West Side Story : It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

West Side Story: So if the dumb love-struck Polack hadn't interrupted the war council, calling for a 'fair fight', the gangs would have had a rumble. Lots of bruises, cuts but otherwise harmless turf fight. But NOOO, he has to butt in resulting in three kids (including himself) killed and Chino getting the chair! Oh, but in the end the gangs get together to carry Tony and live peacefully ever after...RIIIGHT! BTW, I'm Polish.

Re: It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

I disagree with you here, paulr03. Here's why:

Tony wanted it to be a "fair fight", partly because he was in love with Maria and didn't want anybody getting killed or hurt, and partly because, as someone who had long experience in street-fighting with the use of his fists, rather than bottles, knives, guns., etc, he thought that it was cowardly to resort to weapons, rather than to get up close and to use "plain skin", as he put it.

Tony had originally planned to not go to the rumble, and to simply let the Jets and Sharks have it out. At Maria's insistence, however, Tony went and tried to stop the rumble between the Jets and Sharks, which led to even worse results; three people (i. e. Riff, Bernardo and Tony) ultimately ended up losing their lives. Unfortunately, that's what it took for the two gangs to at least temporarily come to their senses and see the consequences of their arrogance, hubris, and the ensuing gratuitous violence..

Re: It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

What caused it to begin with was the fact that they even hated each other to begin with and wanted to rumble. Yeah, Tony thought he stopped it with the fist fight but Maria convinced him to go and stop it after that. I don't think even if he hadn't interrupted the war council and let them rumble, would there not have been killings. Wouldn't a rumble still cause deaths?

Re: It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

Granted, the hatred and hostilities between the Jets and Sharks did result in the rumble in the first place, but since fisticuffs during gang fights were family common back then, it's possible that there would've been injuries but not killings, and yet, it's also possible that it might've culminated in the use of switchblade knives (which was also a common weapon in the use of gang warfare back then.), and possibly some killings, but it's really hard to know.

On the other hand, it's possible that a real truce might've formed between the Jets and Sharks, and they might've become friends after that, as well.

Re: It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

I agree. Tony was the spanner in the works. Moral being that competition between men is natural and runs its own course, and that pacifism - more of a feminine instinct - is hopelessly idealistic.

Interestingly, Tony's 'feminine' mission in trying to stop the fight, became codedly homo-erotic with the killing of Bernardo - done because of his obvious bromantic attachment to Riff. The film-makers would have been keen to work in that gay sub-text.

In fact, the gay sub-text may have been the entire raison-d'etre of the film for gay auteurs Bernstein, Robbins and Sondheim (I've no idea how far Robert Wise was in on it - would be interesting to find out).

Re: It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

You've made some interesting points here, federovsky.

Even though Tony had stepped away from the Jets as a gang, he was still very close to Riff, with whom he'd been buddies with since day one, if a person gets the drift. When Bernardo knifed Riff to death, the old "street" Tony re-emerged, and he retaliated by knifing Bernardo to death. People's original characters and dispositions do come out at opportune, or inopportune moments, and Tony was no exception, in this case.

When Tony admitted to Maria "But Riff was like my brother, so when Bernardo killed him..." that was clear evidence that the old Tony had revealed himself, and that he was closer to Riff and the Jets than he cared to realize. The Jets were still his friends, even though they might've been angry with him.

The fact that several Sharks and several Jets came together and carried Tony's body off after he'd been gunned down by Chino, however, indicates at least a hint of reconciliation between the two gangs, which was a step forward in itself.

Re: It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

I always kind of blamed Maria for insisting that Tony go and stop the fight. He's already negotiated a settlement that only involved two people having an "honorable" fist fight. There would be some cuts and bruises, but no one hit with a chain or stabbed with a knife.

Now, of course there's no guarantee the losing side would have honored the agreement afterwards and the violence could have escalated, anyway. However, interrupting it in the middle was just the stupidest thing he could have done and as an experienced gang member, he should have known that.

Re: It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

The idea that Tony or Riff would have had that kind of relationship-they'd have hated,despised and mugged homosexuals. My view-if Tony hadn't interfered, the Jet Ice would have won the fight.After the film-the gangs would have broken up gradually. They were coming up for draft age,after all-and with their leaders either dead or (in Chino's case) facing a long term in jail (at the very least)..

Re: It's all Tony's love sickness that caused the tragety!

Maria was a rather naive, but well-meaning individual, who wanted peace and love, instead of constant fighting and hatred, and one can't blame her for that, but I think that Tony probably should've explained to her why it was important for the Jets and Sharks to have it out. I think that it would've been wiser for Tony to have gone to the rumble, but allowed Ice and Bernardo to have it out with their fists, then tried to negotiate with Bernardo, and then, if Bernardo had starting pushing Tony around and attacking him physically, then had a fist-fight with Bernardo, and, if he (Tony) had won, then extended his hand to Bernardo for a handshake. That, imho, could've provided an opportunity for a real truce between the Jets and Sharks, and for Tony and Maria to get together and marry.
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