Rating: 
Summary: A classic amongst classics! Superb in every way!
Review: This film is one of the most magnificent musicals ever to grace the big screen! I am not going to repeat what most viewers have said about the wonderful story line, acting, choreography, and musical score. Everything comes together perfectly, and the film's lesson on prejudice and violence applies even in these modern times more than ever. This film should be in everyone's collection. Even Leonard Maltin in his Movie Guide, gave this the top rating of 4 stars, and everyone knows that Maltin does not give out too many 4 star movies in his reviews. My only gripe about the DVD (and many DVD's in general) has nothing to do with the film, but everything to do with the packaging. When will these companies stop packaging these DVD's as if they contain the Hope Diamond inside? It is annoying to have to scratch and peel off 3 sides of security tape in trying to pry open the case to get to the DVD!!! It is a major inconvenience, and oftentimes, you can't help but damage or seriously scratch the case as you try and peel off all of that annoying tape.
Rating:
Summary: A TRULY SPECIAL EDITION
Review: For all fans of film, musicals or all-around classics the Special Edition of "West Side Story" is a must have. This film has it all drama, comedy, music and stellar dancing.Based on the 1957 Broadway hit, "West Side" was brought to the screen with all it's original energy and vibrancy. This special edition pulls out all the stops presenting the film in the widescreen format in newly re-mastered 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround with an option to view the film with or without it's original intermission. Bonus features include a stills gallery, collectible scrapbook, theatrical trailers and the original one-hour documentary "West Side Memories" which is great but is sorely missing the presence of two of its cast members: Natalie Wood (due to her untimely death in 1981; archival interviews would have been welcome) and George Chakiris (contractual). Natalie Wood is perfect as "Maria". She turns in a stellar performance. I disagree with her detractors. Natalie was the best possible choice to play "Maria", with her dark hair and eyes she can easily pass for a latina, her accent does waiver in some spots but it doesnt hinder her performance. A latina wasn't necessarily needed to play this role, yes the role was that of a young Puerto Rican girl, but Natalie more than does the role justice. As I recall, the role of "Maria" was originated on Broadway by Carol Lawrence who isnt any more Puerto Rican than Miss Wood is. Listen to Miss Lawrence on the Original Broadway Cast CD, she doesnt even have an accent! Just one viewing of Natalie's performance in the final scene is proof enough she was more than up to the challenge.
Rating:
Summary: Great edition of a great film musical masterpiece
Review: Based strictly on the quality of the music and the choreography, WEST SIDE STORY goes easily on the shortest of short lists of the greatest stage musicals in American history. The movie version in many ways matches the greatness of the stage production, but falls just short because of some of the decisions that were made in casting, decisions that were perhaps unavoidable in the early 1960s, but which are nonetheless lamentable today. What an edge the film would possess today if it had actually Hispanics instead of faux ones. The positives unquestionably outweigh the negatives. From the opening sequences, of spectacular overhead shots of upper Manhattan, to the first shots of the guys dancing on the street, you can tell you are in for something special. Although not featuring any individual dancers of the quality or charisma of Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly, the film harkens back, almost, to an earlier period of the musical, to Busby Berkeley and his great ensemble dancing. But this is a completely jazzed up Berkeley, and the dancing possesses an edgy, energetic, hyped up style that had never before been witnessed onscreen. The music more than matched the exhilaration of the dancing. Not since the days of George Gershwin had a composer with the classical credibility of Leonard Bernstein cooperated in a stage and then screen production. The opening dance number, with woodwinds and horns battling out a melody, was unique in its blend of organized chaos, both in terms of orchestra and dancers. Also a strong point, although he was a newcomer and unknown at the time, was the lyrics of a very young Stephen Sondheim. He would be involved in bigger and better things in the future, but what a way to break in! Although the highpoint of WEST SIDE STORY was its score and choreography, the songs interspersed through the story are frequently superb, from the great "When You're a Jet" that opens the film to the incredibly exhilarating "America" to the gloriously beautiful "Somewhere" one knows the songs are dramatically above average. I was never a huge fan of the plot. Once you have caught on to the ROMEO AND JULIET remake angle, the plot unfolds pretty much as expected. In fact, I'm not in general a fan of updated remakes of Shakespeare, though there are exceptions (like FORBIDDEN PLANET fascinatingly updating THE TEMPEST, or Kurosawa's reworking MACBETH as THRONE OF BLOOD). The problem with the film lies almost entirely in the casting, most importantly Natalie Wood, but extending to others. In a film pitting Anglos and Hispanics, and all the Hispanics save one (Rita Morena) portrayed by Caucasian performers, you automatically have half the actors miscast. I love Natalie Wood, but she is just wrong for this part, and while she does a good job, she just isn't as appropriate as an Hispanic female would have been. She looks like a white girl with make up smudged on to make her look darker, never like someone who could pass for Puerto Rican. On top of this, she was not a singer, though she was at least adequate as a dancer. Marni Nixon was one of the great voiceover artists of her generation, but I still think the film would have been dramatically improved by casting an Hispanic actress who could sing in the lead role. Richard Beymer is adequate in his role, but, again, they could have cast someone who could actually sing. Russ Tamblyn's voice was also dubbed, but he was such a spectacular dancer that he could only have been replaced with a loss to the film as a whole. George Chakiris was spectacular as Bernardo, but, again, it would have been nice to have seen a Puerto Rican in the role. This is all, I know, wishful thinking conducted in the early 21st century, when ethnics would have been cast in the proper roles, but in 1961, no studios would have taken the chance of casting Hispanics in sympathetic Hispanic roles. Today, when watching WEST SIDE STORY, the inappropriate casting of people of the wrong ethnicity in central roles stands out like a sore thumb, and the persistent dubbing is grating. Nonetheless, WEST SIDE STORY remains one of the great triumphs of the film musical. It is entertaining, funny, exciting, and extraordinarily well photographed. It is also one of the few times where popular entertainment seems to be blurring the line between it and serious art. The casting decisions lessen the overall impact of the film, but do not keep it from being a success. Interestingly, two of the main actors from the film would later appear, though separately, in TWIN PEAKS, with Richard Beymer (Tony) playing the scheming Benjamin Horne and Russ Tamblyn (Riff) the exceedingly bizarre Dr. Jacoby, the latter looking very much like a somewhat older, bearded version of himself (with bizarre eyeglasses, I think with one red and one yellow lens), while the former is barely recognizable. Being a huge fan of both the film and the series, they thus have become oddly linked in my mind.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic musical
Review: I LOVE musicals. People who know me know this as a fact, as it's completely obvious and I make no attempts to hide it. This movie is certainly no exception. I saw it in high school for the first time, in my film study class. And instantly I was hooked. I'm so glad that it finally got the DVD treatment that it deserves! This movie still holds up after 40 years, which is no small feat! This is a must-have for any fan of musicals.
Rating:
Summary: An eternal masterpiece
Review: This film is one more adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in a long unfinished series. Bernstein composes a masterpiece though on the theme. He transfers the situation to New York and opposes Porto Rican immigrants and Europeans with street gangs on both sides (in the early 60s), well defined territories for each gang and a complex and ambiguous game from the police. The love affair is also partly modified because Maria will survive and mourn the dead, Tony of course, but also Riff and Bernardo. The second change is the music, very jazzy but not only, rich, expressive and dramatic. The music remains one of the best expressions of the conflict, of the ambitions of Porto Ricans to make it in America, to conquer their own territory, even if it means fighting and killing. The Europeans try to defend their territory against those they consider as invaders, even if it means fighting and killing. But this music is in a way too operatic to be a very commercial success on Broadway. Luckily the film saved this « musical » that is a lot more than a « musical ». The third development is the use of modern dancing. When I say modern it is not entirely true. It is in many ways classical and at times it reaches the dimension of a ballet. This too was saved by the film. We can wonder whether the musical would have died or been forgotten without the film, or if it is the film that has short-circuited the possible production of the musical on a stage afterwards, because who can compete with United Artists when they produce a masterpiece ? But West Side Story remains, and will probably remain for a long time, a classic in the Romeo and Juliet line, in the line of an impossible love affair between two people coming from antagonistic communities. It is a perfect transposition from the Italian Renaissance context to modern circumstances in a big city heavily shaped by immigration. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan
Rating:
Summary: Greatest Musical and a Great Addtition to your library.
Review: This is a great DVD set. It is a great buy. Including the DVD you get a script that has all the words in it. The pages are color cordinated to you can tell which is new to the origanal script and which is just plain old orginal. As far as the story goes there is no better rendition of William
Shakespers " Romeo & Juliet." With an all star cast it brings to life the love story of two people from diffrent ethnicty. There is Tony the Polish boy who use to run with the Jets and there is the Puerto Rician girl Maria. In the middle is a gang war between the Jets and the Sharks.The story is great and so is this DVD. Buy it and you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: This is one great DVD. Just watching "West Side Story" in widescreen with that gorgeous color would be good enough, but the DVD also provides lots of behind-the-scenes treats, including a fascinating documentary about the making of thte film, Natalie Wood's not-used vocal tracks and more. I have a new respect for this wonderful film now that I have seen how much preparation, thought and hard work went into it. It has to be the best musical film ever made, or at least in the top 10!
Rating: 
Summary: Special Limited Edition Better, but not perfect
Review: The Special Limited Edition (SLE) is a major improvement in sound quality. On the original DVD release, while supposedly sporting 5.1 sound, the rear speakers stay silent during almost the entire movie. Not so on the SLE version, which does a much better job of immersing you in the audio. If only I could say the same for the video transfer. I had high hopes when I read that the video transfer was new, and was disappointed when I saw that the picture on the SLE version was almost indistinguishable from the original DVD. The SLE version still displays some frame jitters and occasional motion artifacts, just like the original DVD, even on a progressive scan DVD player. The extra material is OK, but only a true diehard fan would be interested in reading the original script or the original lobby program guide. Much of the material is difficult to read, because of the small size of the book. So we will call it a hit and a miss. Still one of the greatest movies ever, and if you don't already own it, I highly recommend it. But if you already own the original DVD, I would be hard-pressed to justify spending an extra [money amount]for the small amounts of extra material and improvements in the SLE version.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE FEW MUSICALS THAT EVERYBODY CAN ENJOY.
Review: Let's face it: the Musical is a genre that the recent generations doesn't seem to enjoy very much, with some possible exceptions, like the more recent Films with songs and dances like "Chicago", "Moulin Rouge" or the Disney Films; however the classic Films of the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's doesn't seem to appeal to the youngsters; which is the reason? Perhaps they think that the musicals are too dated or are old-fashioned or for older people. However, this movie "West Side Story", will delight everybody. "West Side Story" is one of the best musicals around, a lot of people consider this movie the best of the genre; and there are a lot of reasons why this movie is considered a classic. The songs are great, the choreography is stunning, the actors / dancers are fantastic, the cinematography is flawless, the direction is almost perfect, etc. The story is not very complex, and perhaps it's a bit familiar, but that's not a bad thing because is told very well. In New York City there are two rival street gangs: The Jets (American teens), and The Sharks (Puerto Rican immigrants). Those two gangs are fighting to own the neighborhood. But the thing gets better when one of the Puerto Rican Girls (Maria), falls in love with one of the former Jets (Tony). Of course, this relationship is not well seen by both the Sharks and the Jets. So the two main episodes of "West Side Story" are the impossible love between Maria and Tony, and the bad blood between the two gangs. I think that one of the best things about "West Side Story" is that the movie was one of the first movies to introduce issues like the ridiculous racial hate, the intolerance to interracial love, and the reason why some kids become members of street gangs: the lack of love of their parents, "Our mothers are addicts and our fathers are drunks", claims one of the kids. And remember, this movie was released in 1961. Perhaps "West Side Story" has a couple of minor flaws: the running time is 151 min. Some scenes aren't very important and some of the songs go back to things that already have been established. Perhaps a 120 minutes running time could have been better. The other minor flaw (in my opinion, anyway) is that the acting sometimes feel a bit dated, but in a musical that's not the most important thing, the songs and dances are the main attractions, and in "West Side Story" are just great.
Rating:
Summary: A 70-millimeter delight!!
Review: I won't have any original commentary to add here after more than 170 reviews have passed already. But I will say this: I remember WSS on NBC network television from roughly 23 years ago. It ran so long (after being beefed up with commercials) that it had to be shown in 2 parts over two nights. I only saw it in the theater once- around the age of ten and forgot many of the visuals which were cut off on television. So let me just say that the smartest thing MGM-UA video could do is present a widescreen, Pan70mm, DVD. It has a gorgeous restored picture (important for things like the visual effects before the dance and the rumble, which saturate the screen with the color red), and pristine sound (it contains probably the most gorgeous Leonard Bernstein music ever to grace a film). There are many stage purists who scoff at the movie (and its many ghost singers), but I always thought the film's adaptation was superior to the stage show because it gave the story a more breathless, all-one-act pace. For instance, the stage show- which I have seen- has the rumble as the act one finale before the intermission. And I used to think to myself, "who's gonna want to see any more of the show after this?" The song "Cool" appears before the rumble and "I Feel Pretty" afterwards in the original libretto. I don't want to deter from the stage presentation at all, but its filmed counterpart is sublime, and has continued to bedazzle for 42 years. And the dancing, of course, is peerless-- whether it's the challenge dance at the Gym, the 'Cool' dance in the garage, or even the charming rooftop solo performed by Natalie Wood- radiant, in love, and bewitching in a white dress.
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