Rating: Summary: Timeless! Review: I love watching this movie as much today as I did when it first came out and I was only 12 years old!The music, dancing and story has always touched my heart.
Rating: Summary: A winner! Review: I have watched this movie eight times since first seeing it, and each time it just gets better and better! Natalie Wood (Maria) and the actors for Tony, Bernardo, Anita, Riff, and all the others are fantastic! It's obvious why West Side Story won so many Oscars. The musical score is fabulous, too, with really catchy songs like 'America,' 'Maria,' and 'Gee, Officer Krupke' which is my all time favorite! I also love the Jets theme song....
Rating: Summary: DOESNT THIS ReMIND OF A CLASSIC 1955 FILM Review: I left this movie with the feeling of fairness what i mean by this is this movie was obviously given toooooooo much credit and really deserved LITTLE.I felt this movie was a rip off of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.The knife fight sequence even the backround music that went with it,oh and casting natalie wood,as i was watching this movie,scences of REBEL kept flashing in my mind. i would have enjoyed this movie if it was ORGINAL!ENOUGH SAID!
Rating: Summary: WHEN YOUR'E A JET, YOUR'E A JET ALL THE WAY....... Review: If you know the movie, enough said.
Rating: Summary: Beautiful, lively, and a little dated. Review: Seldom will you see a movie that tries as hard as "West Side Story". Every scene jumps will color and motion and ostentatious evidence of an extraordinary meticulous pre-production. The studio obviously pulled out all stops to make an entertaining, Oscar-gathering movie. But this is also the movie's flaw (well, this and a largely bland leading couple): It looks like a late-50's, early 60's extravaganza, a perfectly oiled entertainment machine cleverly designed to obliterate any competition from television. It makes a spectacle of itself. This being said, it's a DVD to own because of the gorgeous colors, good songs and choreography, and imagination. I wish I'd seen it on the big screen. Also, the politics of the film are pleasingly, suprisingly progressive, dealing with racism and prejudice, which is a brave thing for the notoriously squemish Hollywood. It's got a lot more meat on its bones than, say, "Bye, Bye Birdie", another movie from the period that's shallow and flashy compared to "West Side". Incidentally, one of the co-directors is the smart Robert Wise, editor of "Citizen Kane" and director of the fine films "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Star Trek: The Movie". They don't make them like him anymore.
Rating: Summary: One of the all-time greats Review: There's not too much point in my writing a review of this movie, since everyone already knows it's great. But perhaps I have a slightly different slant on it, because I hate - and I mean, I absolutely HATE - musicals. I would have walked out of the Academy Award-winning "Oliver" if I hadn't promised my wife I'd sit through the entire thing. Probably my primary reason for hating musicals is that the music is always so out of character with the scenes and characterizations. If a movie is good, then the viewer experiences a temporary suspension of reality, in which he projects himself into the world of the movie, with all of its characters and moods. The effect of most songs in a musical is to jar that mood away and to destroy that illusion. For example, in "Oliver" a bunch of street urchins in Victorian England suddenly stop what they're doing and start dancing up and down the street singing, "Consider Yourself At Home". The scene is ridiculous on its face, and the viewer can never take those street urchins seriously again. For me this one difficulty destroys any chance I have of liking or even respecting almost any musical. But "West Side Story" is a shining and spectacular exception to the rule. Not only is the story a beautiful one (after all, you can't improve on Shakespeare), not only are the actors and actresses uniformly superb, but the music is so well integrated into the plot and the characterizations that it almost never becomes the jarring influence that it is in so many other films. When Tony sings "I've just met a girl named Maria", when Maria sings, "I Feel Pretty", when all of the groups of characters sing "Tonight, Tonight" in anticipation of the fateful evening - all of these are circumstances in which a real person would FEEL like singing. Instead of stopping the action dead in its tracks, the songs move things forward. Instead of rendering the personalities of the characters less believable, these songs reinforce the characterizations. Even as stand-alone pieces of music, the Bernstein-Sondheim score puts its competitors to shame. Has any song ever packed more social commentary into a believable and entertaining production piece than "Officer Krupke"? Has there ever been a better wedding song than "One Hand, One Heart"? What song has ever expressed more effectively and fervently the desire of two lovers for a better world and a better life than "There's A Place For Us"? I hate to use a cliche, but: It doesn't get any better than this.
Rating: Summary: The best muscial ever! Review: West Side Story is the greatest musical ever made in the history of American film. It will sweep you off your feet as it carries you through a tale of love, hate, music, and dancing. With the collabration of Leonard Bernstein's score, Stephen Sondheim's lyric's, Robert Wise's direction, and most important the choreography of Jerome Robbins with all of that combined into a musical will have an enormous effect on you the viewer. So if need to see great dancing, or just a musical consider West Side Story the movie you take home.
Rating: Summary: West Side Story Review Review: I first saw this movie because I was the only one in my Year 7 class that hadn't seen it.There was a certain ''revival'' for WEST SIDE STORY in 7x following a crush that a friend of mine had had on GEORGE CHAKIRIS whom she had seen in the movie not long ago.Being a 12-year-old FRIENDS fan I wasn't expecting much of a 39-year-old musical,but I gave in and persuaded my mother to let me rent it from the video shop. From the opening scene I was hooked.The musical quality of the movie impressed me greatly as did the actors,actresses and settings.The New York slums came alive for me and I could picture the Jets and the Sharks in my mind as if they were there with me.I was impressed also by the acting,as I mentioned,but was a little disappointed by NATALIE WOOD'S performance.She didn't seem right for the part of Maria,and I was dubious about her actual talent,but the others like RUSS TAMBLYN and RICHARD BEYMER made up for it.All in all a superb film....even better than TITANIC!
Rating: Summary: A Modern Heartbreaker Review: A modern heartbreaker, the Romeo and Juliet of the 60's,(90's?) West Side Story was quite entertaining. In celebration of our new DVD player, my family and I were watching some newly rented DVDs (West Side Story included) I once had to do a report on the life of Leonard Bernstein for school, and had never previously viewed West Side Story. After I watched it though, I thorughly(spelling?)enjoyed it.
Rating: Summary: Romeo & Juliet in 1960 NYC, timeless story, memorable songs! Review: Here is another successful transfer from stage to the silver screen. "West Side Story" is among the very best of all film adaptations of a Broadway Musical. -- The story of two young people from different ethnic backgrounds, whose love could never be is a modern-day version of Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet". The acting is genuine, the songs (even if mostly dubbed by professional Opera singers) are memorable, and the viewing experience as a whole is wonderful. The DVD has the widescreen version (a MUST for any epic film!) and brilliant colors. There are also several trailers and a booklet with more information about the film, as well as trivia questions. -- This is a true 5-star DVD! Enjoy!
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