West Side Story - Prologue - Official Full Number - 50th Anniversary (HD)

The opening Prologue from the 10-time Academy Award winning musical film West Side Story, which is celebrating its 50th Anniversary on November 15, 2011. Here is the full Prologue from the movie in HD, and below are links where you purchase the 50th Anniversary Edition of West Side Story on Blu-ray and Limited Edition Box Set!

Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Jerome Robbins
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Arthur Laurents

[midnightsun]

I always liked the fact that the Jets went around the little girl in the beginning instead of being jerks and walking on her chalk drawing.

[gracedee]

this is some of the best choreography you will ever see

[s.g.]

List of everything we learn in these first 9 minutes, without any exposition or dialogue:

- The names of the gangs (sidewalk paintings)
-The leaders and second-in-commands of the gangs (not their names, but through their prominence and the order in which they appear)
-The power dynamic (Jets are clearly more powerful than Sharks)
-The way they operate (Sharks are cleverer and bait the Jets into traps, Jets rely on strength and numbers)
-The reasons people are part of the gangs (the joy in all their movements and coordination speaks to the team spirit they exude)
-The respect the Jets hold in the community, vs the Sharks who are never shown being given anything (Jets get the basketball, people move for them on the sidewalk etc)
-The way their fights escalate (initially almost playful, dances, idle threats, then the more they interact, the more it builds up until it becomes an unchoreographed street brawl)
-The reason the Sharks exist (their musical motif, the sting at 2:17, is a slightly distorted version of the Jets' motif, representing how the Jets existed before there were any Puerto Rican immigrants in the neighbourhood, and then after being targeted the Sharks had to be formed for protection, hence they are a slightly different version of the Jets)
-Their immaturity (slightly more vague, but I'm just thinking about how things like the fruit interaction, the paint, the "Beat it!"s are so petty and childish, it really emphasises that these are kids playing at being tough, which then comes back in "Dear Officer Krupke" and "Cool")
-The way Bernardo and Riff are going to die (the same way that everything escalates gradually here, what starts off as a fistfight becomes a knifefight, then a double murder. Here, we see that both sides are too proud and stubborn to take the moral high ground and de-escalate, both will fight until they're pulled apart, and when no-one's there to do so they will fight until they die)

This is what people talk about when they talk about cinematic language.

[cloverring]

I love how they're nice enough to walk around the little girl's circle.

[superjackster]

I love how this scene barely has any dialogue

[jakeornot]

This is the most stunning, powerful choreography in film history, with equally perfect muscial score, cinematorgraphy, and with the most beautifully fit, enormously talented actors performing, for all time.

[Real_Boye]

I would love if the world was a musical...

[jayabasu]

"So, what do you like to do for fun?" "Me and my friends lean on things and snap"

[craigm]

Back in the good old days with teenagers solved disagreements with incredibly well done ballet, dance, and rhythm

[abby-wetb]

there are almost no words spoken but this is still one of the best nine minutes of a movie ive ever seen.

[johnscanlan]

Do people today understand what a phenomenal historical snapshot this entire film is? The entire set for this movie was about to be torn down for one of the largest urban renewal projects in American history; but the filmmakers asked to temporarily halt the demolition so they could make this monumental movie which in fact happened. Today the land where this "slum" was now holds the huge Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts!

[kirsteni.russell]

These are all super dancers but George Chakiris (Bernardo, leader of the Sharks) is also elegant--just mesmerizing to watch.

[alexthelizardking]

This used to be a nice neighborhood before the gangs moved in and started dancing up the place.

[kirajlerner]

This freakin' music. Just perfection. Bernstein's name is not being used often enough in discussion about the current adaptation, but the show is literally nothing without it.

[robbiecameron]

Every inch of this film, was pure; poetic passion, class, energy, grace & fine quality. Mad skills!

[singoutlouies]

I love this movie and  as a kid watched it 16 times .. but I have to say.. when Tony yells out Maria's  name in a PR neighborhood over and over .. and only one Maria  looked out her window..  I thought that was funny..

[jjfloyd]

9 of the most brilliant minutes in cinema history.

[eleven]

I remember: Johannesburg, South Africa, 1961, and I was twelve years' old. My parents and I went to a cinema, and because the whole place was booked, I had to sit on my own without them. I sat there and the film started with its extraordinary opening and colour, and then the prologue opened and I was just overwhelmed. One of the greatest experiences of my young life.

[darkgaara]

Nothing says "Gang" like Ballet moves.

[philippenobili]

Few comments give justice here to Leonard Berstein's music... which is just fabulous: colors, dynamics... and amazing orchestration! He was a great composer