direction: Robert Wise Jerome Robbins
script: Ernest Lehman
genre: Melodramat / Musical
production: Danemark, Sweden, USA, Israel
duration: 95 min
West Side Story is the award-winning adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet”. The feuding families become two warring New York City gangs- the white Jets led by Riff and the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo. But when Riff’s best friend (and former Jet) Tony and Bernardo’s younger sister Maria meet at a dance, no one can do anything to stop their love. Can their feeling survive and put an end to the brutal rivalry of the warring gangs?
Movie with the music by Leonard Bernstein has received 10 Oscars. Many film critiques cites this movie as the beginning of the history of a modern musical. For the first time creators stoped using cabaret, frivolous and completely unrealistic conventions that were used up till this point in the classics of the musical genre.