For one night only, the 1961 movie version of the famed Broadway show West Side Story made a glorious appearance on theater screens. The film, a winner of 10 Academy Awards, was digitally remastered and a new high definition version is being released next week. To celebrate the film's 50-year anniversary, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) sponsored the showing, which I was lucky enough to attend.
Having only ever watched the movie on DVD and TV, seeing it on a big screen in the darkened, nearly full theater auditorium was truly thrilling. As the musical's dramatic overture played over the opening titles, the excitement built. Sweeping views over New York City narrowed closer and closer over Wall Street, Midtown, the Empire State Building and especially the greenery of middle-class apartment complexes and the expanses of Central Park, and then we were in a litter-strewn playground amid the treeless mean streets of claustrophobic tenement blocks.
The Jets, the reigning gang of working class whites, danced their menacing, tough-guy opening number in their sloppy jeans and grubby, colorless tee shirts and jackets. Bernardo, the leader of the Puerto Rican Sharks, the Jets' competition for their turf, with his headful of gleaming black hair, appeared in a brilliant red shirt and slim-fitting black pants, the very epitome of Latin flair. The stage was set.
This area of the West Side was being razed during the filming and soon was rebuilt as Lincoln Center, with its glittering theaters surrounded by breezy, landscaped open plazas. But in the movie, there are still the boarded-up windows, masonry debris, and once peculiar to New York, enclosures around the construction sites made from old tenement doors. Very few open stores remain and not so many cars drive by. It truly looks like a war zone, which it is.
Riff, the Jets' leader, and Bernardo make a pact to have a deciding "rumble" after the Saturday night dance. But at the dance, Maria, Bernardo's beautiful sixteen-year-old sister meets Tony, a handsome former Jet who has decided to get a job and make a better life. They fall immediately and passionately in love.
Despite Maria and Tony's efforts to stop the rumble, it takes place, violently, tragically. Lives are lost. There is no happy end, just a faint hope for compassion and perhaps, mutual acceptance.
To the very last scene where the remaining characters file off Shakespearean style (obviously the plot closely follows Romeo and Juliet), the movie is truly a masterpiece of acting, dancing and singing. The music by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim is sweeping, challenging, yet hummable and singable--after all, who doesn't know at least the tune to "Maria" or "Somewhere"?
The performances were remarkable--Natalie Wood was a soulful, virginally beautiful Maria, Rita Moreno was a sultry Anita (Bernardo's girlfriend) and George Chakiris made a sinuous Bernardo with burning Latin eyes. Tony was played with a mix of hopefulness and eager charm by Richard Beymer.
Prior to the beginning of the film, TCM presented a discussion led by Robert Osborne, the film historian and much-loved host of so many great old movies shown on that network. Other participants were Chakiris, Walter Mirisch, the film's producer, and Marni Nixon, whose voice was used for Maria's musical numbers. Osborne interviewed them about the back story of the film's production, direction, and choreography, along with some dirt about Natalie's Wood's unhappy reaction to being dubbed. It was fascinating to see rehearsal footage, shots of the directors working and even some of Wood's singing (she made a valiant effort, but the directors made the right choice to overdub). Altogether, it was a terrific introduction to the film and added so much to my enjoyment of it.
I will undoubtedly be purchasing a new DVD shortly.
