West Side Story Social Tension and Doomed Romances in West Side Story

Hundreds of years after Shakespeare's penning of Romeo and Juliet, the notion of warring families and star-crossed lovers has not waned in popularity. This is evident in the Academy Award-winning 1961 film West Side Story, which, stripped of its musical interludes and numerous dance numbers, becomes the adaptation of Shakespeare's romantic tragedy in its barest bones. Of course, West Side Story gives a more contemporary edge to the social tensions between two "families," this time branching out to two racial families as opposed to two rival Italian groups in Verona. Through Robert Wise's direction, the film adaptation of the popular musical manages to exude serious racial concerns of the time period through light-hearted song and an epic love story.

The movie opens up with overhead shots of New York City and its busy activities in the city. From the highways to the buildings to the parks and to the...

When the scene finally pans in to zoom on the first set of gang members, it is evident that this conflict is just the working microcosm of an evidently large world. Still, the focus is apparent: two gang members -- filled with teens from two different racial families, the whites and the Puerto Rican immigrants -- are fighting over the control of the neighborhood. Racism and prejudice run abound, with the white Americans -- the Jets -- periodically referring to the Puerto Ricans as "chicos," and the Puerto Ricans -- the Sharks -- responding in turn.
Inevitably, this tension escalates in the form of two teenagers from the opposite spectrums falling in love with each other. Like Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, Tony Wycek and Maria Nunez become infatuated with each other, to a point where their racial backgrounds do not matter. Their first…