Cinema
West Side Story
Synopsis
New York, on the Upper West Side, in 1957. Two rival gangs fight over the neighbourhood: the Jets, young white men led by Riff, and the Sharks, Puerto Ricans led by Bernardo. Tony, a former Jet, works at Doc's drugstore. At the gymnasium dance, where the two gangs refuse to mix, he meets Maria, Bernardo's sister, who is promised to Chino, and they fall in love. At Doc's, Riff and Bernardo agree on a showdown for the following evening, under the highway.
Context
The choreographer was fired after about forty-five days of shooting, the film being twenty-four days behind schedule and over budget; he had staged all the dances but two. Wise completed the film, and the two men shared the Academy Award for Best Director, a first. Some of the street scenes were shot on West 68th Street, in a neighbourhood demolished soon afterwards to build Lincoln Center; the prologue was shot in East Harlem.
Who it is for
A musical of two hours thirty-two minutes, in Technicolor; Marni Nixon sings for Natalie Wood and Jim Bryant for Richard Beymer.
Prizes and reception
Ten Oscars from eleven nominations, a record for a musical, and added in 1997 to the National Film Registry.
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