- Alternative Character Interpretation: Whether the look of stunned horror on Bernardo's face after Riff literally runs into his knife is due to genuine guilt over taking a life, the fact that it wasn't more personal, or the unexpected shock that often comes with murdering someone for the first time is left up to the viewer to interpret, as Bernardo himself is killed soon after, with far less ambiguity regarding his killer's motive.
- Fair for Its Day: One of the classic examples. It's a tragic love story about the pointlessness and destructive nature of bigotry and racism, released right around the time of the Civil Rights movement...and most of the Latino characters are played by white actors in Brownface using embarrassingly over-the-top accents. Though the original versions of West Side Story have outdated depictions of Puerto Ricans, Latin Americans still consider it an important landmark for their culture nevertheless, due to portraying them as sympathetic victims of bigotry and not simply caricatures to be laughed at. It helps that Rita Moreno - who was genuinely Latina - won an Academy Award for playing Anita in the film. Modern productions (and the 2021 film) also resolved the issues of stereotyping by using actual Latino actors for the entire Puerto Rican side of the cast.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: The movie has one Jet declare his love for Captain Marvel, to which another Jet sarcastically responds, "So marry him!" Nowadays, viewers un-versed in comic history would probably hear this exchange and wonder why the Jets are referring to Carol Danvers as a male, since Marvel Comics rechristened her superhero alias from Ms. Marvel to "Captain Marvel" in 2012; it also doesn't help that DC Comics renamed their Captain "Shazam" (after the phrase he uses to transform into his super-powered alter-ego) in 2011.
- Just Here for Godzilla: Most viewers who enjoy the film agree that the conflict between the Jets and the Sharks as well as Rita Moreno's iconic performance as Anita are much more interesting and fun to watch than the somewhat bland romance between Tony and Maria (unless you're a fan of Natalie Wood).
- Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Many Puerto Ricans like the film, despite its rather unflattering portrayal of them, and one of the songs describing Puerto Rico as a backwards Banana Republic. This might have something to do with the fact that it was remarkably pro-immigrant for the time, which might have something to do with the fact that the director and songwriter were both the sons of immigrants. While both the Jets and the Sharks are portrayed as wrong to hate and fight each other, it's clear that the Sharks are victims of racism and that their side of the gang war is more self-defense than the Jets' side is. It helps that Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Anita, too.
- More Popular Replacement: The film's version of "America" is much more beloved than the stage's, with it being a much more exciting battle of the sexes rather than Anita and her friends basically bullying another girl for thinking different. Consequently, this also makes Bernardo an example for replacing Rosalia as the song's second most prominent soloist. Helps that he's actually a major role and therefore his involvement in the number feels like it's actually adding to the character and plot, unlike when an ensemble member performs the contrarian lyrics. Then there are the lyrics themselves, which in the film juxtapose The American Dream with the realities of racism and poverty, whereas the stage lyrics mostly just praise the USA's physical luxuries (cars, TVs, etc) and disparage Puerto Rico. It's also worth noting that Stephen Sondheim himself prefers the movie's version, which he wrote first, but was forced to rewrite to make the number all-female. He believes that he subconsciously wrote worse lyrics for the stage's rendition out of spite for having to alter the song.
- Narm: The fact that Action looks like Matt Le Blanc. Or the fact that "Baby John" doesn't look or sound that much younger than the other Jets.
- Narm Charm:
- The brownface on the Puerto Rican characters has aged really, really poorly. But the actors still turn in great work despite this, with both Rita Moreno and George Chakiris being strong enough to win Academy Awards.
- The idea of dancing gangs may be silly, but the execution makes them look downright awesome.
- Nightmare Fuel: "Cool" in the film is a little unsettling to watch, especially with the multiple shots of all the Jets coming towards the camera, and the dancing makes them seem a tad unhinged, especially with the intermittent 'POW!'s.
- Older Than They Think: The iconic movie version of "America," sung by the Shark boys and girls and with more pointed lyrics about racism than the stage version's, was actually how the song was originally written and intended to be performed. However, Jerome Robbins insisted it be changed to an all female number since the show didn't have one, and Stephen Sondheim accordingly rewrote the lyrics to be less political. Once the movie was made, it was changed back to its original version.
- One-Scene Wonder: John Astin makes a brief but memorable appearance as Glad Hand.
- Questionable Casting: Natalie Wood, a Russian-American non-singer, was cast as a Puerto-Rican in a musical.
- Retroactive Recognition: A borderline case, since he's the lead and it's an iconic, Academy Award-winning film, but considering how little he's done in the three decades in-between, and considering how much hammier and more fun his latter role is, it might be surprising for a certain generation of viewers to find out that amoral hotel-owner Ben Horne can sing and dance.
- Unintentional Period Piece: The film was made (very early) in The '60s but is presumably set in 1957, which is when the play debuted. Admittedly, the Jets look and talk like a product of their time, but the much grittier Sharks look like they could be from two or three decades into the future. The dialogue, however, was fairly authentic teenage slang from The '50s—which of course makes it sound incredibly dated to modern viewers. Stephen Sondheim has been quoted as saying that Arthur Laurents created original slang ("Cracko, jacko!") specifically to avoid this trope. Clearly, he failed.
- WTH, Costuming Department?: The Sharks' costumes in the film have been interpreted by some as racist for how alien they look compared to the normal clothes of the white characters. And then of course there's the brownface used on all of them, particularly Rita Moreno who was actually the right ethnicity in the first place and wouldn't have needed that makeup. But given the other actors were so bronzed up, not touching her would've made Moreno's lighter complexion look odd compared to the other Puerto Ricans.
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