Review of West Side Story (1961) by Stephanie M — 02 Sep 2009

My favorite musical of all time. The music and dancing just hold up so unbelievably well. Yes, do things like dialogue sound painfully dated now? Of course, but those kinds of things date themselves instantly anyway. And in some ways I like the fact that those things are dated, does a great job of time capsuling this period and in a lot of ways showing how some of the struggles of race and teenager-dom are not too different than today's.

This was one of the first movies I remember getting to watch on DVD and was amazed by the beautiful transfer they manged to do for it. The dancing is simply divine, Jerome Robbins is certainaly a choreographer that is truly once in a lifetime dance master. The kind of dancing that you can tell the dancer's feet bled afterward it is a site to behold. George Chakaris had such a poise and grace to his steps and Rita Moreno is simply something one has to see to behold. There is a realness and immediacy you see int eh naturalistic sets (and the opening number that was filmed on real NYC streets) that you truly get the zeitgeist of the day.