Realities of West Side Story Filmed in 1961, West Side Story is a modern tale of Romeo and Juliet. Two young men struggle with their forbidden love while two gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, duel. At the end of the film Maria says: “You all killed him […] with hatred!” This is a universally recognized theme that hate can kill. West Side Story is said to be a "moral drama about 'our' everyday problems: racism, poverty and the destructiveness of violence." Shortly after the start of 1949, Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins were already at work. Robbins had proposed the idea of ​​“a modern version of Romeo and Juliet set in the slums […]”. The original idea involved dissent between Jews and Catholics during Easter celebrations. The Capulets, i.e. Juliet, are Jews; the Montagues, i.e. Romeo, are Catholic. Friar Laurence will become the neighborhood pharmacist. The general idea was to create a successful musical that told a tragic story in a musical comedy. With Arthur Laurents' suggestion to write Robbins' book, the idea becomes more and more reality. Later that month the New York Times published an article titled "Romeo Will Get a Musical Style." One obstacle they faced was the family- and religious-oriented story they were creating, which would stray from the original theme of Romeo and Juliet. The musical was put on the back burner of everyone except Robbins' mind. New York circa 1950 to 1960, when the film would have been set, was full of gang violence and juvenile delinquents. Arthur Laurents and Leonard Bernstein had met to try to collaborate on a job that would fail. Spying a Los Angeles Times headline about gang violence in 1955, in the middle of a newspaper, Chino decides to kill Tony. Bibliography Bernstein, Leonard and Arthur Laurents. West Side Story: A Musical. New York: Random House, 1958.Berson, Misha. Something's Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination. Milwaukee, WI: Applause Theater & Cinema, 2011. Print.Negron-Muntaner, F. “Feeling Pretty: WEST SIDE STORY AND DISCOURSES ON PUERTO RICAN IDENTITY.” Social text 18.2 63 (2000): 83-106. Print.Sandoval Sanchez, Alberto. ""West Side Story" by Alberto Sandoval Sanchez." JUMP CUT: A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA. Skip cut and Web. 10 April 2014.Simeone, Nigel. Leonard Berstein, West Side Story. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. Print.Wells, Elizabeth Anne. West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2011. Print.West Side Story. Movies. : Mayer Golden Metro, 1961.