The use of colors in West Side Story (1961)

West Side Story is a musical made by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. In 1961 the musical becomes a movie directed by Robert Wise.

...

West Side Story is a Romeu and Juliet type of story, Maria is the younger sister of Bernardo the leader of Sharks a “gang” of immigrants from Puerto Rico. Tony used to be the leader of Jets another gang of immigrants from Ireland, Greece and some other places. Both Maria and Tony fall in love at first sight. And obviously the relationship is not welcomed, as a consquence of the hatred that the Sharks and the Jets have for eachother. However, today, I’m not going to focus on this love story loved by many, but the way that colors were used in the film version of this musical to represent the characters and their growth. If you never watched the movie/musical I recommend it before and after reading this (spoiler alert). Also, this is all a theory, I didn’t research nor asked the directors. It’s just a point of view.

...

Jets vs Sharks

Right in the beginning we can see the way colors are used in the presentation of the two rival gangs, while the Jets apear with a more cold toned colour palet ( most of the clothes are blue or other pastel like colours) the Sharks apear with more hot toned palet (red clothes or dark and regrouping in front of a bright red wall), just by this we are off to a great start.

It’s a little bit funny how the color palets are basically opposites in the color wheel, another way of showing that the Jets and the Sharks are different sides of the same coin.

Maria's dress

The first time we see Maria she is getting ready with Anita to the party that is going to happen, it’s a big deal to Maria because it’s her first party has a “american girl”. But, against her requests the dress that she is wearing is white and “White is for babies”, she says. Luckily for her, Anita decides to give her a red belt to wear with the dress. Why is this important? White equals innocence and purity, things that everyone around Maria connects with her and, things that she is. Her character is innocent through and through. Red is a strong color, simbolizes passion, desire and energy. The color red is the things that she wants in her life and that red belt shows that she is starting to have them.

And then the plot thickens. In the end of the movie we can see Maria wearing another dress, to go and meet Tony so they can run away together. Tony is then shot by Chino in front of Maria and dies. The dress that Maria is wearing is completely red. She now knows that the world isn’t only happiness and sometimes fights can’t be solved with words. She is not the same innocent and pure girl from the beginning, she has seen and been through hard things. It’s like the red from the belt corrupted that white dress.

Maria’s and Tony’s night together

After Tony kills Bernardo he decides to go after Maria to say goodbye. After Maria hits him and screams she concludes that she can’t stay away from him and they spend the night together. Not the full night, but you get the point.

Now, not only the chemistry is up in the clouds in this scene, the reflection of the, I assume the windows, is the focus of the scene. You see, we can find two colors behind Maria and Tony, blue and red. Like we talked in the beginning blue is the Jets colors and red for Sharks. The catch? The colors are switched. Behind Maria is the color blue and behind Tony is the color red.

Now there’s two points of view that I think could be used.

1, they just thought that it would look cute and my theory that every gang has their signatures colors is correct. Or 2, its a way of showing that both of them couldn’t care less about the dispute and that my theory that every gang has their signature colors is right. I win either way.

The end

I hope you enjoyed and had fun reading this. I’m such a big West Side Story fan that I couldn’t stop myself from writing about it. Now what do you think? I looked too much into it? I was spot on? Do you think I missed something?

See you next time!!

JP