West Side Story (1961)

Animosity between two rival street gangs, the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks, over turf reaches raging proportions. Against this rivalry, a romance develops between an ex-Jet (Richard Beymer) and the sister (Natalie Wood) of the Sharks' leader (George Chakiris). This re-imagined, contemporary telling of Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET is one of the landmark film musicals, a stunning achievement on several levels. The sublime score by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, the astonishing choreography by Jerome Robbins (who shares co-directing credit with Robert Wise) stand out, of course, but the contributions of Boris Leven's remarkable production design, Daniel L. Fapp's beautiful work as cinematographer and Thomas Stanford's Oscar winning editing are not to be dismissed. It's easy to take a musical like this for granted with all the awards and praise lavished on it through the ensuing decades but a fresh viewing displays a film to which the adjective "timeless" is apt. The lovely Wood makes for a poignant Maria (though her performance is slightly marred by Marni Nixon's bland generic soprano) and while poor Richard Beymer is barely there as Tony, he doesn't hurt the film. As for the rest, Rita Moreno is perfection, Russ Tamblyn and George Chakiris are spot on (though Chakiris's Oscar win is questionable). With Simon Oakland, Ned Glass, Tucker Smith, Tony Mordente and David Winters.