‘West Side Story’ (1961)
In honor of Spielberg’s remake, it’s time to revisit a classic. You might not have West Side Story on VHS, but thanks to the streaming age, you can still watch it at any time for one of the greatest love stories of all time. Starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, and Rita Moreno (who landed a role in the new flick, of course), Sondheim’s Broadway classic was memorialized in this 1961 masterpiece. If “Tonight (Quintet)” doesn’t make you a little teary, nothing will. You probably already know the gist: boy meets girl, they fall in love, things seem swell, except for one tiny detail. They come from rival gangs! Can they look past that to find true love? Or is romance dead in this pocket of New York? After some grand dance numbers, kicks higher than the Empire State Building, flowering red dresses, and stolen glances, at least one person’s heart will be full — yours, of course.