Westside Story (1961)

The actor’s characters are well developed. At the beginning there are two different gangs or groups that don’t get along well. The groups are the Jets (Caucasian men) and the Sharks (Puerto Rican men).The character of Maria(Natalie Wood) is a young woman trying to be adventurous but her strict older brother, Bernardo, won’t let her do anything. The character of Anita(Rita Moreno) is that she is Bernardo’s girlfriend and she is Maria’s good friend. Tony(Richard Beymer) is in love with Maria, once he sees her it is love at first sight. Bernardo(George Chakiris) is Maria’s older brother and he looks after her; he is kind of overprotected of her. Maria’s attributes is that she is a lovable young woman. She likes to have fun and dance but there is only one little fact. She can’t do anything or go anywhere that isn’t approved by her brother Bernardo. It is more of a family role in where the older brother takes care of or looks after his younger sister like in this case. Also he doesn’t think its right for a Shark (Maria) and a Jet (Tony) to be together, it’s almost a disgrace. Anita is nice and tries to help out Maria so she can be with Tony even though she didn’t agree at first for them to be together. Bernardo is nice to Anita and strict with Maria. He is sort of stubborn for not having to understand that fighting leads to nowhere. Tony is well liked by his gang (the Jets) and best friend “Riff”. He is a gentleman towards Maria and has a good heart for obeying Maria’s order of stopping a fight between the two rivals. Yes the characters are well casted. What makes them better than the other actors that auditioned was that they were chosen for their part in the movie. It was their good acting of portraying their characters. The cast went above and beyond and acted their best to really show the audience how the mood of the movie felt like. It was the audience’s feeling of anticipation of wanting to know if the fight was going to take place. Or knowing who will win the fight. Those types of questions made the audience love the movie for its action and thrilling adventure. (I don’t know about the rest of the audience, but I for sure was anxious to know.)
I love all the characters in the movie; ok, maybe not all of them. I disliked Chino (Bernardo’s best friend) for doing something so horrible that made the movie really sad. (If you would like to know what Chino does, watch the movie and you will find out!). I thought that the character’s thinking of having a fist fight match was a really bad idea. Fist fights or any kind of fight lead to nowhere. I liked how there was a balance of the good characters, the bad, and the wimps or wimp. I thought it was a little funny…or not…in how one of the one of the members from the Jets was crying because of the incident that took place at the fight; he felt guilty, even though he didn’t kill anyone. The plot if I may say so was genius! It was just…Great! Okay enough talking. This incredible movie is a romantic-action movie. There are two “gang” groups that really dislike each other. And those two groups are the Jets (Caucasian men) and the Sharks (Puerto Rican men). The plan was to settle an agreement to not fight each other; (As was told by an officer). They were going to settle the agreement at the school dance; which is where Tony and Maria meet for the first time, their love was a “love at first sight” thing and that’s where their never ending love first started. Bernardo is Maria’s older brother and does not want Tony and Maria to be together because of their social positions (Maria being a Shark and Tony a Jet). Maria breaks the rules and both she and Tony keep seeing each other. Because of how the Sharks and Jets don’t get along together they decide on a fight match. Tony tells his gang to not fight with weapons but with their fist, to make it a fair match. So the fight is agreed on and so it is taking place at a lot under a railway crossing. Maria sends Tony at a later time to stop the fight. Tony tries to stop his friend Riff and Bernardo from fighting but later Riff takes out his pocket knife; making the fight unfair. Bernardo decides it’s not even unless he takes out his pocket knife as well. Chaos and anxiety are erupting. Tony is in the middle of the fight trying to break them apart and Bernardo ends up stabbing Riff. Tony is so shock and mad that he decides to use Riff’s knife to stab Bernardo and so he does. Bernardo and Riff and up dying and more chaos erupts. Chino is going crazy because his friend died. Chino tells Maria, who is waiting for Tony is her rooftop, that her brother has died and the killer was Tony. Maria goes crazy and later that night Tony enters her room from her window. He tells her that it was an accident; he didn’t mean to kill him. At the same time Tony is trying to hide from the police but tells Maria that he would turn himself in to the police if she agrees to, but she says no, to say with her. The next day Anita finds out that Tony is in Maria’s room. A policeman arrives at Maria’s and Anita’s apartment. Anita agrees to keep Tony a secret, while Tony tells Maria to meet each other at the playground. Taking in account that Chino is really upset and is in the loose with a gun. Later on Tony sees Maria and while they are running towards each other the unbelievable happens. Don’t want to ruin ending so watch the movie and you’ll see. But if it’s sort of obvious then you get the point and very sad ending. One of the major conflicts was that the two gangs were going to fight each other. It is solved when Bernardo and Riff end up dying. Let’s just say that the ending is the cause of the two gangs not getting along well and the result of Tony and Maria’s encounter at the playground.
Yes the characters interact well with each other. But when it involves the Sharks vs. the Jets they don’t get along well. Each of the characters listens and reacts properly to all the different situations. They all have the right expression to the scenes. For example when Maria and Chino are on the rooftop, Maria is anxious to know if Tony is okay while Chino has the most surprising expression of “Don’t you get it, your lover KILLED your brother.” There is chemistry between Tony and Maria. They are different from the rest; they are the ones that think anything is possible like breaking rules to see each other. Both are really nice and they will do anything to see and be together. Some key pieces of dialogue in the work are when Tony and Maria are at the bridal shop because Maria works there. Maria told Tony to meet her there and when Tony arrives Maria saw him. Anita knew that they shouldn’t be together but agreed not to tell anyone especially Bernardo. I chose that scene because it showed that Anita knew how much Tony and Maria love each other. She felt how they felt in love and she understood. It showed how her character was being risky because her boyfriend Bernardo didn’t like the idea at all; but she took her chances and let it be. Another key piece of dialogue is when at the very end how the Sharks and the Jets end up suffering together. I chose this scene because it shows how death can really bring people together, and how the Sharks and the Jets learned to cooperate together.
The setting is in Manhattan in an old looking neighborhood. Some of the stages are the playground where a basketball court is at. The lot under the railroad crossing is where the fight is taken place. The lot is fenced in and a tunnel connects to one of the walls and leads to the street, where Tony escapes after stabbing Bernardo. The bridal shop is full of gowns and tuxes. In the back of the shop is where Maria sings the well known song called “I feel pretty.” Another stage is where Tony climbs up the fire escape to see Maria; the stage is in an alley. The actors Bernardo and Riff use a pocket knife as a prop to show they are not playing fair and they totally want to kill each other. They show it to kill one another which turn out to be not very effective since both die.
The music/song choices they play help show the emotions the characters feel. For example, how Maria sings “I’m so pretty” she is so happy and excited that she met Tony. The lighting adds to the work especially in the scene where Tony and Maria are in the bridal shop. Both of them are kneeling down as if they are getting married and a bright light (kind of like an aura/halo) above their heads is lighting up to show happiness and holiness. The costuming is effective in showing the two different gangs. The Jets dress casual in light colors while the Sharks use dark dressy clothes. Overall, I personally think the movie was very good. I loved every single bit of it and how it combined romance with action and suspense. I highly recommend this movie and I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did. =).