Realities of West Side Story
Filmed in 1961, West Side Story is a modern-day telling of Romeo and Juliet. Two youths struggle with their forbidden love as two gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, duel. At the end of the film, Maria says, “You all killed him […] with hate!” This is a universally acknowledged theme that hate can kill. West Side Story is said to be a “morality play about “our” everyday problems: racism, poverty, and the destructiveness of violence” .
Shortly after 1949 had been rung in, Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins were already hard at work. Robbins had called with an idea of “a modern version of Romeo and Juliet set in slums […].” The original idea called for dissention between Jews and Catholics during Easter-Passover celebrations. The Capulets, i.e. Juliet, are Jewish; the Montagues, i.e. Romeo, are Catholics. Friar Lawrence will become the neighborhood druggist. The general idea was to create a successful musical that tells a tragic story in a musical comedy. With the suggestion of Arthur Laurents writing the book by Robbins, the idea becomes more of a reality . The New York Times printed an article in later that month with the headline of ‘Romeo to receive musical styling.’ An obstacle they faced was the family versus religion oriented story they were now creating – which would stray from the original Romeo and Juliet theme. The musical was put on the back burner of all but Robbins’ mind
New York circa 1950 to 1960, when the film would take place, was full of gang violence and juvenile delinquents. Arthur Laurents, and Leonard Bernstein had been meeting up, trying to collaborate on a work which would end up falling through. Spying a Los Angeles Times headline on gang violence in 1955 be...
... middle of paper ...
...r, Chino takes it upon himself to kill Tony .
Bibliography
Bernstein, Leonard, and Arthur Laurents. West Side story: a musical. New York: Random House, 1958.
Berson, Misha. Something's Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination. Milwaukee, WI: Applause Theatre & Cinema, 2011. Print.
Negron-Muntaner, F. "Feeling Pretty: WEST SIDE STORY AND PUERTO RICAN IDENTITY DISCOURSES." Social Text 18.2 63 (2000): 83-106. Print.
Sandoval Sanchez, Alberto. ""West Side Story" by Alberto Sandoval Sanchez." JUMP CUT: A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA. Jump Cut, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Simeone, Nigel. Leonard Berstein, West Side Story. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. Print.
Wells, Elizabeth Anne. West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2011. Print.
West Side Story. Film. : Metro Golden Mayer, 1961.
This film, directed by former gang- member Cle Sloan, shows how racism between whites and blacks during the civil rights movement played a significant role in the formation of many Los Angeles gangs that we would see today. T...
Romeo and Juliet is a play about two lovers who have to risk their lives in order to demonstrate their love and will to stay together, regardless the feud between their families. By the end, the death of Romeo and Juliet finally bring the reconciliation to these two families. It is fate that the two most shall-not meet people fall in love and it love that eventually won against hatred. Since then, there have been many different versions of Romeo and Juliet, whether it was for film, stage, musicals. These different recontextualised adaptions change the original play by many ways, some modernise the language, environment, props as well as changing the original characteristics of some characters. Out of all the different adaptions of Romeo and Juliet, two stood out the most. One was the Romeo and Juliet (1996) and directed by Baz Luhrmann and the other one was Romeo and Juliet Broadway (2013) play version,
West Side Story tells the tale of a battle between two street gangs in New York, both competing to be the best, while also incorporating the impossible love between two people destined to hate each other, which ends in tragedy. The streets of New York are ran by an American gang
Gallman, J. Matthew. "Gangs Of New York (Film)." Journal Of American History 90.3 (2003): 1124-1126. America: History and Life with Full Text. Web. 2 May 2014.
...and Juliet, when they marry, must marry secretly because of the feud. However, Maria and Tony do not marry, although they do perform a mock wedding. Another example of a difference is that Anita purposely tells the Jets that Maria is dead because of her hatred for them. But when Balthasar tells Romeo that Juliet is dead, he does it without knowing that it isn’t true. The last major difference between the two works is the death of the heroine. Juliet kills herself because she knows that her Romeo is dead and she cannot live without him. However, Maria is left alive at the end of West Side Story. It is almost as though she does not die so that she can accuse society of its prejudicial attitude against the Puerto Ricans and reveal everyone’s role in her and Tony’s love story.
The romantic tension between Romeo and Juliet and Tony and Maria in Shakespears original play and its modern day remake, Westside Story, is what makes them have such passionate and entrancing scenes. The main reason for romantic tension in these two plays is because the two couples can’t be together like they want to be. There are many different aspects that create different quality of romantic tension in these two scenes. Although the two plays have similar plots, the romantic tension between the two lovers is very different because of the setting, the language and the circumstances in which the lovers face.
This presented a huge challenge to the creators. West Side Story, for the first time in a musical, exposed the harsh reality that things don’t always work out and sometimes hatred has the final say. It’s a painful universal truth that we can still pluck out of today’s headlines.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet is a film that converts Shakespeare’s famous play into a present-day setting. The film transforms the original texts into modern notions, whilst still employing Shakespearean language. Compared to Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Luhrmann’s picture is easier for a teenage audience to understand and relate to because of his modernisations. Despite the passing of four centuries Shakespeare’s themes of love, hate, violence, family and mortality remain the same regardless of the setting.
...e tragic celebration of young, forbidden love told by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, has been tailored for many motion picture adaptations. The most famous of these adaptations are Franco Zeffirelli’s version and Baz Lurhmann’s film produced in 1996. These two films applied Shakespeare’s most well-known work as a basis for their motion pictures. Both films had similarities, but the differences were much more apparent. Ever since William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been debuted, it has and forever will be an artistic influence for playwrights, directors, and other artists.
Love is a beautiful thing, it always works out in the end. Everyone is always happy and no problems occur. West Side Story, a musical by Leonard Bornstein based on Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet parallels a love story of two star-crossed lovers. The play takes place in 1961 in New York City. This musical displays importance because it shows that nothing can overcome the power of love. This play is based on a love story between the main characters of Maria and Tony. Theses two are from different gangs that trouble to get along. They are from different gangs that do not get along at all. Roughly two hundred blocks make up Manhattan’s West Side, which stretches from Central Park West to the Hudson River. For the most part, the street youths
middle of paper ... ... Romeo and Juliet decided that they would marry- until death did them part- they loved one another so much that even then they did not part. They committed suicide to be together- together in a place, hopefully, where they could be free from prejudice and hate. Tony and Maria never got the chance to run away and live together in this place, either.
The musicals that were produced around that time period were meant to be strictly for entertainment, for the most part. It was a very brave move for the creative team of this musical to tackle themes like racism, violence, and death. The risk definitely paid off, because even today West Side Story still remains a very popular musical. The main message that this show is trying to convey to the audience is that it shouldn’t take a horrible tragedy to finally unite people. Just because someone may not look the same way you do, or act the same way, or share your same belief system, that doesn’t mean you have to be fearful of them. Instead we should try our hardest to embrace the fact that this world would be a very boring place without a little diversity, and it’s ok to celebrate the things that make us
The play Romeo and Juliet is a widely known tragedy written by Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet features two rival families and their children. When a daughter of Capulet and son of Montague meet at a party, sparks immediately fly. However, because of their families rivalry, they marry in secret, and were happy. That is until things took a turn for the worst. After an unexpected accident, Romeo is forced to leave the city, and he may never return. Juliet’s not sure she’ll ever see him again and tries to plan a way to be with Romeo, but ends up making things worse. It is an extremely tragic story. Or that’s what everyone is led to believe. However, the play Romeo and Juliet is in actuality a comedy. Between the overabundance of hyperbole, Paris’
One of the most celebrated plays in history, “Romeo and Juliet”, was written by William Shakespeare in the late 16th century. It is a story about two lovers that have to meet in secret because of an ongoing family feud. Tragically, because of their forbidden love Romeo and Juliet take their lives so they can be together. In 1997, a movie was adapted from the play “Romeo and Juliet”, directed by Baz Lurhmann. However, as alike as the movie and the play are, they are also relatively different.
William Shakespeare has provided some of the most brilliant plays to ever be performed on the stage. He is also the author of numerous sonnets and poems, but he is best known for his plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. In this essay I would like to discuss the play and movie, "Romeo and Juliet", and also the movie, Shakespeare in Love. The play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is set in the fictional city of Verona. Within the city lives two families, the Capulets and the Montegues, who have been feuding for generations.