West Side Story: Escaping upbringing is easier said than done:

West Side Story, as wonderful a film as it is, also states another message: That escaping one's upbringing is way easier said than done.

Tony, the leader of the Jets, breaks away from the gang, is harangued by his old friend Riff, who's now the Jet gang leader after Tony decided he wanted out of gang life and the streets, to attend the Dance at the Gym that night. Tony didn't want to go, but decided to go anyway, at Riff's persuasion, due to him still being Riff's friend.

Tony, who's been a gangster and a street-kid for pretty much all his life, at this point, has done his share of beating up and possibly killing and seriously injuring people and, in general, perpetrating violence, and even leading it on. Although Tony meets and falls in love with Maria, the sister of Shark gang leader, Bernardo at the dance that night, Bernardo is clearly not going to let Tony forget the fact that he'd beaten up as many Puerto Ricans as any of the other Jets or other White European Ethnic Americans.

What Tony fails to realize is, however, that even though he wants out of the gang, he's still going to be paying the price for his past. During the Rumble, however, when Bernardo stabs Riff and Tony retaliates by stabbing and killing Bernardo, the old "street" Tony re-emerges albeit temporarily, but it re-emerges, nonetheless. The fact that Riff, Bernardo, and Tony all went down for the final count (Tony at the hand of Chino's gun, in retaliation for his having stabbed and killed his friend, Bernardo), indicates another thing, too; Since Riff, Bernardo and Tony had all been perpetrators of violence, they were bound to wind up on the receiving end of it, which finally happened.

Tony realized, too late, if at all, that escaping the life that he'd lived up until shortly before meeting Maria, was way easier said than done, and, in the end, if Tony's death is any indication, was unable to.

Although this last thing is a bit off-topic, here's another thing that's brought to mind: In The Town, Doug's farewell letter to Claire states: "No matter how much you change, you still have to pay the price for what you've done I have a long road." As much as I don't like The Town, that message was quite succinct. This same thing could very well have applied to Tony, Riff and Bernardo, had they lived.