This musical sets the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet against a backdrop of the rivalry of two street gangs, the Sharks and the Jets, in New York of the 1950s. A young woman who is sister to the Sharks leader has her first taste of love with the former head of the Jets.

MPAA rating: Not rated.

Optional French or Spanish dialogue or subtitles; closed-captioned.

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1961.

Based on the stage play produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince and the book by Arthur Laurents; play conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins.

Special features: Disc 1: feature film; original film intermission music (option to play with or without intermission) -- Disc 2: "West side memories" retrospective documentary containing Natalie Wood's original vocal recordings and new interviews with cast and crew including Robert Wise and Stephen Sondheim; original film intermission music; storyboard-to-film comparison; original release trailers and behind-the-scenes photos -- Collectible scrapbook includes Ernest Lehman introduction; film script; original looby brochure reproduction; behind-the-scenes memos.

Director of photography, Daniel L. Fapp ; editor, Thomas Stanford ; music, Leonard Bernstein ; costume designer, Irene Sharaff ; production designer, Boris Leven ; choreographer, Jerome Robbins.

Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chikiris.

DVD format, Dolby digital 5.1 surround, Region 1 encoding.

Academy Awards, USA; 1962, Oscar - Best Actor in a Supporting Role (George Chakiris); Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Rita Moreno); Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color (Boris Leven, Victor A. Gangelin); Best Cinematography, Color (Daniel L. Fapp); Best Costume Design, Color (Irene Sharaff); Best Director (Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins); Best Film Editing (Thomas Stanford); Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture (Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin, Irwin Kostal); Best Picture (Robert Wise); Best Sound (Fred Hynes, Gordon Sawyer)