Picture 34: West Side Story (1961)

34 years into the project and we visit 1950s gangland Manhattan. Leonard Bernstein’s music meets Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics to create one of the famous musicals of all time. With a plot inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, it was the highest grossing film of 1961 and collected 10 Academy Awards. An impressive CV but can it deliver on this, the greatest stage of all? Lol

Instead of the Montagues and the Capulets, we have the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. Tony (Richard Beymer) sings the equivalent of Romeo whilst Maria (Natalie Wood) is Juliet. The teenage gangs brawl, irritate the NYPD and make use of misplaced testosterone. They’re young and innocent enough and obviously won’t start using lethal weapons, or will they? Whilst this wasteful turf war is raging, Tony and Maria start to fancy each other.

Be prepared for endless finger clicking and pirouettes by supposed tough guys who also fitted ballet school into their gangland upbringings. There’s also some now very famous songs to enjoy, flash mob dancing and some Shakespearean, loved up teenagers.

Once you get used to it, the tragedy of perilous youthful love is majestically portrayed through the medium of choice. Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood will move even the most frozen of hearts with their rendition of “Somewhere” and you’ll do well to keep your eyes dry for the full 152 minutes.

It doesn’t quite do enough to challenge the elite few but it is, nonetheless, a very entertaining picture. It easily deserves to be the highest scoring musical so far and lands in a respectful 10th place. Well done Leonard.

Rating: 8/10

Reflections:

1.     The natural end point of escalating physical violence is death.

2.    The beauty of romantic love is partially in its ensuing loss of reason.

Oscar Best Picture Rankings:

1. Casablanca (1943)

2. The Apartment (1960)

3. Rebecca (1940)

4. Ben-Hur (1959)

5. Lost Weekend (1945)

6. All About Eve (1950)

7. Hamlet (1948)

8. How Green Was My Valley (1941)

9. Gone With the Wind (1939)

10. West Side Story (1961)

11. Mrs. Miniver (1942)

12. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

13. Wings (1928)

14. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

15. You can’t take it with you (1938)

16. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

17. On the Waterfront (1954)

18. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

19. Marty (1955)

20. Cimarron (1931)

21. Grand Hotel (1932)

22. An American in Paris (1951)

23. From Here to Eternity (1953)

24. It Happened One Night (1934)

25. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

26. Cavalcade (1933)

27. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

28. Going My Way (1944)

29. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

30. All the King’s Men (1949)

31. Gigi (1958)

32. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

33. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

34. The Broadway Melody (1929)

Previous or current ranking leaders are in bold.

With credit and thanks to the patrons of the Best Picture Film Club:

Dr Sophie Bloomfield

Dr Caspar Briault

Dr Kate Diomede

Dr Fionnuala Durrant

Dr Hannah Morrison

Dr Meera Radia