West Side Story (1961)
In the slums of the upper West Side of Manhattan, New York, a gang of Polish-American teenagers called the Jets compete with a rival gang of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans, the Sharks, to "own" the neighborhood streets. Tensions are high between the gangs but two romantics, one from each gang, fall in love leading to tragedy.
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Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
A different way of telling a story
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
The acting & movement even the dancing all seems rather forced and has certainly not aged well, in fact it looks as if it's on a Broadway or West End stage, which of course it was, rather than a movie. "Somewhere" is still a great song though
West Side Story is the most overrated movie in history. It's cheesy, unromantic and messy. There are several stories and only one is interesting. The characters are poorly developed and rather annoying. Yes, this movie is well directed and grand, but that's it. The movie is long, boring and uninteresting. I was begging for the movie to end.
Whether it's the love story or the singing and dancing that makes this an amazing movie, this is a must watch. As it is very important and still relevant to today's world and the views between two people that come from different backgrounds. But, this is as musical as you could get, you can tell by the acting that they are trying to make it more like a Broadway show than a movie. But, I think this a definite good thing because it opened a floodgate to so much more like this and that's why it's a must see. Overall, I thought the way they dressed was accurate to stereotype portrayed and the time it is set during. The movie was very flowy and easy to follow along and kept you interested with the good songs and dancing.
I really like the Shawshank Redemption. It was a very good movie. However it is not in the same universe as West Side Story (and many other movies prior to 1961). West Side Story is certainly one of the best musicals of all time, maybe the best. As such it is on a higher plane than most movies ever made. The music is from Leonard Bernstein, maybe the best American composer ever. It was ground-breaking film.Also it was the first major film that dealt with cultural issues that we are still dealing with today. So West Side Story was an amazing, enduring movie with wonderful music. I don't think you can ask for better than that.