Seeing the City

Abstract

When West Side Story moved from stage to screen, the story became further enmeshed in the city of its setting. The filmmakers Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise used the cinematic elements of color, light, and camera angle to build a believable—but magical—place in which lovers sang and gang members danced. In the process, though, they also captured New York in the midst of urban renewal. The broad international distribution of the film spread an image of urban life that conveyed the abstract, aerial views of urban planners such as Robert Moses alongside the dynamic, street-level action of Jane Jacobs. While the filmmakers did not make pronouncements about urban theories, they visualized urban renewal in its grandeur and detail, animating cold concrete streets with dance and pitting vitality against human tragedy at the core of urban life.