"Crazy! Cool! Go!". No normally the words that you sing after you where apart of a double murder. However, the Jet's did just that in the 1961 Best Picture West Side Story. The concept of the story is be have been a modernized Romeo and Juliet, the story ended up being loosely based off the original story. The biggest change is that the film is a musical. The story is set on Manhattan Island in New York. There are two rival gangs constantly fighting over the small amount of turf that they have. The Jets and the Sharks can not stand the sites of each other. The area that they live in is so small, however, they can barely turn around and see someone from the other gang there. The Jets finally had enough of the Sharks and they want a war counsel to settle this fight once and for all. Everything is going according to plan, they gangs chose the best hand to hand fighter in each group and that was going to settle who was going to rule the turf! That is until Tony, the one time leader of the Jets, falls in love with Maria, the little sister of Bernardo the leader of the Sharks. Tony does everything he can to try and stop the fight and ends up taking the fight farther than anyone expected.
West Side Story was originally a play that had a very hard time getting off the ground. It took a lot of faith for the play to be made. Right before they were getting West Side Story into production the producers play they were showing was going into the dirt. The backers backed out or West Side Story and it was almost never made. During that time no one ever thought that the play would turn into a United Artist musical film. Certainly, no one thought that film would not only win the Best Picture but to hold the record, even to this day, for winning a total of 10 Academy Awards. In order to take home the top award West Side Story beat out: United Artists' Judgment at Nuremberg; Warner Brothers' Fanny, Columbia's The Guns of Navarone; and 20th Century Fox's The Hustler. For it's merits, West Side Story was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1997.
This film has always had a special place in my heart. When I first experienced it I fell in love with the music. I was a little young to totally understand the storyline, but I enjoyed watching it. Now, that I have grown up and understand what is really happening more, I feel way more connected to the film. Which made me appreciate the film that much more. This strongly touching story is one that needs to be experience as often as you can. The music is the best part of the film. Every song can get stuck in you head at any moment. You find that yourself thinking that "that song was so good there is no way any other song can be any better". Yet, somehow they make the next song even better. When musicals are made they rarely get very emotional or dark at all. Musical are fairly light when it comes to the story. However, when a musical can make you feel a range of all emotions in a matter of hours, and do it in such a way that makes you want to experience it again, is something only magic is made of. That is one of the many reasons that his film not only won Best Picture, but also has become such a classic is today's day and age.
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