West Side Story, a movie/musical classic that's loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, began as a famous late-1950's Broadway stage musical that first opened in NYC's Winter Garden, in late September of 1957. It was a big hit, playing in NYC for two years before embarking on a national tour, to other metropolises throughout the United States, and then an international rendez-vous, around the world. Despite its being a big hit, the Broadway stage production of West Side Story didn't win any Tony awards or anything, however.

Four years later, after Walter Mirisch had purchased the rights to the movie, West Side Story came out as a spectacular motion picture that went on to win ten well-earned Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Year of 1961, after it was released in movie theatres in late October of that year.

West Side Story is about love, romance, racial/ethnic tensions, urban gang warfare, delinquency and conflict with the law, as well as drug/alcohol addiction, prostitution and domestic abuse. Set on the finger-snapping, pulsating West Side of 1950's-1960's Manhattan, the white Ethnic American Jets and the newly-arrived Puerto Rican Sharks are vying for the same small piece of turf that has been allocated to them by a society and system that pits them against each other.

The tensions between the Jets and Sharks are stepped up regularly, and, finally, at a dance one night at a local gym, Tony, who's quit the Jets for a more satisfying life, meets and falls in love with Maria, the sister of Shark gang leader, Bernardo. Tensions between the Jets and Sharks soar still furthur, and, eventually, a deadly showdown results, ending in the deaths of Riff, Bernardo and Tony. Maria and Tony's love is destroyed by the hatred between the Jets and Sharks, but there's a hint of reconciliation in the end, when several Jets and Sharks come together to carry Tony's body off after he's been shot by Chino, to avenge Bernardo's death, after Maria has blurted out the message that they all killed Riff, Tony and Bernardo with their hatred.

West Side Story is a film that, imho, is best viewed on the great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low, even though it's enjoyable on television, as well. When shown on the great big, wide movie theatre screen, West Side Story seems to take on a magical, almost 3-dimensional quality. The scenery seems more expansive and one can see all of everything. The Bernstein musical score seems even more brilliant and intense, as does the richly colored cinematography and costuming, as well as the beautifully-choreographed dancing, by the late Jerome Robbins.

From the warring Jets and Sharks to the romancing Tony and Maria, the various characters in West Side Story seem to move more freely and fluidly, in a much wider, more open space. Even Richard Beymer (who I've always regarded as a weak, lacklustre Tony), comes off more vital and alive on a great big, wide movie theatre screen.

West Side Story is in a special class all by itself, because, to me, this is a film that needs to be seen from the very beginning to the very end, including the credits. It's a film that feels fresh and new to me, like I'm viewing it for the very first time. There are many other likable classic films, but even they often seem somewhat frayed around the edges and a little bit dated. West Side Story, however, is an exception, in that the themes that it covers various subjects (i. e. urban gang warfare, racial/ethnic tensions, love and romance that develops across racial/ethnic lines, and conflict with the law, as well as drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence) that're still present in our society and throughout the world, even today, making it as relevant as ever.

Hey...I know that in real life, gangs don't go dancing through the streets on their way to a rumble, nor do people fall in love at first sight, or if they do, it takes more time for a love to grow and develop into something that's substantial and involving real trust. As a neighbor of mine put it, West Side Story is fiction, but yet closer to reality in at least some respects.

I've also seen several stage productions of West Side Story, including the more up to date Broadway stage revival (which I'm more critical of), and I've attended virtually every screening of the film version of West Side Story that comes into our area, and even made road trips into neighboring states for screenings of this great movie/musical classic.

West Side Story, to me, is the classic that never grows old. The MGM adage
"Unlike other classics, West Side Story grows younger" is so true!