West Side Story (Blu-ray) (1961)

Editor's Note Considered one of the most popular musicals of all time, WEST SIDE STORY earned director Robert Wise an Oscar for Best Director as well as nine other Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Realistically portrayed characters and their surroundings and expert editing complementing innovative dance sequences mark this highly stylized modern-day Romeo and Juliet tale. The stage is set in New York's Upper West Side in the 1950s, where the area's slums are plagued by racial tensions acted on by two rival gangs: the Puerto Rican Sharks and the Caucasian Jets. In the middle of this mess is young, innocent Maria (Natalie Wood), a Puerto Rican seamstress whose brother, Bernardo (George Chakiris), is the leader of the Sharks. Despite the warnings of Anita (Rita Moreno), Bernardo's fiery girlfriend, Maria falls in love with a young, hopeful Polish boy, Tony (Richard Beymer), who used to belong to the Jets, now headed by Riff (Russ Tamblyn). When Tony, on Maria's urging, tries to stop a rumble between the gangs, tragedy ensues, marking their dedicated love affair with violence and desperation. The infectious, lyrical landmark score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim help round out one of the greatest musical experiences ever captured on film.

	Richard Beymer
	Natalie Wood
	George Chakiris
	Rita Moreno
	Eliot Feld
	Tony Mordente
	Russ Tamblyn
	Simon Oakland
	Boris Leven - Production Designer
	Thomas Stanford - Editor
	Daniel L. Fapp - Director of Photography
	Ernest Lehman - Screenwriter
	Leonard Bernstein - Composer
	Johnny Green - Composer
	Robert Wise - Producer
	Robert Wise - Director
	Jerome Robbins - Director

A Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim score backdrops this landmark Broadway musical in which a modern-day Romeo and Juliet are involved in New York City street gangs. Academy Award Nominations: 11, including Best (Adapted) Screenplay. Academy Awards: 9, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor--George Chakiris, Best Actress--Rita Moreno, Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. Entertainment Weekly
"..Incredibly cool..." 04/04/2003 p.83

Total Film
"...You'd be a fool not to buy it and once more savour the muscular song-and-dance numbers..." 07/01/2003 p.134

Uncut
"[E]very Bernstein song's a humdinger with sizzling Sondheim lyrical gags. Cosily cool." 12/01/2003 p.160