Bring on the tough stuff. There’s not just one right answer.
- What changes about Romeo and Juliet when you set it in 20th-century New York? What stays the same?
- How do Maria and Tony's entanglements outside of their love keep them from being together?
- Is it better or worse that one half of the couple survives here, while both die in the Shakespeare play? Why or why not?
- How do Tony and Maria distance themselves from the gang war before they meet? What changes about it after they meet?
- In what ways does the movie comment on immigration in America? How does the issue of immigration affect these characters (Jets as well as Sharks)?
- How important is Doc's role in this film? What does it say that the only sympathetic adult is completely powerless to stop what happens?
- In what ways do movement and dance help tell the story here in ways that dialogue doesn't?