West Side Story

West Side Story (1961) is a musical drama you can watch online on iFILM. On Manhattan's Upper West Side, two street gangs fight over a few blocks of pavement — and love walks straight into the crossfire.

Tony helped start the Jets, a crew of white kids, but he's trying to leave that life behind. Maria has just arrived from Puerto Rico, and her brother runs the rival Sharks. They lock eyes at a dance and fall hard, fast, and against everyone around them. Then comes a rumble, a knife, and a death that nobody can take back. Directors Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise transplant Romeo and Juliet onto city asphalt, swapping balconies for fire escapes and swords for switchblades. Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris lead the cast.

Leonard Bernstein wrote the score, a young Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics, and numbers like "Tonight" and "America" became standards. The film won ten Academy Awards, a record for a musical. Robbins choreographed the gang fights like ballet, and film schools still take them apart shot by shot. Stream West Side Story (1961) online on iFILM.