WEST SIDE STORY

A Star-Crossed lovers' story

West Side Story

"Life matters, even more than love"

Summary

Stephen Spielberg

Synopsis

Dealing with the differences and Relationships

Differences between the two movies

Similarities

With Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet

My favourite song

Two gangs

Two feuding clans

Two Star-crossed lovers

Synopsis

In Manhattan's 1950s, two feuding rival gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, can't help fighting, thus befriending your ennemy is betraying your gang. However, against all odds, Maria, a Puerto-Rican, and Tony, the founder of the Jets, fall for eachother starting a forbidden love. This movie is a powerful story about love and resilience turned into a musical.

Similarities with Shakespeare

Star-crossed lovers

A tragic end

The two stories end tragically as Riff, Bernardo and Tony die.

As Romeo and Juliet, Tony and Maria are part of two feuding clans

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Two feuding gangs

Two clans with different goals are fighting in an environment in destruction. New-York is creating a new commercial center : the Jets are loosing their houses, their home thus this gang encroaches on Sharks' territory

The Sharks - - - - - - - - -

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The Jets - - - - - - - - - - -

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Star-Crossed Lovers

Tony

Definition

Maria

Love at first sight Unbreakable bound A love against all odds A forbidden love

Puerto-Rican Bernardo's Siter SHARK

White American Riff's Best friend JET

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Stephen Spielberg

Spephen Spielberg is a major figure of the New Hollywood era and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster.Several of Spielberg's works are considered among the greatest films of all time.He started his career by directing episodes of TV shows. He became famous with the movie Jaws or The Sugarland express. Then he directed other blockbusters such as Indiana Jones or E.T.

My favourite song

Maria

Music : Leonard BernseinLyrics : Stephen Sondheim My favourite interpretation : => Ansel Elgort (2021)

Why ?

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LYRICS

"Say it loud and there's music playingSay it soft and it's almost like praying"

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Differences between the two movies

• The two star-crossed lovers at the foreground
• White actors played the Puerto-Ricans. They had brown makeup and had very strong accents
• It was more a musical on stage than a true movie

2021

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• The social settings and the social issues are at the epicenter of the movie
• Latino actors played the puerto-ricans
• Dances are more athletic but keep the identity of West Side Story

1961

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Dealing with the differences & Relationships

The love story is a story about the challenge of differences in relationships. The Sharks and the Jets are completley different clans through their culture, roots, environement or ideals. Indeed, in one hand, the Sharks are Puerto-Ricans, they speak spanish, the men don't feel welcome in America because of racism (song America). On an other hand the Jets are white people, the police has more affinities for them because of their skin color for example. They belive they are true american as their descent are settlers. More...