasn't really bad, but it just felt too average. It was quite common, not much, no big emotional feelings. Plus, the songs were a little dull and stupid, and some felt out of place, though I gotta admit that some were pretty fun too. But then, when the big incident happened, they kept singing out of nowhere, and that really seemed to be odd and could start to piss me off a little. But then, on the second half, or rather after the incident, which happened just about 10 minutes past the mid point, the story spinned to a whole new level of storytelling, and it absorbed me into it right away.

On a technical level, the film is quite impressive.

The directors, Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise (who were the last pair of directors to win Best Director, for this film, until the Coen Brothers in 2007 for No Country for Old Men; an interesting detail for the ones who are interested), do their job perfectly at directing the film. They have an interesting vision of this world, and of Romeo and Juliet for that matter too. They use a couple of good techniques to focus on the characters or to emphasize on something, and the use of color sequences are pretty to look at too.

The art direction is to be praised. The film uses llamative colors in things like the walls or the settings, or even the lights, and it draws the viewer's attention into it.

The costume design does this too, using pretty colors at the clothes, in order to get the audience to fix on them for a couple of seconds.

But this film isn't only pretty to look at, it is much more and it goes deeper and deeper past the mid point already mentioned. I think the film's most important aspect, what made it the classic it is today, are its themes and message. The film explores themes like urban violence among teenagers and kid gangs, as well as deeper ones like race and hate, besides the love themes common in chick flicks. The film's main focus is the war between the Jets and the Sharks, two kid gangs who employ violence in their encounters, and this violence, which looks small (just punches and hits) escalates into something much more dangerous. It is just how its happening in Latinoamerica, with the "comunas", where kids are trained to kill on very early ages. Its a similar thing happening here.

The film explores similar themes to Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which was coincidentially released that same year. Both films try their hand on gang violence, but I think this one had a much stronger impact (though I prefer Kurosawa's film over this).

And the film has a really powerful message of peace, of how kids shouldn't get into these type of things and in which magnitude the consequences can be. Just listen to the speech at the end of the film -I won't give away who says it or why they say it-, it has this powerful message and reflects on the film's main themes.

So West Side Story might be a little dull at the beginning, but once you're past the part that drags, then you'll most likely to get into this film faster than you may think. The film is technically impressive, highly entertainment and carries themes that reasonate.

My recommendation: This film fully deserves your attention, even if you belong to the first group I mentioned on the first paragraph, just hang in there. At the end, it has a beautiful message that all young people should learn, so I suggest that kids should watch it.

My score: 84%.