# West Side Story (1961 film)

West Side Story is a 1961 film adaptation of the same-titled musical play about two lovers heavily entangled in two rival New York City gangs.
    Directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise. Written by Arthur Laurents, based on the 1957 play.

## Maria

* [sings] I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and gay, And I pity, any girl who isn't me today. I feel charming, oh so charming, it's alarming how charming I feel. And so pretty, that I hardly can believe I'm real.

## Tony

* [sings] I just met a girl named Maria, and suddenly that name Will never be the same to me. Maria - I just kissed a girl named Maria And suddenly I found how wonderful a sound can be Maria - say it loud and there's music playing Say it soft and it's almost like praying.

## Riff

* [sings] When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way From your first cigarette to your last dyin' day! When you're a Jet, let 'em do what they can You've got brothers around, you're a family man! You're never alone, you're never disconnected, you're home with your own When company's expected, you're well-protected! Then you are set with a capital J Which you'll never forget till they cart you away When you're a Jet you stay a Jet.

## Dialogue

    Schrank: You hoodlums don't own these streets. And I've had all the rough-house I can put up with around here. You want to kill each other? Kill each other, but you ain't gonna do it on my beat. Are there any questions?
    Bernardo: Yes, sir. Would you mind translating that into Spanish?
    Schrank: Get your friends out of here, Bernardo - and stay out - please.
    Bernardo: Okay, Sharks. Vamonos.
    Schrank: Boy, as if this neighborhood wasn't crummy enough. Now look, fellas. Fellas? Look, let's be reasonable, huh? If I don't get a little law and order around here, I get busted down to a traffic corner. And your friend don't like traffic corners. So that means you're gonna start makin' nice with the PRs [Puerto Ricans] from now on. I said nice - GET IT! 'Cause if you don't, and I catch any of ya doing any more brawlin' in my territory, I'm gonna personally beat the living crud out of each and every one of yas and see that you go to the can and rot there. Say goodbye to the nice boys, Krupke.
    Krupke: Goodbye boys.
    Bernardo: Now I will not say these things to spoil your evening or to hear myself talk. I am here longer than you, Maria...Someday, when you're an old married woman with five children, then you can tell me what to do. Right now, it's the other way around. Now go to bed.
    Anita: [To Maria] He's the old married woman. [To Bernardo] You know, she has a mother. Also a father.
    Bernardo: They do not know this country any better than she does.
    Anita: And you do not know it at all. Girls here are free to have fun. She is in America now.
    Bernardo: Puerto Rico is in America now.
    Anita: Sometimes I don't know which is thicker. Your skull or your accent.
    Anita: [sings] Puerto Rico, my heart's devotion, Let it sink back in the ocean. Always the hurricanes blowing, Always the population growing And the money owing, And the sunlight streaming And the natives steaming. I like the island of Manhattan, Smoke on your pipe and put that in!
    Girls: [sings] I like to be in America, OK by me in America, Everything free in America!
    Bernardo: [sings] For a small fee in America.
    Anita: [sings] Buying on credit is so nice.
    Bernardo: [sings] One look at us and they charge twice.
    Maria: [sings] Tonight, tonight, it all began tonight, I saw you and the world went away. Tonight, tonight, there's only you tonight, what you are, what you do, what you say.
    Tony: Today, all day I had the feeling a miracle would happen, I know now I was right.
    Tony and Maria: For here you are and what was just a world is a star tonight.
    Tony: [sings] Make of our hands one hand, Make of our hearts one heart Make of our vows one last vow, Only death will part us now.
    Maria: Make of our lives one life, Day after day one life
    Tony and Maria: Now it begins, now we start One hand, one heart, even death won't part us now.
    Tony: [sings] There's a place for us, Somewhere a place for us Peace and quiet and open air wait for us, Somewhere.
    Maria: There's a time for us, Some day a time for us Time together with time to spare, time to look, time to care, Someday.
    Tony: Somewhere we'll find a new way of living.
    Maria: We'll find a way of forgiving, Somewhere.
    Chino: [about the "Rumble"] It is bad.
    Maria: Very bad?
    Chino: You see,...
    Maria: It will be easier if you say it very fast.
    Chino: There was a fight. And Nardo... Somehow, a knife... And Nardo and someone, they...
    Maria: Tony! What happened to Tony?
    [Chino says nothing]
    Maria: Chino, tell me! Is Tony all right?!
    [Chino, out of breath, blurts the truth out]
    Chino: HE KILLED YOUR BROTHER!!
    [he runs back downstairs, leaving Maria in the state of shock]
    Maria: You are lying! [runs downstairs] Chino! Why do you lie to me?! Chino! Chino! Chino, it's true! You are lying! Why?! Why do you lie to me, Chino?! Chino!
    Boy: Mama! Mama! Bernardo está muerto!
    Mother: Bernardo, muerto?!
    Maria: NO!!
    [At the playground near midnight, Maria holds Tony, who has just been shot by Chino. The Jets and Sharks, having heard the gunshot, come in behind them.]
    Tony: I didn't believe hard enough.
    Maria: Loving is enough.
    Tony: Not here. They won't let us be.
    Maria: Then we'll get away.
    Tony: Yeah. We can?
    Maria: Yes.
    Tony: We will?
    Maria: Yes. [sings] Hold my hand and we're halfway there. Hold my hand and I'll take you there. Somehow, someday, some... [Tony dies. As she lays him down on the ground gently, the Jets start towards Chino and the Sharks advance towards them].
    Maria: Stay back! [The gangs stop. Maria walks over to Chino and takes the gun from him]. How do you fire this gun, Chino? Just by pulling this little trigger?! How many bullets are left, Chino? [Points the gun at the Sharks, who move back] Enough for you? And you? All of you! You all killed him, and my brother, and Riff! Not with bullets and guns, but with HATE! Well, I can kill now too, because now I have hate! How many can I kill, Chino? How many -- and still have one bullet left for me? Oh No![Unable to fire the gun, she drops it and breaks down in tears. Schrank and Krupke arrive, and Schrank starts towards Tony's body. Maria runs over and covers Tony] DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM! [Schrank steps back. Maria gently kisses Tony]. Te adoro, Anton.

## Taglines

* Unlike other musicals ‘West Side Story’ grows younger!
* The Screen Achieves One of the Great Entertainments in the History of Motion Pictures

## Cast

* Natalie Wood - Maria
* Richard Beymer - Tony
* Russ Tamblyn - Riff
* Rita Moreno - Anita
* George Chakiris - Bernardo
* Simon Oakland - Lieutenant Schrank
* Ned Glass - Doc
* William Bramley - Officer Krupke
* Tucker Smith - Ice
* Tony Mordente - Action
* David Winters - A-rab
* Eliot Feld - Baby John
* Tommy Abbott - Gee-Tar
* Jose De Vega - Chino
* John Astin - Glad Hand

## Quotes about West Side Story

* Got to Chicago, got to this high school. People actually sang the song from West Side Story, “Puerto Rico, my heart’s devotion, let it sink into the ocean,” at me in the halls of the school. I thought I was privileged to come from where I came from. It was made clear to me very quickly that it was an embarrassing thing I shouldn’t talk about, and I saw the distinction between the children of South American engineers and the daughter of a working-class Puerto Rican woman. I hated being in school.
** Auroral Levins Morales, Oral History Interview (2005)

## See also

* West Side Story (2021 film)

## External links

* West Side Story quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* West Side Story at Rotten Tomatoes
* West Side Story at Filmsite.org