I have also thought that “West Side Story” led to a coarsening of our values. I was in Junior High in Reedsburg, WI when the movie came out and some of the guys in my class started carrying can openers (Church Keys), with electrical tape around the handles and the pointed end sharpened because it was cool and that is what the Jets carried.
Anything that glorifies urban depravity is disgusting.
Leonard Bernstein was responsible for this.
Um, wasn’t “West Side Story” just an updated “Romeo and Juliet”?