West Side Story (1961)
A modern retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet against the 1950s, this 1961 musical was directed by Robert Wise (The Sound Of Music). The film has highly charged and inventive song-and-dance numbers.

Natalie Wood plays Maria, a Puerto Rican girl whose brother is the leader of a Puerto Rican street gang called the Sharks. Richard Beymer is Tony, a member of the rival Jets gang. Even as the two gangs battle for territory and respect, the couple, who meet at a dance and fall in love, are caught on opposite sides and try to end the hate and bigotry that pervades.

Choreographed by Jerome Robbins and set to a Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim score, the film won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

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