A Very Dark Film

I think this movie is absolutely incredible. Some may think the "cheesy" love story and the "dancing fights" give the film a very corny feeling, but let's examine this a little closer. At it's core, this story is incredibly dark. In fact it is so dark, that if you were to take out some of the cheesy love lines or the light hearted dance moves, it would be a really screwed up tale.

These two gangs are bent on hatred toward one another because of their race. Near the beginning, before the Sharks have even come to form and Bernardo is the only Puerto Rico in Manhattan, the Jets harass him. Not because he is trying to steal their turf with his new gang, but because he's Puerto Rican. He's no threat at all. In fact, Bernardo probably formed the Sharks out of fear of being jumped by a racist white gang. Maybe if they weren't so racist this all would have been avoided, but that's beside the point. Bottom line is, unlike the Montagues and the Capulets, the feud in West Side Story has not been going on for generations: it just started. These people don't have a reason to hate each other, they aren't families at war. They are simply of different race, which I guess is enough to rumble.

Even darker at it's core is this notion: Maria sleeps with her brother's murderer an hour after he is slain. Bernardo is a much more effective character than Tybalt in the sense that he is more developed and he is Maria's brother as opposed to being a cousin. Bernardo acted as Maria's protector, her guardian. You could tell he cared for her dearly. I found it very disturbing that Maria would sleep with his killer, a man whom she had just met one day prior, only an hour after the murder. And she knows that Tony killed him. It's bizarre. If you think about just that idea, then this film deals with some extremely dark issues.