West Side Story (1961)

Directed by

Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise

Genre

drama film, musical film, crime film, romance film

Country

United States

Runtime

2h 30m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 2,052 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two rival teenage gangs fight for control of the streets in 1950s New York City. A young man from one gang falls in love with the sister of the leader of the other gang.

energeticromantictragicmusicalvisually lushdramaticintensebittersweet

What happens

West Side Story is a 1961 American musical romantic drama film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, written by Ernest Lehman, and produced by Wise. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same title, which in turn was inspired by Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris and was photographed by Daniel L. Fapp in Super Panavision 70. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Released on October 18, 1961, through United Artists, the film received praise from critics and viewers, and became the highest-grossing film of 1961. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including Best Picture (in addition to a special award for Robbins), becoming the record holder for the most wins for a musical. West Side Story is regarded as one of the greatest musical films of all time. The film was designated as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1997. A second film adaptation by Steven Spielberg was released in December 2021. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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