“Could We Not Dye It Red at Least?”: Color and Race in West Side Story

Journal of Popular Film and Television ISSN: 0195-6051 (Print) 1930-6458 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjpf20 “Could We Not Dye It Red at Least?”: Color and Race in West Side Story Lauren Davine To cite this article: Lauren Davine (2016) “Could We Not Dye It Red at Least?”: Color and Race in West Side Story, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 44:3, 139-149, DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2016.1161585 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2016.1161585 Published online: 20 Sep 2016. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 15 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjpf20 Download by: [UZH Hauptbibliothek / Zentralbibliothek Zürich] Date: 03 October 2016, At: 04:11 “Could We Not Dye It Red at Least?”: Color and Race in West Side Story West Side Story (1961). Directed by Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise. Shown: preview program cover. Photo courtesy of United Artists/ Photofest. By LAUREN DAVINE efore embarking on his work as choreographer and co-director of West Side Story (1961), Jerome Robbins wrote a letter to BSaul Chaplin, Walter Mirisch, and Robert Wise, the producers of the film, expressing his anxiety surrounding the adaptation of the Broadway musical to the screen: West Side Story was a believable and touching work because of the spe- cial poetic conventions we evolved, conventions which were inherently theatrical. The problem is now to find a new set of conventions, inher- Copyright © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2016.1161585 ently cinematic, which will also convey the essence of a show whose Color versions of one or more of the figures in the essence is not in any of its separate elements . but in their organic article can be found online at www.tandfonline. unity. (qtd. in Vaill 322). com/vjpf. 139 140 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television Robbins realized his artistic vision and to violet, to iris blue, etc. The array of Abstract: West Side Story’s (1961) har- retained the rigorous coherence of his colors onscreen each correspond to a monious integration of music, dance, original production. Amanda Vaill, a song in the overture, and reemerge later and cinematography is evidence of its biographer of Robbins, argues that the on when the song is featured in a musi- effective transposition from stage to strongest segments of the film adapta- cal number (Acevedo-Muñoz 125). For screen. However, despite the film’s os- tion were characterized by a novel “syn- example, the poppy red backdrop in the tensible unity on the level of structure thesis of music, shot, and action” (322). overture is accompanied by the instru- and style, one cannot ignore the strong Wise’s “imaginative but controlled color mentals of the song, “Tonight.” Corre- sense of dissension present in terms of concept” (Wise, qtd. in Acevedo-Muñoz spondingly, the “Tonight” musical num- racial conflict in the film, which is played 18) is reflected in the film’s meticu- ber/montage opens with an ominous sky out through the film’s color. This ar- lous design, which foregrounds, above at sunset in this same shade of red. The ticle argues that this disunity expressed all else, the expressive potential of the overture sequence is the first indication through the film’s color, as well as the film’s color cinematography (Acevedo- that the use of color in the film is care- “chromophobia” that runs throughout Muñoz 18). fully and thoughtfully orchestrated. The the film, are indicative of a deeper fear The film’s intricate color scheme is function of color is further reinforced of miscegenation which lies at its core. introduced in the overture, where the by the “color-coordinated costumes” only movement over an abstract Man- (Acevedo-Muñoz 18) and set design. Keywords: color, Hollywood cinema, mu- hattan skyline is the changing back- Ostensibly, color plays a central role sical, race, West Side Story ground colors: from citrine yellow, to in sustaining the “organic unity” of the poppy red, to persimmon, to magenta, musical that Robbins describes. Despite West Side Story (1961). Directed by Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise. Shown: Jet Song. Photo courtesy of United Artists/Photofest. Color and Race in West Side Story 141 West Side Story (1961). Directed by Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise. Shown far left: George Chakiris; right foreground: Russ Tamblyn. Photo courtesy of United Artists/Photofest. the film’s unified structure and style, sis of the film’s reception in various the film reproduces racist discourses of however, the strong sense of dissen- contexts, Negrón-Muntaner challenges white American ideology by construct- sion in terms of racial conflict cannot be dominant interpretations of the film by ing a series of “binary oppositions” ignored. The conflict between the two uncovering “subversive readings” which which reinforce a mythology of Puerto rival gangs is played out through the work to effectively address the ways in Ricans “as invaders and intruders of film’s color, which disrupts its organic which the film has constructed “Puerto the U.S. mainland” (Sandoval-Sánchez unity. This disunity expresses a fear of Rican subjectivity as deviant” (87). This 64). This sense of fear and anxiety sur- miscegenation, an anxiety that insidi- contention also follows Alberto Sando- rounding the racial other in the film is ously permeates the entire film. val-Sánchez’s reading of the musical as displaced onto another discourse em- The film’s preoccupation with mis- framing “ethnic difference as a threat to phasizing the fear of color itself. cegenation is pointed out by Frances the territorial, racial, and linguistic iden- The fear and loathing of color in Negrón-Muntaner, who argues that the tity, as well as to the national and impe- Western culture is what David Batchelor film’s “antimiscegenation motif” places rial subjectivity, of Anglo-Americans” terms “chromophobia” (22). For Batch- it alongside D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of (63). In his deconstructive analysis of elor, chromophobia’s modus operandi is a Nation (1915) (88). Through an analy- the film, Sandoval-Sánchez argues that “to purge color from culture” and to un- The conflict between the two rival gangs is played out through the film’s color, which disrupts its organic unity. This disunity expresses a fear of miscegenation, an anxiety that insidiously permeates the entire film. 142 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television If in Western culture color is associated with a foreign, exotic “other” … then it is no coincidence that the most colorful sequences in the film … are ones that showcase Puerto Rican subjects. dermine its value and importance (22). that the spectacle of ethnic otherness in this presents against the more restrained Batchelor argues that there are two ra- the film is used to divert attention away gestural vocabulary of a predominantly tionales used for this expulsion of color from the racism at its core (64). This Anglo-Saxon culture” (206). This sense (22). The first understands color to be strategy is employed in the “America” of restraint that Knapp identifies is as- characteristic of “some ‘foreign’ body— sequence. The song is set up as a “male- sociated with the Jets, whose white- usually the feminine, the oriental, the female” (Acevedo-Muñoz 160) political ness marks them as American and the primitive, the infantile, the vulgar, the argument between Anita (Rita Moreno) “norm.” It is also expressed in the light, queer or the pathological” (Batchelor and Bernardo (George Chakiris). Anita muted, and washed-out colors worn by 22–23). The second frames color as takes an assimilationist stance, reject- the Jets. Almost all of the Jets wear vari- “superficial” and “supplementary,” as ing her country of origin and praising ations and gradations of muted browns, something that is “inessential” (Batch- life in America, while Bernardo takes an mauves, yellows, beiges, blues, and elor 23). In summary, color is marked as anti-assimilationist one (Sandoval-Sán- grays. The cool tones that the Jets wear both “dangerous” and “trivial” (Batch- chez 72). Bernardo’s lyrics effectively are in keeping with the “cool, angular” elor 23). Moreover, the fear and de- express the racism and prejudice that and “modern strands of jazz” that are nouncement of color in Western culture the Puerto Rican immigrants have to associated with them, most pointedly in is symptomatic of broader anxieties sur- endure (“Life is all-right in America/If the cool jazz musical number, “Cool” rounding “race, gender, [and] sexuality” you’re all-white in America”). Despite (Wells 147). Moreover, aside from some (Dalle Vacche and Price 52). “Color is Bernardo’s demystification of Anita’s of the Jets being aptly named “Ice” and routinely excluded from the higher con- assimilationist argument (Sandoval- “Snowboy,”2 their choreography is also cerns of the mind,” argues Batchelor Sánchez 73), Sandoval-Sánchez asserts consistent with their cool demeanor, (23). “It is other to the higher values that these dissenting statements are ul- especially in the “Prologue,” with their of Western culture” (Batchelor 23). As timately overshadowed by the song’s detached finger snaps, cool strides, and a case in point, Robbins expressed his “patriotic pro-U.S. propaganda” (73). chassés. Thus, one could argue that the dislike for West Side Story’s ostenta- Moreover, the incredible dancing and restrained movements and, by exten- tious use of color in a letter to friend and syncopating Latin rhythm further under- sion, colors, worn by the Jets are rep- dance critic, Richard Buckle: cut the song’s social commentary, invit- resentative of the “chromophobic im- Some of it’s wonderful and exciting ing the audience to become mesmerized pulse” (Price 80) that Batchelor writes .

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