West Side Story is a 1961 American musical romantic drama film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, written by Ernest Lehman, and produced by Wise. The film is based on the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which was inspired by Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. It features Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris in leading roles. The film was photographed using a special camera technique called Super Panavision 70. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, and the lyrics were written by Stephen Sondheim.

Released on October 18, 1961, through United Artists, the film received praise from critics and audiences and became the most successful film of 1961 in terms of money earned. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including Best Picture and a special award for Jerome Robbins. This made it the record holder for the most Academy Awards won by a musical film. West Side Story is considered one of the greatest musical films of all time. The Library of Congress named it as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and it was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1997 for preservation. A second version of the film, directed by Steven Spielberg, was released in December 2021.

Plot

In 1957, two groups of teenagers in New York City compete for control on the Upper West Side. The Jets, a group of white teenagers led by Riff, fight with the Sharks, a group of Puerto Rican teenagers led by Bernardo. Lieutenant Schrank and Officer Krupke arrive and stop the fight. The Jets challenge the Sharks to a big fight that will happen after an upcoming dance.

Riff wants his best friend Tony, a former member of the Jets, to fight in the big fight. Riff invites Tony to the dance, but Tony says he feels something important is about to happen. Riff suggests it might happen at the dance. Tony agrees to go. Meanwhile, Bernardo’s younger sister, Maria, tells her best friend Anita, who is also Bernardo’s girlfriend, how excited she is about the dance.

At the dance, the two groups and their friends do not mix. Tony arrives and quickly falls in love with Maria, but Bernardo angrily tells Tony to stay away from her and sends Maria home. Riff suggests meeting Bernardo at Doc’s drug store at midnight to discuss the rules for the big fight.

Anita says Bernardo is too protective of Maria, and they talk about life in Puerto Rico and the United States. Tony sneaks onto Maria’s fire escape, and they confirm their love. Krupke, who thinks the Jets are planning something, warns them not to cause trouble. The Sharks arrive, and the groups agree to a showdown the next evening under a highway, with a one-on-one fight. When Schrank arrives, the groups pretend to be friends. Schrank tells the Sharks to leave and does not find out about the fight.

The next day, at the bridal shop where they work, Anita accidentally tells Maria about the big fight. Tony arrives to see Maria. Anita warns them about the problems if Bernardo learns about their relationship. Maria asks Tony to stop the fight. Tony and Maria imagine their wedding.

The groups gather under the highway. Tony arrives to stop the fight, but Bernardo insults Tony. Riff starts a fight with a knife to protect Tony. Tony stops the fight, and Bernardo kills Riff with a knife. Tony kills Bernardo with Riff’s knife, and a fight breaks out. Police sirens sound, and everyone runs, leaving the bodies behind. Maria waits for Tony on the roof of her apartment. Her fiancé, Chino (from an arranged marriage), arrives and tells her what happened. Tony arrives and asks for Maria’s forgiveness. He plans to turn himself in to the police. Maria is very sad but says she still loves Tony and asks him to stay.

The Jets, now led by Ice, meet outside a garage to plan how to deal with the police. Anybodys warns them that Chino is looking for Tony with a gun. Ice sends the Jets to warn Tony. A sad Anita enters the apartment while Tony and Maria are in the bedroom. The lovers plan to meet at Doc’s to get money to run away together. Anita sees Tony leaving through the window and scolds Maria for being with Bernardo’s killer. Maria convinces Anita to help them run away. Schrank arrives and asks Maria about the fight. Maria sends Anita to tell Tony she cannot meet him.

When Anita reaches Doc’s, the Jets treat her unfairly and stop only when Doc appears. Anita lies and says Chino killed Maria. Doc tells the Jets to leave, gives Tony the money, and sends Anita’s message. Tony runs into the streets, shouting for Chino to kill him too. At a playground near Doc’s, Tony sees Maria, and they run toward each other, but Chino shoots Tony. The groups arrive to find Maria holding Tony, who dies in her arms. Maria takes the gun from Chino and blames the groups’ hatred for the deaths, but she cannot shoot them. Schrank and Krupke arrive to arrest Chino, and the groups end their fight by carrying Tony’s body away in a funeral procession, with Maria following.

Cast

• Natalie Wood as Maria, Bernardo's younger sister and Chino's arranged fiancée, who falls in love with Tony. Marni Nixon provides Maria's singing voice and also sings for Anita in Quintet.
• Richard Beymer as Tony, a co-founder and former member of the Jets and best friend of Riff. He works at Doc's drugstore and falls in love with Maria. Jimmy Bryant provides Tony's singing voice.
• Russ Tamblyn as Riff, leader of the Jets and best friend of Tony. Tucker Smith provides Riff's singing voice for "Jet Song."
• Rita Moreno as Anita, Bernardo's girlfriend and Maria's closest friend. Betty Wand and Marni Nixon provide Anita's singing voices for "A Boy Like That" and "Tonight Quintet."
• George Chakiris as Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, older brother of Maria, and Anita's boyfriend.
• Simon Oakland as Lieutenant Schrank, a tough and strict plainclothes detective.
• Ned Glass as Doc, Tony's boss; a kind and honest elderly Jewish drugstore owner.
• William Bramley as Sergeant Krupke, a rough-tempered police officer (Bramley played this role in the original Broadway production).
• John Astin as Glad Hand, a well-meaning but ineffective social worker.
• Penny Santon as Madam Lucia, owner of a bridal shop.

Production

Executive producer Walter Mirisch hired Jerome Robbins, who had directed and choreographed the stage version of West Side Story. Because Robbins had no experience in films, Mirisch also hired Robert Wise to co-direct and produce the film. Wise was chosen for his experience with difficult topics and his ability to finish films on time and under budget. Robbins was responsible for directing the musical scenes, while Wise handled the dramatic parts of the story. Robbins directed his scenes first, spending much time on retakes, rehearsals, and discussing setups with Wise. Assistant director Robert Relyea noted that many dancers suffered injuries during filming. After 45 days of shooting, the film was 24 days behind schedule and over budget. Wise then removed Robbins from the project, and the remaining dance scenes were directed by Robbins’s assistants. Despite this, Wise acknowledged Robbins’s creative contributions and gave him co-directing credit. Robbins and Wise continued to communicate, and Wise used many of Robbins’s suggestions during the film’s editing. The titles and end credits were designed by Saul Bass and Elaine Makatura Bass. Bass was credited as a visual consultant for creating the opening sequence over the film’s overture.

Filming for the “Prologue” and “Jet Song” took place in two locations in Manhattan, New York. A playground at East 110th Street (now Tito Puente Way) between 2nd and 3rd Avenues was used to show the two gangs. West 68th Street between West End and Amsterdam Avenues, near the San Juan Hill community, added realism to the setting. The Samuel Goldwyn Studio in West Hollywood, California, was used for rehearsals and studio filming.

Although Robbins wanted 29-year-old Carol Lawrence, the original Maria on stage, to play Maria in the film, the producers decided she was too old after reviewing her screen test. Many actors from the Broadway and West End productions were cast in the film. Tony Mordente, who played A-Rab on stage, was cast as Action. George Chakiris, who played Riff in the London production, played Bernardo. Tucker Smith, who joined the Broadway cast later, played Diesel, renamed Ice for the film. David Winters, the first Baby John on stage, played A-Rab. Eliot Feld, an ensemble member and understudy for Baby John on Broadway, played Baby John. Jay Norman, who played Juano on stage, appeared as Pepe. Carole D’Andrea, Tommy Abbott, and William Bramley reprised their stage roles as Velma, Gee-Tar, and Officer Krupke, respectively.

Elvis Presley was considered for the role of Tony, but his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, refused the part. Other actors considered for Tony included Russ Tamblyn, Warren Beatty, Burt Reynolds, Anthony Perkins, Bobby Darin, Troy Donahue, Marlon Brando, Richard Chamberlain, and Robert Redford. Reynolds was thought to be too tough for the role, and Chamberlain was considered too mature. Tamblyn impressed Wise and was cast as Riff. Richard Beymer won the role of Tony despite having no singing or dancing experience.

Natalie Wood was filming Splendor in the Grass with Warren Beatty and had a romantic relationship with him off-screen. At the time, the producers were not considering her for Maria. When considering Beatty for Tony, Wise requested a reel of his work. After seeing a clip from Splendor in the Grass, the producers decided Wood was perfect for Maria, but Beatty was not suitable for Tony. Other actresses considered for Maria included Jill St. John, Audrey Hepburn, Diane Baker, Elizabeth Ashley, Suzanne Pleshette, and Angela Dorian.

Thomas Stanford won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on West Side Story. The film was ranked as the 38th best-edited film of all time in a 2012 survey by the Motion Picture Editors Guild. Critics have praised the film’s dance sequences. In Louis Giannetti’s textbook Understanding Movies, he wrote: “Musicals are often edited in a style that is very different from regular dramas. The editing of West Side Story is very abstract. The music and dance numbers are edited together for artistic impact, not to move the story forward. The scenes are not connected by themes but are placed next to each other for beauty and movement, like a music video.” Roger Ebert also highlighted the film’s dance sequences as extraordinary. Robbins worked with Stanford, Wise, and Walter Mirisch during the editing of the musical numbers. Robbins advised Stanford that the editing should show characters’ emotions, even if it affected the dancing. However, Giannetti noted that Robbins’s suggestions did not strongly influence the final cuts of the dance scenes.

Reception

West Side Story is considered one of the best musical movies ever made. It has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 116 reviews, with an average score of 8.4 out of 10. The site’s summary says: "Helped by Robert Wise’s excellent direction, Leonard Bernstein’s music, and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics, West Side Story remains one of the most famous film versions of Shakespeare’s plays." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave the film a score of 86 out of 100, based on 17 critics, showing that it received "universal acclaim."

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said, "Moving the story from stage to screen is to turn its strong material into a cinema masterpiece." Whitney Williams of Variety wrote: "The film is technically excellent; the use of color is amazing, the camera work is exciting, the editing is fast and dramatic, and the set designs match the mood and action." Arthur Knight from Saturday Review called it a "triumphant work of art." A review in The Hollywood Reporter said, "It is a magnificent show, a milestone in movie musicals, and a box-office success. It is so good that superlatives are unnecessary. The film musical, a form that is uniquely American and Hollywood, has never been done better." In contrast, Pauline Kael criticized the film, calling it "frenzied hokum" and saying the dialogue was "painfully old-fashioned" and the dancing was "simpering and sickly." In 1962, Mae Tinee of The Chicago Tribune gave a mixed review. She praised the cast, cinematography, dancing, and script but wrote: "Sometimes, the big screen is a disadvantage. When the large, tear-stained faces of the young lovers fill the screen, it feels odd for them to sing. Some music is fresh and bright, but some is repetitive. All cast members dance very well. It is a cleverly styled and dramatized version of a violent story that may appeal most to fans of long musicals and younger audiences who enjoy 'rumbles.' Older viewers may find it sad."

In 2004, Roger Ebert included the film in his list of "Great Movies," writing: "The dancing is remarkable, and several songs have become classics. There are moments of powerful truth. West Side Story remains a landmark in musical history. However, if the drama had been as intense as the choreography, if the lead actors had matched Moreno’s strong focus, if the gangs had been more dangerous, and if the ending had shown the sadness and tragedy of the original, the film might have been even greater."

West Side Story was a commercial success when it was released. It became the highest-grossing film of 1961, earning $19,645,000 in rentals in the United States and Canada. It remained the highest-grossing musical film until The Sound of Music was released in 1965. The film earned $44.1 million worldwide, which equals $475 million in 2025. Because of profit-sharing agreements, United Artists earned a profit of only $2.5 million on the film, which equals $27 million in 2025.

Accolades

West Side Story won 10 Academy Awards, making it the musical film with the most Oscar wins, including Best Picture. It was the first movie to have two directors share the Best Director award, with Wise winning in both the Best Picture and Best Director categories.

The American Film Institute lists:
• AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies – #41
• AFI's 100 Years…100 Passions – #3
• AFI's 100 Years…100 Songs: "Somewhere" – #20, "America" – #35, "Tonight" – #59
• AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – #2
• AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #51

The movie's cast was honored during the 50th anniversary celebration at the 2011 Ventura Film Festival.

Score and soundtrack

Leonard Bernstein was not happy with the music arrangement for the movie, which was done by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal. These two had arranged the music for the original Broadway show, which used about 30 musicians. For the movie, United Artists allowed them to use three times as many musicians, including six saxophones, eight trumpets, five pianos, and five xylophones. Bernstein thought the music was too loud and not detailed enough.

Stephen Sondheim, who disliked the order of songs in the Broadway version, changed the sequence. He moved "Gee, Officer Krupke" to be sung before the rumble instead of after, and "I Feel Pretty" was also moved to before the rumble. The song "America" was placed between the love songs "Maria" and "Tonight" instead of having the two love songs played one after the other. The "Somewhere" dream ballet, which was mentioned in earlier scripts, was not clearly planned for the film and was delayed until near the end of filming. When the choreographer, Bob Fosse, left the project halfway through, the dance sequence was removed. "Somewhere" was instead sung by Tony and Maria in her bedroom. Some repeated parts of songs, like in "One Hand, One Heart" and "A Boy Like That," were not included. Some lyrics were changed to avoid being censored, especially in "Jet Song," "Gee, Officer Krupke," "America," and the "Tonight Quintet." A line between Riff and Tony, "womb to tomb, sperm to worm," was changed to "womb to tomb, birth to earth," and another line between Riff and Diesel in the Quintet was changed to "one-two-three, one-two-three."

As stated in her contract, Natalie Wood recorded her songs first and let the production team decide if her voice would be used. She found the songs difficult but believed her recorded versions would be used. However, music supervisors Saul Chaplin and Johnny Green had already chosen to use Marni Nixon's voice instead. Wood's voice was only heard during the reprise of "Somewhere" when Tony dies. Even though Nixon recorded songs with Wood in the same sessions, she had to re-record them to match Wood's filmed scenes. The song "One Hand, One Hand" had to be re-recorded because Wood's lip-syncing was not good enough. When Nixon learned she was not signed to the recording and asked for a share of the album profits, she was told all shares were already given. Bernstein gave Nixon 0.25% of his album royalties, which became a standard for future "ghost singers."

Michael Bolling's singing was performed by Jimmy Bryant. Tucker Smith, who played Ice, provided Riff's singing voice in "Jet Song" instead of Russ Tamblyn. Tamblyn's voice was used in "Gee, Officer Krupke" and the "Quintet." Rita Moreno's voice was replaced by Betty Wand in "A Boy Like That" because the song required a lower pitch than Moreno could sing. However, Moreno sang her own voice in "America." Marni Nixon sang some of Moreno's parts in the "Quintet" when Moreno was sick. Wand was also sick on the day of the final recording, so Nixon recorded Anita's vocal line as well.

For the 50th anniversary of the film's 1961 release, a version of the music closer to the Broadway show was created by Garth Edwin Sunderland from the Leonard Bernstein Office. This version was performed live at movie screenings with the original vocals kept. The score's New York City premiere was held at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall (called Avery Fisher Hall at the time), built on the original film locations, which were demolished during a city project in the late 1950s.

Legacy

A scene in the 1965 French movie Gendarme in New York copies West Side Story.

In 2009, photographer Mark Seliger recreated scenes from West Side Story for Vanity Fair magazine in a project titled West Side Story Revisited. The project used Camilla Belle as Maria, Ben Barnes as Tony, Jennifer Lopez as Anita, Rodrigo Santoro as Bernardo, and Chris Evans as Riff. The Sharks were played by Minka Kelly, Jay Hernandez, Natalie Martinez, Brandon T. Jackson, and Melonie Diaz. The Jets were played by Ashley Tisdale, Sean Faris, Robert Pattinson, Cam Gigandet, Trilby Glover, Brittany Snow, and Drake Bell.

West Side Story influenced Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and “Bad” music videos. The first video features Jackson as a peacemaker between two rival gangs, paying tribute to his favorite film.

2021 film

A second film version of the musical was released by 20th Century Studios on December 10, 2021. Steven Spielberg directed the film, and Justin Peck choreographed it. Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay. The film stars Ansel Elgort as Tony, Rachel Zegler as Maria, and Ariana DeBose as Anita. Moreno returns in the film as Valentina, who is Doc's widow. The film was nominated for seven awards at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It won one Oscar for Ariana DeBose's performance.