West Side Story
Short description
West Side Story is set in a run-down neighbourhood on New York's Upper West Side in the 1950s, where two street gangs fight over the same few blocks. The Jets are the white teenagers of the area, while the Sharks are Puerto Rican newcomers led by Bernardo. Tony, who helped found the Jets but has pulled away from them after a spell in prison, works in the shop of Valentina, Doc's widow. At a dance at the local high school he meets María, Bernardo's sister, and the two begin a relationship despite belonging to opposite camps. The hostility between the gangs keeps escalating, and the lovers' attempts to stay out of it run against loyalties they cannot escape. The story draws on Romeo and Juliet and on the Broadway musical by Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein.
Steven Spielberg directed, working from a screenplay by Tony Kushner with Sondheim and Laurents. It is the 38th film of the 40 he has directed in chronological order, coming after Ready Player One and before The Fabelmans. Ansel Elgort plays Tony and Rachel Zegler plays María, with Ariana DeBose as Anita, David Alvarez as Bernardo, Mike Faist as Riff and Brian D'Arcy James as Officer Krupke. The production cost about 100 million USD and returned roughly 76 million USD worldwide.
Audience response was favourable but not enthusiastic: on IMDb the film holds 7.1/10 from about 122,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.9/10 from far fewer. Critics rated it considerably higher, at 8.3/10 across 392 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is dedicated to Steven Spielberg's father, Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer and World War II veteran, who passed away from natural causes at the age of 103 in 2020, the year the film was scheduled for release.
- When casting the film, Steven Spielberg insisted that all Latin American characters be played by actors of Latin American descent.
- Mike Faist lost 15 kg, imitating the members of 1950s youth gangs whose photographs he came across while preparing for the role.
- Lyricist Stephen Sondheim passed away on November 26, 2021, just days before the musical's premiere. However, he managed to see the final version of the film and even said he liked it more than Robert Wise's original from 1961 (Wise, 1914-2005).
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