West Side Storyis still one of the best film adaptations of a musical ever created, and the finest musical film of the 60s.It played first as a pre-release engagement on Thanksgiving Day, 1942 at the Hollywood Theater in New York.The subtle film""s slogan proclaimed:"Getting there is half he fun.Being there is all of it."The film was directed by Hal Ashby (already known forHarold and Maude (1971),The Last Detail (1973),Shampoo (1975),Bound for Glory (1976),and the acclaimed Vietnam war filmComing Home (1978)).Batman urged: "They must never know what he did...the Joker cannot win.Gotham needs its true hero." Batman urged Gordon to hold him responsible for the many murders: "I killed those people.That""s what I can be...I""m whatever Gotham needs me to be."In the film""s epilogue, Gordon delivered Dent""s eulogy at his funeral, calling him a hero ("Nothing less than a knight, shining").She was excavating into an unexplored, 3,000 year old chamber of bones covered by small scorpions - something she had foreseen in her recurring dreams that had drawn her there: "I know I""ve been here before.