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West Side Story

File:West_Side_Story_1961_film_poster.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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West Side Story

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1961 film by Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins

OverviewAI-generated

West Side Story is a 1961 American musical, romance, drama, and crime film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The screenwriter was Ernest Lehman, with music composed by Leonard Bernstein. The cast includes Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, and Rita Moreno. Production was handled by Robert Wise, with United Artists and The Mirisch Company listed as production companies. The film was shot in New York City, which also serves as its narrative location.

The movie has a runtime of 153 minutes and was released on December 13, 1961. It was produced with a budget of 6,000,000 and generated 43,700,000 in revenue. The film received the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. It was also nominated for Best Film Editing. Viewers have rated the film 7.6 on IMDb and 7.231 on TMDb.

Synthesized by Vinony from 45 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, Firecrawl, IMDb, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film · TMDB

7.2

In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.

Released: 1961-12-13153 minDir: Jerome RobbinsCrime, Drama, RomanceBudget: $6.0MBox office: $43.7M

Cast

  • Natalie Wood as Maria
  • Richard Beymer as Tony
  • Russ Tamblyn as Riff
  • Rita Moreno as Anita
  • George Chakiris as Bernardo
  • Simon Oakland as Schrank

Themes

  • new york city
  • immigrant
  • showdown
  • street gang
  • slum
  • love at first sight
  • highway
  • forbidden love
  • musical
  • based on play or musical

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

Ratings

IMDb

7.6/10

127,821 votes

Year
1961
Runtime
153 min
Genres
Crime, Drama, Musical

via IMDb

Official website

Link to the official site · not written by Vinony

Wikidata facts

Instance of
film
Country of origin
United States
Original language
English language
Screenwriter
Ernest Lehman
Cast member
Eliot Feld
Producer
Robert Wise
Production company
The Mirisch Company
Cinematographer
Daniel L. Fapp
Narrative location
New York City
Filming location
New York City
Duration
150
FilmAffinity ID
687189
Distribution format
video on demand
Image
West Side Story 1961 film poster.jpg
Show 12 more facts
publication date
1961-00-00
film editor
Thomas Stanford
title
West Side Story
production designer
Boris Leven
distributed by
Netflix
Commons category
West Side Story (film)
capital cost
6000000
choreographer
Jerome Robbins
different from
West Side Story
assessment
Bechdel test
review score
86/100
Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~23 min read

Encyclopedic overview

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 an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same title, which in turn was inspired by Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris and was photographed by Daniel L. Fapp in Super Panavision 70. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Released on October 18, 1961, through United Artists, the film received praise from critics and viewers, and became the highest-grossing film of 1961. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including Best Picture (in addition to a special award for Robbins), becoming the record holder for the most wins for a musical. West Side Story is regarded as one of the greatest musical films of all time. The film was designated as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1997. A second film adaptation by Steven Spielberg was released in December 2021.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “West Side Story” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (8)