In an early scene, there is a wide overhead shot of the street. The pavement is in typical US movie studio style - wet - during that shot. Seconds later the Jets arrive at street level and the pavement is bone dry.
At 6:40 when the young man is climbing into the back of the truck with watermelons his hands are positioned on the tailgate of the truck. In the next cut, they switch to the side of the truck.
The floor area behind and beneath the bleachers is free and clear when Maria and Tony meet each other, but when they are interrupted by the woman warning them Bernardo was coming, the floor is suddenly littered with tossed pom-poms, gym equipment, and other stuff.
At 1:10:55, Tony holds the train door open with his right hand. In the next shot, his hand is lower down on the door.
When Anibal opens the tailgate of the truck and releases the watermelons, the truck is positioned in the center of the street with the sunlit area directly in the middle of the truck. The next shot where the boys are chasing him and they start to fall over the melons shows the driving truck in the same spot - however - the following shot now has the truck positioned far over to the left, with the left side of the truck completely out of the shadow and the sunlit center far to the right of the truck.
When Riff goes to buy a gun and is asked if he's ever shot a gun before, he replies that he's shot a .32 caliber Colt. The man selling the gun says that Colt revolvers come in .22, not .32. In fact, at the period when this story is set, Colt revolvers were widely available in .22, .32, .38, and .45, and Colt auto-pistols were available in .22, .32, .380, 9mm, and .45.
While Puerto Ricans did live in the area which ultimately became Lincoln Center, it was actually populated predominately by African-Americans.
During the America number, a parking garage clearly states "Aparcamiento". While that word would be used in Spain beginning in the 1960s, in most of Latin America, and especially Puerto Rico, parque or estacionamiento would have been understood as "Parking". In the same frame, the word Groceria appears. While that is incorrect in proper Spanish, it is however widely used in Spanglish in the United States.
Lieutenant Schrank is wearing a detective's badge, not a lieutenant's badge.
After Chino shoots Tony twice in the back and Tony is lying on his back, a blood spot appears on his chest. It's nearly impossible that a .32 caliber round would penetrate completely through his body.
None of the lead characters smoke cigarettes except for Riff. None of the girls in either gang smoke. This is insultingly incorrect.
You can't assume they don't smoke just because they're not depicted smoking in any particular scene. Additionally, while it may not have been typical for large groups of the time to have zero smokers, it certainly couldn't be considered unheard of. Whether the characters smoke or not is a matter of artistic license and can't be considered a mistake either way.
You can't assume they don't smoke just because they're not depicted smoking in any particular scene. Additionally, while it may not have been typical for large groups of the time to have zero smokers, it certainly couldn't be considered unheard of. Whether the characters smoke or not is a matter of artistic license and can't be considered a mistake either way.
All the vehicles in the New York City slum where the story takes place are spotlessly clean and shiny. Not one has even the smallest dent. Most of the vehicles should have appeared dusty, dirty, and beat up. Also, at least one was a 1959 Oldsmobile, which is two years after the story takes place.
In the beginning, when the camera is showing the rubble around the area undergoing renovation, a sign is shown that reads in all caps, "This Property Purchased By The The New York Housing Authority for Slum Clearance." The word "the" is printed twice.
When Tony and Maria enter the 72nd Street Station, it is a two-track station. (Walls are visible on both sides of the station.) 72nd Street on the Broadway line is - and has been since it opened - a four track station: the two inner tracks are express (uptown/downtown), the two outer tracks local (uptown/downtown). And both uptown and downtown platforms are visible.
The 9th (Columbus) Ave elevated train tracks in the Upper West Side were removed after their closure in 1940.
A pinball machine is seen in the drugstore. However, pinball was outlawed in New York until 1976.
Several 1970s Checker Marathon Taxi cabs are visible throughout the film, notably in the garage where the Jets hang out. This is a common movie mistake for films set in the 1950s because the taxi was designed in 1962 and produced relatively unchanged until 1982.
The term "mutually assured destruction" was not coined until 1962.
The sound of the subway car motor in the scene at the 72nd street subway station are not from that era's car design (which are actually still used for special "Holiday Train" outings in December), but are that of modern trains -- most likely Bombardier MITRAC propulsion units.
The corner of Broadway and W 68th streets shows Broadway as narrow as a street - it's actually much "broader" as it has 2 lanes in each direction.
The appearance of the 72nd St. Subway platform is surprisingly accurate, except for the style of the signage. The designers erred when they used the same platform as the "34th St" platform. There is no "34th St" station on the Broadway/7th Ave line. The stop is "Pennsylvania", after Penn Station. If Maria was going to work at Gimbel's, she probably would have used the 6th Ave line, which had a totally different appearance.
The Jets vandalize a mural of the Puerto Rican flag, which is in the original light blue (created in 1895 by the Puerto Rican faction of the Cuban Revolutionary Party). After Puerto Rico was colonized by the United States in 1898, the flag's color was changed to dark blue. Granted, the color change was intentional by the filmmakers, as the mural includes a quote from Pedro Albizu Campos (a leader of Puerto Rico's independence movement), but its artist(s) would probably not have known that, so the flag should be its current dark blue.