"West Side Story" was the kind of musical people thought was good for them, a pious expression of admirable but unrealistic liberal sentiments, and certainly its street gangs at war -- one Puerto Rican, one the descendants of European immigrants -- seem touchingly innocent compared to contemporary reality.... "West Side Story" remains a landmark of musical history. But if the drama had been as edgy as the choreography, if the lead performances had matched Moreno's fierce concentration, if the gangs had been more dangerous and less like bad-boy Archies and Jugheads, if the ending had delivered on the pathos and tragedy of the original, there's no telling what might have resulted. The movie began with a brave vision, and it is best when you sense that vision surviving the process by which it was turned into safe entertainment.

What they have done with "West Side Story" in knocking it down and moving it from stage to screen is to reconstruct its fine material into nothing short of a cinema masterpiece....Every moment of the drama has validity and integrity, got from skillful, tasteful handling of a universal theme. Ernest Lehman's crackling screen play, taken from Arthur Laurent's book, and Robert Wise's incisive direction are faithful and cinema-wise, and the performances are terrific except in one major role....

West Side Story is a magnificent show, a milestone in movie musicals, a box-office smash. It is so good that superlatives are superfluous. Let it be noted that the film musical, the one dramatic form that is purely American and purely Hollywood, has never been done better....Although West Side Story could properly be termed a musical tragedy, the emphasis on the latter word would be misleading. There is joy and humor profusely illuminating the stark story, and the total mood of the picture is uplifting. One of its unique qualities is a kinetic excitement that seizes the spectator in the opening sequences and does not let go until near the very end, when, purposely, the key shifts from allegro to largo, as the direction prepares the audience for the ending.

“West Side Story” is a beautifully-mounted, impressive, emotion-ridden and violent musical which, in its stark approach to a raging social problem and realism of unfoldment, may set a pattern for future musical presentations. Screen takes on a new dimension in this powerful and sometimes fascinating translation of the Broadway musical to the greater scope of motion pictures. The Robert Wise production, said to cost $6,000,000, should pile up handsome returns, first on a roadshow basis and later in general runs.