West Side Story

And finally there is color!  I cannot believe I had never seen this classic musical before now!  When I was watching the movie, I was surprised how many songs I knew that they sang in the film!

It was a classic story that practically anyone knows.  A modern day Romeo and Juliet.  Yet another love story in my list of movies (I know how to pick 'em!) that made my heart twist and turn.

Here's the basic storyline--
The two gangs of New York, the Jets (the white immigrants) and the Sharks (the Puerto Rican immigrants), have been in a huge feud since both of them moved into the west side of the city.  It just didn't seem big enough for both of them to live in together.  The only solution the two gangs can come up with is a fight to settle the problem once and for all.  Before the fight happens however, Tony, a former member of the Jets gang and a best friend of one of the head guys, meets Maria, the younger sister of the leader of the Sharks.  It's love immediately.  They quickly move forward in their relationship by making plans for their future.  They talk of things like marriage and how they will make it work dispute their differences.

Then, it happens.  The fight.  Maria sent Tony to stop the fight and he went with every intention of doing just that.  However when he arrived, things escalate and get more heated than anyone could have anticipated.  Maria's brother stabs Tony's best friend, resulting in his death.  Tony, who just watched his best friend be stabbed to his death, took revenge in the heat of the moment, stabbing Maria's brother right back, ending his life.

What to do now? Maria is informed what happened by one of her brother's friends.  But then Tony shows up and their love is enough to help them fight past this tragedy.  She forgives him and they plan to run away and spend their lives together.  Tony leaves her and tells her to meet him at the place where he worked and they would leave from there.  Maria is held up by a police man asking her questions, so she sends her friend to tell Tony that she will be late.  However, when her friend gets there to tell Tony, the members of the Jets stop her and abuse her and mistreat her in awful ways.  After being treated in such mortifying and degrading ways, she leaves and tells the Jets that they can tell Tony he will never see Maria again, because she was killed by a member of the Sharks after he found out she was planning to leave with Tony.

When Tony hears this, he finds himself with no choice but to go out into the night and look for the man he believed murdered Maria so he can take his life too.  Eventually, Maria finds him and he sees that she is alive.  They are together-- it looks like the perfect ending until the man who Tony went to find in the first place spots them, shooting Tony down to his death.

Tony is taking his last breaths in Maria's arms.  They are surrounded by all the members of the Jets and all the members of the Sharks.  She tells them all that is all of their fault that Tony was killed.  Because of their prejudices and inability to live among each other peacefully like humans, she lost her love of her life.  At the end of the film, all the members of the Jets and Sharks slowly wander out of the scenes together.  They walk out as individuals at the end of the film, no longer as two entirely separate entities.  They come together to carry Tony's lifeless body from the screen and the movie comes to an end.

Not only was this story beautiful and heart wrenching, but the acting, singing, and dancing throughout the entire film were all phenomenal.  Musicals are not something that I normally watch, but I found that I really enjoyed this one.  Everyone was very talented and that is obviously one of the main reasons that this movie received such praise and was nominated for so many awards.

Maybe musicals are your thing-- maybe they are not.  Either way, I think that anyone would enjoy and appreciate this film and it definitely is a must see!

Now enough of these love films!  Get ready for next week because I am going to make you "an offer you can't refuse"-- read this next post or you will seriously regret it!
Get ready for... The Godfather (1972)

For now,

Kirk