Wet Side Story Research Essay
West Side Story is a movie made in 1961, directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise and written by Ernest Lehman. The movie version was based on the book by Arthur Laurents and the play by Jerome Robbins. It has a superior cast with Russ Tamblyn playing Riff, the leader of the Jets, George Chakiris playing Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks, Natalie Wood playing Maria and Richard Beymer playing Tony, the co-founder of the jets. My overall impression of this movie was it was urbanizing New York City and was a nice play off of the typical Romeo and Juliet story. I believe the film makers message in the movie is love can conquer anything. Through music, striking and eye catching visual effects, as well as a superior cast, Robbins captures all this in his movie.
The movie takes place in the West Side of New York, in the late 1950s.The Jets are a teenage gang of American boys led by Riff. They are determined not only to keep in check but to destroy the growth of Puerto Rican population and influence on their block. They are opposed by a Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, led by Bernardo. The cofounder of the gang the Jets, Tony meets Bernardo’s sister Maria, who just arrived from Puerto Rico at a dance. The two fall in love but it ends in tragedy when their respective gangs don’t approve.
A seemingly random collection of vertical lines appears on the screen saturated with changing colors—yellow, red, purple, blue, orange, green—as the familiar Leonard Bernstein score begins. Sounds of the city take over at the end of the orchestral overture when the lines dissolve into an aerial shot of lower Manhattan. Scenes that mimic the eye of a searching hawk catch the grandeur and magnitude of their constant hum, but heard at a distance and seen from far away, as a kind of mechanical operation. The slow, quiet build-up of sounds vie with a low buzz of traffic noise until the snapping of fingers begins. This is the opening scene to West Side Story. This is where we meet the Jets. The director used this technique to draw the audience into the movie and set the scene for what’s to come. The perspective revealed the mammoth changes occurring in New York and the changes that are about to occur.
In a performance, “the design is held together by the geometry of the stage itself,” explained Robbins. Robbins used many of the stop signs and traffic signals blare out in yellow and red while one way signs sit atop the red traffic light. This was used to signal the “stop” that the Jets are wanting to put to the growth of Puerto Ricans happening in the area.
One of the biggest characters in West Side story had to be Tony. He was the co-founder of the Jets and falls head over heels in love with Maria, who happens to be the sister of Bernardo, who’s the founder of the Sharks. Richard Beymer played Tony in the iconic movie. He lent his heart felt and admirable performance and made everyone believe he was in love with Maria in real life.