West Side Story is on every list of great musicals, and it deserves to be, but not evenly. Parts of it are extraordinary and parts of it have dated. Knowing which is which makes it a better watch.
The extraordinary part
The opening. Before a word is spoken, the film establishes an entire social geography through movement — who owns which block, who is tolerated, who is passing through. Jerome Robbins’ choreography does the work that twenty minutes of dialogue would otherwise do, and it does it better.
America is the other high point, and it is the smartest thing in the film: an argument about immigration, opportunity and self-deception, staged as a competitive dance number, with both sides landing real points.
What has dated
The romantic leads are the weakest element, which is a structural problem when the film is a romance. Tony in particular is written as a vessel rather than a person.
The casting and the dubbing of several roles are genuinely difficult now, and the film does not get a pass on it. Watching it with that acknowledged is better than watching it pretending otherwise.
The score
Bernstein and Sondheim, early Sondheim, and you can hear him working out what he would later do properly. The lyrics in Gee, Officer Krupke are doing something no musical comedy number had really tried: making a joke out of institutional failure without letting anyone off.
Watch it if
You want the film that proved a musical could be tragic and modern at once. Go in knowing the leads are the weak link and the ensemble is the point.
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