When one thinks of 1960s movie musicals, usually the ones that come to mind are the ones now considered classics, like The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, and The Sound of Music. What these examples all have in common, possibly with the exception of The Sound of Music, is that they have not aged well. Or maybe they were never that great to begin with. I’d go so far as to say that they’re among the biggest reasons when most people hear “musical” they think of a lame, corny, sentimental love story supported by music that’s now painfully cliché. In short, they’ve created a limited image in people’s minds of what musicals are capable of, which is unfortunate.
West Side Story is different because it seems to know how ridiculous it is. It depicts a story about two rival gangs, and because attempting any sort of realism with the type of restrictions that would be imposed on an early 1960s film, it goes full-on absurd, figurative ballet in its story.
Arrested Development captured perfectly what it would be like for a gang of the type of gay dancers we see in this movie to actually step up to another gang in real life. But once you get over the absurdity, the music and dancing are quite gorgeous, the story a sweet re-imagining of the Romeo and Juliet narrative, and the look and experience of the whole film is pure fun. It even slips in some risqué stuff that showed it didn’t quite want to be like the other mainstream musicals of the 50s and 60s.
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