West Side Story is a 2021 American musical romantic drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Tony Kushner. The second feature-length adaptation of the 1957 stage musical, itself inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, it stars Ansel Elgort as Tony and Rachel Zegler (in her film debut) as María, with Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, and Rita Moreno in supporting roles. Moreno, who starred in the 1961 film adaptation, also served as an executive producer alongside Kushner. The film features music composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
The film entered development in 2014 at 20th Century Studios (then named 20th Century Fox); Kushner began writing the screenplay in 2017. Spielberg was hired in January 2018, and casting began that September. Justin Peck choreographed the dance sequences. Principal photography occurred in New York and New Jersey; filming began in July 2019 and ran for two months.
West Side Story premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on November 29, 2021, three days after Sondheim's death. The film was later theatrically released by 20th Century Studios in the United States on December 10, after a year-long delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It received widespread acclaim, with some critics deeming it superior to the 1961 film, and was named one of the top ten films of 2021 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. The recipient of many accolades, West Side Story garnered seven nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, with DeBose winning Best Supporting Actress. However, the film was a box-office bomb, grossing $76 million against a $100 million production budget and estimated $300million break-even target, though it achieved greater success through streaming and home video releases.
Since its release, it has been cited as one of the best musical films of all time as well as one of the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century.
Plot
In 1957, the Jets, a gang of white youths, brawl with the Sharks, a gang of Puerto Rican youths, for control of San Juan Hill on Manhattan's Upper West Side. New York City Police Department Sergeant Krupke and Lieutenant Schrank disband their latest scuffle, with Schrank deriding their conflict as pointless since the neighborhood will soon be demolished to make way for Lincoln Center. The gangs are too proud to care, and Jet leader Riff proposes a rumble between the two gangs. He approaches his friend Tony, who is on parole, for help. Tony declines, seeking self-reformation via Valentina, the Puerto Rican owner of Doc's general store. Meanwhile, María, Shark leader Bernardo's sister, is betrothed to his friend Chino, but yearns for an independent future. At a neighborhood dance in the community center that night, Tony and María meet and fall in love, infuriating Bernardo; however, Bernardo accepts Riff's terms to participate in the proposed rumble, provided that Tony attends as well. Tony later confesses his love to María on her fire escape, and they vow to reconvene the next day.
Bernardo and his girlfriend Anita compare life in New York to life in Puerto Rico, with Anita's belief in the American Dream contrasting with Bernardo's rude pessimism. Under police interrogation, the Jets feign obliviousness about the rumble. During their date at the Cloisters, Tony reveals to María that his year-long imprisonment for nearly beating a rival gang member to death had scared him into reforming. María makes Tony promise to stop the rumble, and they make promises to one another as if marrying before God. Later, Tony implores Riff to cancel the rumble by stealing his newly bought gun, but the Jets steal it back, with Riff reasserting that the rumble will happen as scheduled. Schrank orders Krupke and other police officers to quell the rumble, but they are unsuccessful. Arriving at the rumble, Tony speaks to Riff, who overconfidently relinquishes the gun. Tony then pacifistically explains his feelings for Maria to Bernardo, who injures him with his boxing skills before then targeting Riff. Responsively, Tony pins Bernardo down but stops short of punching him into unconsciousness. Unwilling to let Tony walk away, Bernardo pursues him with a knife. Ultimately, he fatally stabs Riff before being fatally stabbed by Tony. The gangs flee when the police arrive, and Chino walks away with Riff's gun.
María gushes about her love for Tony to her coworkers in the late-night cleaning crew at the Gimbels department store. Once their shift concludes, she encounters Chino, who reveals that Tony murdered Bernardo. She initially denies it until Tony arrives at her apartment later and confirms Chino's statement. Although initially furious with him, she begs him not to surrender to the police, and they plan to escape together. Valentina laments the recent deaths while reflecting on her interracial relationship with her deceased white husband Doc. After identifying Bernardo's body at the morgue, Anita returns home and sees María and Tony together as he leaves the apartment. Anita argues with María, but eventually accepts that the pair are in love.
At the boxing gym, Chino reveals his intention to kill Tony, despite the Sharks' warnings. While Schrank interrogates her at her apartment about Tony's whereabouts, María sends Anita to warn Tony by asking Valentina about the safety of "a cousin". However, at Doc's, Anita encounters the Jets, who insult and attempt to gang rape her, even as their girlfriends protest, until Valentina arrives and intervenes. Traumatized, Anita calls Valentina a traitor for housing the Jets, claims that Chino killed María, and vows to return to Puerto Rico.
Valentina condemns the Jets, who shamefully disperse, before relaying Anita's message to Tony, who runs into the streets, begging for Chino to kill him. As María arrives, to Tony's relief, Chino emerges and fatally shoots him. After Tony dies in her arms, a devastated María takes the gun and brandishes it at the gathered Jets and Sharks, berating them for the senseless deaths their conflict caused, before tearfully dropping the gun. As the police arrive to arrest Chino, the gangs finally end the feud by coming together to carry Tony's corpse into Doc's, with María following close behind.
Cast
Three of the Jets from the 1961 film of West Side Story—Harvey Evans, who portrayed Mouthpiece; Bert Michaels, who played Snowboy; and David Bean, who played Tiger—appear as extras. Andréa Burns, who played María in the 1992–1993 European Tour of the musical, appears as Fausta.
Production Development
In March 2014, Steven Spielberg first seriously expressed interest in directing an adaptation of West Side Story, prompting 20th Century Fox to acquire the rights to the project. Tony Kushner, who previously worked with Spielberg on Munich (2005) and Lincoln (2012), revealed in a July 2017 interview that he was writing the screenplay for the film, stating he would be leaving the musical numbers intact, and that the story would be closer to the original stage musical than to the 1961 film. In a 2020 interview, Spielberg told Vanity Fair: "West Side Story was actually the first piece of popular music our family ever allowed into the home. I ... fell completely in love with it as a kid". Spielberg would ultimately dedicate the film to his father, Arnold, who died during production at age 103.
The following year, he further explained why he felt the time had come for a new film adaptation of the musical: "Divisions between un-likeminded people is as old as time itself. ... And the divisions between the Sharks and the Jets in 1957, which inspired the musical, were profound. But not as divided as we find ourselves today. It turned out in the middle of the development of the script, things widened, which I think in a sense, sadly, made the story of those racial divides – not just territorial divides – more relevant to today's audience than perhaps it even was in 1957".
Pre-production
In January 2018, Spielberg was figuring out his next two directorial vehicles. Sources said that he was eyeing a fifth Indiana Jones film and then would either precede or follow quickly with another film. It was reported that one might be his dream project, a new version of West Side Story. This was followed a few days later with an open casting call issued for the characters María, Tony, Anita and Bernardo. Additional open casting calls were hosted in New York City in April, and in Orlando, Florida, in May. In July, the fifth Indiana Jones film was pushed back, allowing Spielberg to begin pre-production on West Side Story.
Justin Peck was hired to choreograph the film in September, with Ansel Elgort cast in the film as Tony. In November, Eiza González emerged as a contender for the role of Anita. Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the 1961 film, plays Valentina and also serves as an executive producer for the film. In January 2019, newcomer Rachel Zegler was picked from over 30,000 applicants to play María, with Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, and Josh Andrés Rivera also cast as Anita, Bernardo, and Chino, respectively. Isabela Merced also auditioned for Maria. In March, Corey Stoll and Brian d'Arcy James joined the cast. A month later, the rest of the ensemble comprising the Jets and Sharks factions was announced. Mike Faist was personally invited to audition by Spielberg, who approached him after seeing him in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway in 2016. He originally auditioned for Tony, before being cast as Riff instead.
Filming Filming took place in Harlem and other Manhattan locations and in Flatlands, Brooklyn in New York City in July 2019. There were ten days of shooting in Paterson, New Jersey, where an outdoor set was built, in August. Filming also took place in Newark and other parts of Essex County, New Jersey. It wrapped on September 27 for a total of 79 days of shooting. All of the sets were constructed at a warehouse at Steiner Studios.
As one of the film's executive producers, Moreno was on-set for a large portion of production, often consulting with Peck on choreography. Moreno described shooting the scene where Valentina saves Anita as particularly difficult, due to her own well-documented experiences with sexual assault in Hollywood, as well as the surreal challenge of saving a character she played six decades prior. The scene was rehearsed with an intimacy coordinator to ensure DeBose's safety during the scene: Moreno, who recalled crying hysterically and being unable to stop when she shot the same scene for the 1961 film, was surprised that such a position existed upon being told about it in a joint interview with her and DeBose. She also had the honor to do clapperboard for the film's famous "puddle shot" of Tony stepping into a large puddle of water and making it become a pool of rippling light while singing "María". That shot was the last to be filmed on the final day of principal photography, as it was a last-minute suggestion made by cinematographer Janusz Kamiński to Spielberg following completion of the Balcony scene.