West Side Story

+Romeo and Juliet is updated to the tenements of New York City in this Oscar-winning musical landmark. Adapted by Ernest Lehman from the Broadway production, the movie opens with an overhead shot of Manhattan, an effect that director Robert Wise would repeat over the Alps in The Sound of Music four ...more

West Side Story is remarkable for its seamless transference from stage musical to screen classic, with the complete Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim song score intact, as well as the choreography of Jerome Robbins. The story, derived from +Romeo and Juliet, works on a symbolic rather than realistic level; there is no pretense that this is a true representation of what New York City gangs were like circa 1960. Veteran director Robert Wise is probably the person most responsible for the film's ...more