West Side Story: The End Credits
Features / 08 August 2005
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West Side Story opens with only a title credit. In keeping with its prior incarnation as a stage musical, the players and company are given patient credits at the end of the film. Story is liberal escape from its Shakespeare source, transplanted in contemporary Manhattan and told in song and dance. Bass’ end credits sequence completes the transplant as a live-action montage of graffiti scrawled upon worn urban surfaces. The composition scrutinizes each wall, zooming, panning, and then halting patiently on each credit. Occurring after the tragedy that closes the film, Bass’ hand-scrawled type authenticates the environment and conflict.