The musical genre of film is renowned for its visually spectacular display of dance sequences and singing used to express character emotion and advance a film's narrative. The musical genre is primarily a scope of escapism and therefore as a genre, operates beyond naturalism, where theatrical elements derived from stage musicals may spontaneously erupt to accentuate the drama of a scene and in other instances, break away from the gravity of a scene in order to reinforce the whimsicality of theatre.
Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s West Side Story (1961), an adaptation of a Broadway production of the same name aestheticizes the social issues of racial and gang dominance through the subgenre of romance and extended dance sequences which marked a pivotal turning point in theatre. While the film cinematically and partially structurally behaves as a musical, subgenres of crime, drama, and romance equally if not more dominantly, direct the narrative revising or hybridizing genre conventions of musical films. The original Broadway production of West Side Story (1957) was inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and translates Shakespeare’s use of soliloquies through choreographed dance sequences and an extravagant musical score complimenting the tone of each scene, a method that many other musicals employ. For example, as Shark leader Bernardo retreats from the Jets outnumbered, the camera zooms in to a mid-shot at eye level as he hits the wall in anger in time with the music – as opposed to verbally expressing his anger - the camera tracks along with him as he begins to click and is joined by the rest of his gang.
Following an overture, alluding to live theatre productions, the opening prologue pans over the Upper West Side of New York City before dramatically zooming in to a gang of white Americans, notoriously known as the ‘Jets’ clicking their fingers, synchronized with the orchestra. Subverting itself from the geographical limitations of most musical films, this opening shot expands the realism of its diegesis by filming the entirety of the overture in the actual streets of Manhattan, as opposed to artificial sets constructed on a soundstage as many musical films do to reflect the aesthetic of live musical productions.
As the Jets follow the gang leader ‘Riff’ out of the fenced playground, they break into a highly-stylized ballet routine as they make their way down the streets. This represents their confidence in supremacy and youthful dynamism as the Jets looks to brawl with the opposing gang, the ‘Sharks’, consisting of Puerto Rican immigrants led by Bernardo. This mirrors the racial rivalry between the Capulets and Montagues in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as each gang fights for dominance over the blue-collar neighborhood, seen through the mise-en-scene of graffiti tagged with the gang’s names along the street.
While most musicals incorporate high-key lighting and vibrant costuming to uncover character detail and emotion, West Side Story (1961) compensates for the film's prevalent and ominous themes of crime and gang violence through cinematic techniques in order to brighten the diegetic atmosphere. From this, the dull vibrancy and low-key lighting of the film's tragic ending are made all the more impactful. In addition, this film alters the way in which it integrates the audience into its diegesis. It is common in musical films as it is a vital part of every live musical production, to perform to the audience and make them, in a sense, diegetic to the narrative. Rather than performing to an audience within the fictionality of the film, West Side Story (1961) includes centered low-angle long shots between dance sequences, resembling the audience perspective in a theatre without blatantly making the literal audience diegetic. For example, as Bernardo’s character is introduced he begins galloping towards the camera before breaking into a ballet combo as the shot cuts to a long tracking shot from behind as he continues down the street, providing a moment of live production perspective while upholding the magnitude of the narratives physical world. This way, the film's moments of spectacle are repositioned within reality through psychologically motivated performances.
The confrontations between the Jets and the Sharks are orchestrated by a beat similar to that of The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966), underlining the binaries between both gangs through a more serious and less ‘razzle-dazzle’ approach to representing tensions imposed through crime/gangster genres. A reflection of the film’s director, Robert Wise, his experience in the film industry consisted mainly of urban New York dramas, giving the film its modern edge to the musical genre. The lack of dialogue additionally adds more tension to the prologue as the diegetic score of the scene drives the tone, similar to western stand-offs and gang violence in the film that capture ethos from the environment and physical interaction between characters to resolve conflict. For example, when a Shark trips a Jet, the Shark member sarcastically bows while the Jet shrugs his shoulders and offers his hand as a truce before ‘striking’ the Shark as they begin a series of jumping ballet pirouettes, which through blocking, merge into yet respite from the literacy of gang violence.
As the prologue escalates to a dramatic fight scene the Jets and Sharks scramble around the Upper West Side pulling shenanigans with one another, as the camera eventually collects each gang member back to the fenced playground for the final showdown. However, rather than gathering the cast for an elaborate dance sequence as demonstrated in most musicals, the camera bolts between the multiple chase scenarios through jump cuts, sudden tracking halts, and quick reveals that heighten tension and completely break the narrative techniques of the musical genre, more so demonstrating the fast pacing of crime/thriller genres. Furthermore, the cinematography demonstrates the real-world limitations as the camera traps characters in narrow alleyways and twines around corners as the characters assemble for the final showdown of the prologue.
During this fast-paced segment, the mise-en-scene of the urban scape shows trash heaps, abandoned buildings used for playing card games, and graffiti-stained walls, adding to the gritty reality of Manhattan streets that many crime/gangster films set their narratives in, such as Goodfellas (1990) and Mean Streets (1973). In addition, instead of indicating the gang members to be trained Broadway dancers pantomiming a fight, Jerome Robbins, the choreographer of the West Side Story (1957) stage production, adapts his choreography to the urban environment which depicts the gang members as urban forces with the dramatic climax of the musical score accenting the indicated savagery of the scene.
In conclusion, West Side Story (1961) identifies as primarily a musical and adopts many traditional traits of the genre, in particular; lighting, costuming, music, and spontaneous dancing and singing. However, this film holds as a turning point in theatre through its modern interpretation of theatrics and strong hybridity with the crime/gangster and romance genres. The prologue scene demonstrates the collaboration of gangster and musical genre together which, at the time of its release was considered unconventional with abrupt displays of violence in a genre that is recognized for its extravagance through flamboyance and fantastical realms rather than confronting imagery addressing relevant social issues.