Spoiler Alert: A Shark By Any Other Name!

Movie: West Side Story

Rank: 51

Year: 1961

Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise

Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris

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No, you aren’t experiencing déjà vu. This is a different Robert Wise-directed film based on a Broadway musical featuring a leading lady named Maria to be released during the 1960s. This time, Wise is joined by Jerome Robbins, a complicated man we’ll have to unpack together, featuring the music of Stephen Sondheim.

Set against the backdrop of the 1950s Upper West Side, this modernized take on Romeo and Juliet sees the warring Capulet and Montague families replaced by rival street gangs. Our Romeo archetype is Tony, a former member of the all-white Jets and best friend to its leader, Riff. Juliet is now cast as the Puerto Rican Maria, younger sister to the protective leader of the Sharks, Bernardo. The role of the Nurse is now replaced by Anita, best friend to Maria and girlfriend to Bernardo.

I am not entirely sure West Side Story is suited for an adult woman to view for the first time in the year 2020. Before we deep dive into the reasons why, I think a couple definitions may come in handy.

white·wash

verb

(per Merriam-Webster)

to alter (something) in a way that favors, features, or caters to white people: such as

a. to portray (the past) in a way that increases the prominence, relevance, or impact of white people and minimizes or misrepresents that of nonwhite people

b. to alter (an original story) by casting a white performer in a role based on a nonwhite person or fictional character.

sus·pend (one’s) dis·be·lief

idiom

(per Merriam-Webster)

to allow oneself to believe that something is true even though it seems impossible

The social commentary in West Side Story of the inherent privilege of being white in the United States is both proven and undercut by its casting choices. Instead of hiring Hispanic actors to play Hispanic characters, we are instead treated to Natalie Wood, whose heritage is Russian, and George Chakiris, whose heritage is Greek, donning darkened makeup and fake accents. Anita, played by Rita Moreno in the role that would earn her the O in her EGOT*, is the only major character to be correctly portrayed by someone of Puerto Rican heritage. However, she too was forced to wear makeup to match the fake complexion of the other characters.

While it is impossible to not note the prevalence of whitewashing in Hollywood today, let alone in the 1960s, it is still a largely uncomfortable thing to witness. Feel free to cringe.

A topic with which film enthusiasts are currently grappling, does a film’s social failings undercut its importance in film history or even its ability to be enjoyed? Many have come down on the side of no, but the proper lens and context must be provided. Luckily for West Side Story, whitewashing is not its only shortcoming.

"Why do you kids live like there's a war on?"

- Doc, West Side Story

It goes without saying, given the blog’s name, that spoilers are amuck, amuck, amuck. (Since it’s October which is practically Halloween, I reserve the right to make a Hocus Pocus reference if I so choose.) But, just for the fact I am about to spoil the source material, here’s a heads up. If you have somehow managed to avoid learning the ending of Romeo and Juliet, I would love to get information on where you rented the rock you’re living under. It sounds like it might be a nice vacation during these “unprecedented times.” After much ado, here we go, any second now… Romeo and Juliet both die.

Translate that to the streets of New York. Our movie’s resolution sees our Juliet archetype miraculously surviving, this time crying over her Romeo as he lay dead from a Shark’s gunshot. Now, in Shakespeare’s play, the time between meeting and death is around four days.

West Side Story looked at the Shakespeare play and basically said, “Hold my beer!” Tony and Maria spot each other across the room at a dance, which ends with the police breaking up a gang dispute. The gang leaders meet later to decide on a “rumble,” while Tony sneaks off to sing with Maria on a fire escape. Despite Maria persuading Tony to prevent the rumble, it proceeds with Bernardo stabbing Riff and then Tony, in a fit of rage, stabbing Bernardo.

Yes, Maria’s boyfriend of a day has killed her brother during a fight he was sent to stop.

Let that soak in, sit with it for a moment. If I am to be blunt, it is some wild shit. Logically, singing and dancing gangs don’t rumble on the streets, with people painted the color of the race they are supposed to portray. Yet, the moment I could no longer suspend by disbelief was when Maria decided to abandon her entire family and friends to run away with her brother’s murderer the day after meeting him.

If I was 13 years old, the age of Shakespeare’s Juliet, would this seem more plausible? Or more romantic? Because, despite my brother being quite the annoyance at times, I just don’t see a world in which I willingly run off with his killer to live a life away from everyone I love after any time frame, let alone one day. *Snap* Back in reality.

In reality, the opening title lingered too long and established the movie’s overuse of the color red. While a strange line design eventually faded into the cityscape, we are greeted with a variety of bold colors. Red, famously used in the poster, is the color of the Sharks. It is the color of the dress Maria wanted to wear to the dance, the color of Bernardo’s shirt and an accent color of Maria’s tulle underskirt while she sings “America.” Red lights are featured to over-saturate the dance sequence and light everyone and everything leading up to the rumble. To express love or potentially the impending violence? The most notable use of color other than red is blue, the last color of the title sequence and highlighted in the intermission title card. Potentially the calm before the storms? Blue and Yellow are also the colors of the Jets. While there is surely a whole color theory behind the choices in the movie, it’s heavy handed use is rather distracting from the story.

“Bernardo was right, If one of you was lying in the street bleeding, I'd walk by and spit on you.”

- Anita, West Side Story

Here at Spoiler Alert, we stan Anita. Being the only one with any sense, she is heartbroken over her boyfriend’s death, but also being a ride or die for Maria agrees to relay a message to Tony while Maria speaks to the cops. Whilst trying to do so, she only avoids being raped by the Jets when the elderly, wise Doc intervenes. Surely traumatized and completely angry, she tells them Maria was killed. When Tony hears the news, he decides more murder is on the table tonight and chases after her supposed killer. They spot each other, but as our Romeo must, he is shot and dies. Inexplicably, Maria is left seemingly more heartbroken over her boo-thang than her brother.

Would it all be worth it if the songs hit the right way? I don’t know. Blame it on growing up in more of a Rodgers and Hammerstein household, but not all the songs do it for me. It should be noted that “America” required a slight rewrite to avoid how negatively it portrayed Puerto Rico. Other songs, like “Cool,” just don’t need to exist. However, it is nice to hear the origin of “I Feel Pretty,” which I attributed to Chandler’s dad in Friends during his Viva Las Gaygas drag show for a little too long.

While I am shocked the American Film Institute didn’t consult with me prior to releasing this list, we must look at the criteria, which includes historical significance. Rita Moreno spoke to AFI on this very topic when celebrating the film’s 50 year anniversary. Among the many rules she says the film broke was the very serious nature of this “American style operata” which featured scenes of violence, a departure from the movies like those of Fred Astaire. While many musicals feature beautiful costumes, Moreno said the boys’ looks were interesting, but ratty. Filling the shoes of the ratty gang members and other characters were men who had not hit great success, with Moreno calling the movie the true star before the great boom of Natalie Wood’s career.

Now, on that matter of Jerome Robbins, famed choreographer and co-director of West Side Story. In a PBS article written by Robbins’ biographer, Amanda Viall, it dives into his participation with The House Committee on Un-American Activities. As a former communist, he was pressured by the FBI to release names of other party members for fear of being exposed as a gay man. He would go on to approach the blacklisted Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurent about his idea for a musical Romeo and Juliet, eventually adding Stephen Sondheim. Their shared experience as Jewish-Americans led to the outsider narrative of Puerto Ricans in New York according to Laurents. Robbins reportedly made life a nightmare by fostering divisiveness amongst cast members and his perfectionist attitude on the movie set led to his dismissal. He would, however, go on to win the Tony and Oscar for his role.

Laurents told NPR, “I never said anything to Jerry until the show was frozen in Philadelphia. And then I told him I thought he was an immoral, indecent man. I don’t know how much it mattered to him.”

“All of you! You all killed him! And my brother, and Riff. Not with bullets, or guns, with hate. Well now I can kill, too, because now I have hate!”

- Maria, West Side Story

So, there you have it: a movie reimagining Romeo and Juliet while detailing the plight of Puerto Ricans in America as told by mostly white actors. Will I see Steven Speilberg’s remake despite not really vibing this movie? Let’s not lie, probably, I really like going to the movies.

*EGOT: Someone who has won an Emmy (television), Grammy (music), Oscar (film) and Tony Award (Broadway).