West Side Story is a musical directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. It is an adaptation of the broadway musical which the film came out to be a success. West Side Story won ten Academy Awards including Best Picture. This film has a list of talanted actors and actresses who play very important role. This film about two lovers who society will say don't belong with each other. Tony played by the hunky Richard Beymer is an ex gang leader for the Jets. He instantly falls in love with Maria played by the beautiful Natalie Wood who is the younger sister of the Jets rival gang leader, the Sharks. You can see both groups dislike for each other during the first scene where they battle it out for the territory. Riff who is the leader of the Jets wants to get back at the Sharks so he and his gang want to start a rumble against the Sharks where they fight to win the "turf". Tony and Maria do not meet until the dance where you can see seperation between the Jets and Shark. When their eyes finally meet they are attracted to each other and start to talk only to have Maria's older brother Bernardo or Nardo to seperate them. With totally different background, Tony and Maria must find a way to have each other with the idea that no one will ever understand that.
One thing I enjoyed most was the acting. The two hours watching this movie was totally worth it. West Side Story really deserves praise and awards that was given. All the singing and dancing throughout the movie showed some very talanted people. One character, Natalie Wood, who plays Maria really impressed me. Wood was born on July 20, 1938 in California. She started working in the film industry at the age of 5 and is also known for her role in Rebel without a Cause. Watching Rebel without a Cause last year in American Literature both her characters connected by being part of a gang. Also both characters includes the love for the one member of the opposing gang. I believe that Woods was a perfect person for the part of Maria. Her performance really shined throughout the musicl, espeically when there was danicng and singing. With that I would have to say the choreography really hit the mark and was flawless. Also the acting of Wood seem to come naturally. There was so many different emotions in this film which Wood captured. I really felt her happiness when she's with Tony and her heart broken when Tony dies in her arms.
Maria's love Tony is played by actor Richard Beymer. Beymer was born Feburary 20, 1938 in Iowa. He is also known in films inluding Diary of Anne Frank and of course, West Side Story. I also thought Beymer made great efforts to really bring out the Tony in him! Beymer was chosen for this part because of his passion throughou the film. You go on a journey with Beymer in West Side Story. I fell in love with his character because of the things he tried to do for love. Watching Tony made me realize that Tony and Maria really made the movie complete.
Other characters included Anita, friend of Maria and girlfriend of Bernado. She is played by Rita Moreno who became the first female and only Puerto Rican to win an Emmy, Oscar, Tony and Grammy!
Bernardo, played by George Chakiris, had huge success with this movie. Chakiris is a dancer won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor he also won a Grammy.
Overall I really enojyed this musical and it sets itself apart from other recent musicals like High School Musical and others like Chicago and Grease. I thought the characters did superb and applaud them for the singing and dancing!
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