A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

“West Side Story,” produced by The Mirisch Corporation and Seven Arts Productions for United Artists, is a 1961 film adaptation of a 1957 Broadway musical conceived by Jerome Robbins and with a book by Arthur Laurents. Set in the West Side of New York in the late Fifties, the show is a modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” As in the Bard’s 16 th Century tragedy, “West Side Story” focuses on a pair of “star-cross’d lovers” caught in the middle of a blood feud. Since the play takes place in post-World War II New York City, the two rivaling factions are two teen gangs: The Jets make up the “American” gang: the Sharks are Puerto Ricans. Tony, Laurents’ stand-in for Romeo, is a former Jet trying to go straight. “West Side Story’s” Juliet is Maria, the younger sister of Bernardo, the Sharks’ leader. Featuring music composed by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim, “West Side Story” was a big hit during its initial Broadway run. It won t...

Pros:  Nice aerial photography, some exciting action scenes Cons:  Predictable, full of war movie cliches It is spring, 1944. World War II is entering its fifth year. Although the Allies have driven Hitler’s armies from North Africa, Sicily, and parts of Italy, most of Europe is still under German control. In the Eastern Front, the Red Army is massing for a summer offensive that will follow the long-promised cross-Channel invasion of France, which is scheduled for late spring. Meanwhile, Allied intelligence has discovered the nature of mysterious concrete-and-metal installations being built by the Germans in northern France, Belgium, and Holland: they are launch pads for Hitler’s V-2 rockets, the “wonder weapons” that, if deployed in time, could wreak destruction on England and jeopardize the D-Day landings. The Allies’ only hope is to destroy the Germans’ rocket-fuel plants in occupied Norway, and for this mission the Royal Air Force’s high command req...