The opening sequence of West Side Story sets up the story beautifully to follow Romeo and Juliet because they are very similar, while West Side Story is able to retain its own spirit. The movie opens with a huge dance number through the streets of New York. The style of the opening of a Shakespeare play sometimes begins with a conversation between minor characters that sets the stage for the whole play. This is what the elaborate dance number at the beginning of West Side Story is. I love it when movies or any sort of visual medium takes advantage of being visual. They could have spend 20 minutes or even a whole other movie setting up the relationship between the Jets and the Sharks and the nature of their gang rivalry, but instead they were able to get the same message across with nine minutes running through the streets. I also think it did a great job of setting up the relationship between the gangs. I liked the back and forth where the gangs would change off who is cat and who is mouse by having the number of people running vs. chasing change. The opening sequence also did a great job of setting the idea that there was a lot of tension between the gangs based on who had control of what territory. I think the opening scene of West Side Story is absolutely brilliant because although you don't have dialogue until six minutes into the movie already at that point you have the conflict set up and a clear picture of the relationship between the two main forces in the story.