West Side Story (2021) on Netflix
PG-1320212h 36mCrimeDramaRomance
Two rival gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, fight over the same Upper West Side blocks in 1957. Tony, on parole, falls for María, whose brother leads the Sharks.
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- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.1/10145,016 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1957, the Jets, white youths, and the Sharks, Puerto Rican youths, fight over San Juan Hill on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Police break up their latest scuffle, and Lieutenant Schrank tells them the neighborhood will be torn down to make way for Lincoln Center. Riff, who leads the Jets, proposes that the gangs settle their feud with a rumble, and he asks his friend Tony to take part. Tony, out on parole, refuses, hoping to reform with the help of Valentina, the owner of Doc's general store. Bernardo's sister María is promised to Chino but wants a future she chooses herself. At a dance in the community center, she and Tony are drawn to each other. Bernardo is enraged, and he agrees to the rumble on the condition that Tony comes too.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about West Side Story (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the 1961 film, called shooting the scene where her Valentina saves Anita particularly difficult, partly because of her own well-documented experiences with sexual assault in Hollywood. The scene was rehearsed with an intimacy coordinator to keep Ariana DeBose safe, a role Moreno was surprised existed.
- Newcomer Rachel Zegler was picked from over 30,000 applicants to play María, with Isabela Merced among the actresses who also auditioned for the part.
- West Side Story was initially banned in all the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, believed likely because of the character Anybodys, a transgender man played by non-binary actor iris menas, and in some cases Disney refused the cuts censors asked for.
- Steven Spielberg and Stephen Sondheim initially wanted to cut "I Feel Pretty"; the song had been written in protest after the stage musical's producers told Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein to add an upbeat number for the start of Act 2. Sondheim was embarrassed enough by its lyrics that he allowed it to be cut from the 2020 Broadway revival directed by Ivo van Hove.
- The "puddle shot" of Tony stepping into a large puddle that becomes a pool of rippling light while he sings "María" was the last shot filmed on the final day of principal photography, a last-minute suggestion by cinematographer Janusz Kamiński after the Balcony scene was done. Rita Moreno did the clapperboard for it.
- "America" was moved from a nighttime rooftop, as in the 1961 film, to the streets of New York in daylight, and the number took 10 days to shoot at locations across Harlem, Queens and Paterson. Ariana DeBose's dance shoes melted and had to be replaced several times because of the heat and the choreography.
- Ariana DeBose became the first Afro-Latina and openly queer woman of color to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her performance as Anita.
