Movie #152: West Side Story

Movie #: 152
Movie Title: West Side Story
Year Released: 1961

Director: Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise
Notable Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn

Short Description: Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #51
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/16/2016

Grade: 2 out of 5 (Fair)

Rationale: Unlike Chicago and Cabaret, two musical movies that I enjoyed watching, West Side Story felt like a pure musical you'd see in a performing arts theater, which was not what I expected or wanted to watch. There didn’t seem to be much of a separation of the musical numbers or dancing from the actual story, where as in Chicago and Cabaret, there’s a distinct story with specific cut away scenes for singing and dancing. When I’m watching a movie, I expect an adaptation designed for cinema, not something I could see on a stage.