It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris and was photographed by Daniel L. Fapp in Super Panavision 70.
Maria waits for Tony on the roof of her apartment building; her fiancé Chino (an arranged engagement) arrives and tells her what happened.
Schrank and Krupke arrive to arrest Chino, and the gangs end their feud by uniting to carry Tony's body away in a funeral procession with Maria following.
Executive producer Walter Mirisch enlisted the services of Jerome Robbins, who had directed and choreographed the stage version of West Side Story.
[7] Robbins directed his portion of the film first, spending a great deal of time on retakes and on-set rehearsals as well as discussing setups with Wise.
[16] Although Robbins pushed for 29-year-old Carol Lawrence, the first Maria, to be cast in the same role in the film, after seeing her screen test the producers agreed she was too old to play the part.
Tucker Smith, who joined the Broadway production several months into its run, played Diesel, renamed Ice for the film.
Reprising their stage roles in the film were Carole D'Andrea as Velma, Tommy Abbott as Gee-Tar, and William Bramley as Officer Krupke.
[17] Others who were considered for the part included Russ Tamblyn,[18] Warren Beatty, Burt Reynolds, Anthony Perkins, Bobby Darin, Troy Donahue, Marlon Brando, Richard Chamberlain, and Robert Redford.
However, after seeing a clip from Splendor in the Grass, the producers decided his co-star Wood was perfect for Maria, but Beatty was not suitable for the role of Tony.
[21] Jill St. John, Audrey Hepburn, Diane Baker, Elizabeth Ashley, Suzanne Pleshette and Angela Dorian were among the many actresses who were considered for the role of Maria in the film.
[19][22] Thomas Stanford won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on West Side Story.
The site's critical consensus states: "Buoyed by Robert Wise's dazzling direction, Leonard Bernstein's score, and Stephen Sondheim's lyrics, West Side Story remains perhaps the most iconic of all the Shakespeare adaptations to visit the big screen".
[31] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that "moving [the story] from stage to screen is to reconstruct its fine material into nothing short of a cinema masterpiece".
[32] Whitney Williams of Variety was also effusive, writing: "Technically, it is superb; use of color is dazzling, camera work often is thrilling, editing fast with dramatic punch, production design catches mood as well as action itself".
[34] By contrast, Pauline Kael derided the film as "frenzied hokum", decrying that the dialogue was "painfully old-fashioned and mawkish" and the dancing was a "simpering, sickly romantic ballet".
When the giant-sized, tear-stained faces of a desolated boy and girl fill the entire front of a theater, it seems incongruous for these young lovers to break into song.
It's a cleverly stylized and dramatized depiction of a bloody story which probably will appeal most to those who like lengthy musicals, and to the younger generation who are fascinated by 'rumbles'.
"[36] Writing in 2004, Roger Ebert included the film in his list of "Great Movies": "So the dancing is remarkable, and several of the songs have proven themselves by becoming standards, and there are moments of startling power and truth.
But if the drama had been as edgy as the choreography, if the lead performances had matched Moreno's fierce concentration, if the gangs had been more dangerous and less like bad-boy Archies and Jugheads, if the ending had delivered on the pathos and tragedy of the original, there's no telling what might have resulted".
[38] West Side Story won 10 Academy Awards, making it the musical film with the most Oscar wins (including Best Picture).
That show had been orchestrated for roughly 30 musicians; for the movie, United Artists allowed them triple that, including six saxophone parts, eight trumpets, five pianos and five xylophones.
Though mentioned in earlier scripts, the "Somewhere" dream ballet was not well defined for the film and was put on the back burner for Robbins to conceive and execute towards the end of shooting.
She found the songs challenging, but was allowed to film her scenes lip-synching to her own vocals and was led to believe that these versions would be used, although music supervisors Saul Chaplin and Johnny Green had already decided to use Marni Nixon's voice.
Tucker Smith, who played Ice, dubbed the singing voice of Riff in "Jet Song", instead of Russ Tamblyn.
[55] In 2009, photographer Mark Seliger re-created scenes from the film for magazine Vanity Fair called West Side Story Revisited, using Camilla Belle as Maria, Ben Barnes as Tony, Jennifer Lopez as Anita, Rodrigo Santoro as Bernardo and Chris Evans as Riff.
Portraying the Sharks are Minka Kelly, Jay Hernandez, Natalie Martinez, Brandon T. Jackson and Melonie Diaz.
Portraying the Jets are Ashley Tisdale, Sean Faris, Robert Pattinson, Cam Gigandet, Trilby Glover, Brittany Snow and Drake Bell.
[59] A second film adaptation of the musical was released by 20th Century Studios on December 10, 2021,[60] directed by Steven Spielberg and choreographed by Justin Peck, with a screenplay by Tony Kushner.
[61] It stars Ansel Elgort as Tony, Rachel Zegler as Maria and Ariana DeBose as Anita; Moreno returns as a new character, Valentina, who is Doc's widow.