West Side Story (2/10) Movie CLIP - Love At First Sight (1961) HD

CLIP DESCRIPTION:
Tony (Richard Beymer) and Maria (Natalie Wood) spot each other from across the dance floor in a love at first sight moment.

FILM DESCRIPTION:
Romeo and Juliet is updated to the tenements of New York City in this Oscar-winning musical landmark. Adapted by Ernest Lehman from the Broadway production, the movie opens with an overhead shot of Manhattan, an effect that director Robert Wise would repeat over the Alps in The Sound of Music four years later. We are introduced to two rival street gangs: the Jets, second-generation American teens, and the Sharks, Puerto Rican immigrants. When the war between the Jets and Sharks reaches a fever pitch, Jets leader Riff (Russ Tamblyn) decides to challenge the Sharks to one last "winner take all" rumble. He decides to meet Sharks leader Bernardo (George Chakiris) for a war council at a gymnasium dance; to bolster his argument, Riff wants his old pal Tony (Richard Beymer), the cofounder of the Jets, to come along. But Tony has set his sights on vistas beyond the neighborhood and has fallen in love with Bernardo's sister, Maria (Natalie Wood), a love that, as in Romeo and Juliet, will eventually end in tragedy. In contrast to the usual slash-and-burn policy of Hollywood musical adaptations, all the songs written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim for the original Broadway production of West Side Story were retained for the film version, although some alterations were made to appease the Hollywood censors, and the original order of two songs was reversed for stronger dramatic impact. The movie more than retains the original choreography of Jerome Robbins, which is recreated in some of the most startling and balletic dance sequences ever recorded on film. West Side Story won an almost-record ten Oscars, including Best Picture, supporting awards to Chakiris and Rita Moreno as Bernardo's girlfriend, Anita, and Best Director to Robbins and Wise. Richard Beymer's singing was dubbed by Jimmy Bryant, Natalie Wood's by Marni Nixon (who also dubbed Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady), and Rita Moreno's by Betty Wand. The film's New York tenement locations were later razed to make room for Lincoln Center.

CREDITS:
TM & © MGM (1961)
Cast: Richard Beymer, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, Natalie Wood
Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
Producers: Saul Chaplin, Robert Wise, Walter Mirisch
Screenwriters: Ernest Lehman, Arthur Laurents, William Shakespeare, Jerome Robbins

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[OpenOceanOnly]

To me, this "love at first sight" makes so much sense. Maria and Tony are probably the only "innocent" ones at the dance. They want peace and unity and hate the petty squabbles between the gangs. They sense that in each other and thus come together. Pure art and beauty.

[jackierosas]

There's something so awkward about this scene that makes it so charming as well as beautiful. The loud snaps, the odd phrasing, and Richard Beymer's natural awkwardness. He's not too graceful, a little clumsy and there's a clunkiness about him as if he wears his body like an oversized coat. Tony's words are also in awe but in a "I can't believe this is happening" way.

Then there's the delicacy of Natalie Wood, Maria's dialogue contrast Tony's. She's also in awe but confident and direct.

To top it off the rainbow lights and background dancers add the right touch of the surreal while being rooted in reality, you can tell those are stage lights or something to that effect. And the result is . . .magic.

[totesme]

"My hands are cold" *stares until he gets the idea
A+ flirting

[classics]

A truly cinematic moment. Can’t believe some think the blur effect when Tony and Maria first lock eyes is dated or something that couldn’t be repeated in the 2021 version. The love at first sight moment in the new adaptation has none of the magic of this version; the whole point of this moment is to show how their meeting transports them out of the harsh reality and into an ephemeral yet no less powerful bubble consisting of nobody but each other.

[mca]

I'm 53. I need to open with that, because most of the times I watched this movie was on television in the 1970's. Back then, there were no HDTV's with wide screens, so any number of edges of a widescreen film would be cut off in a TV broadcast. It wasn't until I was in my late 20's that I saw it on the big screen for the first time- and the scene at 0:08 of the screen blurring and Tony and Maria seeing each other for the first time (and from opposite directions of the screen) actually got a small gasp from the audience- we all suddenly felt that this was no longer just a film, but an event. Many of the film's visuals are something to behold. "America" is another wonderful sequence. And the score of Bernstein music is simply sublime and powerful at the same time.

[alicesierra]

I've loved this musical ever since eight grade. Timeless.

[chriswilson]

i also love how the lights gently fall down - it takes you to another place

[germanbravo]

By far the best version, incomparable, a cinematography bestseller, the new version does not come close at all.

[ethel]

This movie will surely stand the test of time. Hard to watch Natalie Wood, though. Her death was such a tragedy.

[tejjensen]

I saw West Side Story in 66 when it finally reached our little movie theater out in the countryside.
It hit me with great speed right in my heart and for me it is still the greatest musicals ever.

[malcolmgerald]

Possibly the most perfect movie ever made, certainly the best musical of all time.

[susanmilligan]

Beautiful moment in cinema. Choreography is perfect for two innocents.

[aalimjivan]

Still one of the best love at first sight scenes ever! Who is watching in 2021 and feeling nostalgic

[PotterD]

Is it just me who thinks he turns into Snape when he says 'so beautiful' ?

[stephaniestanley]

I still hope and believe in love like this

[notdave]

“...but this is so much more-“

*”My hands are cold.”*

[ALBUMOF]

My dad told me this was what it felt like when he met my mum 🥺🥺🥺

[johncaputo]

The superiority of the original is summarized in this one scene. Here we have poetry, ballet, magic, the inner experience of the characters. Spielberg sacrifices this for showy camera angles and a more prose realism. He therefore misses out on the intention of opera/musical theater's purpose: transformation. Sorry Stephen.

[clifftrainor]

I've been on such a Natalie Wood kick for some reason it's starting to worry me. She's too damn huggable.

[johncaputo]

This beautifully touching scene is all the more poignant to me as my lovely parents met like this at a dance, and it was love at first sight. Because I believed in it, the same thing happened to me 35 years later. Both of our lady loves also came to a sad end, one by death (cancer) one by shock (divorce).