Comparing Luhrmann's Romeo And Juliet

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film, Romeo + Juliet effectively appropriates the Shakespearean 16th century love tragedy. So why has Luhrmann decided to appropriate Romeo and Juliet? By changing the context, Luhrmann effectively makes the play relevant, discussing his contextual concerns of the 1990’s. This is done through the use of themes in the film, love, family disputes and hate which have remained similar to the original play, although the way they have been presented are different, in particular the form and characters. The form has had an obvious change as the original play has been adapted into a film. Characters in the film have also been appropriated to correspond with Luhrmann's contextual concerns. Hence, Luhrmann successfully appropriates the original Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet by maintaining similar themes, but altering the form and characterisation to fit his contextual concerns.

How effective is Luhrmann’s film Romeo and Juliet as a modern day appropriation of Shakespeare's play you ask? Baz Luhrmann's appropriation of the original play of “Romeo And Juliet” is highly effective as it is modernized to meet the interests and expectations of a 20th century teenage audience. Throughout the original 16th century play, Shakespeare develops the themes of family rivalry and love. The theme of family rivalry has been implemented into the original play through the conflict between two powerful families in the city of Verona. Throughout his appropriation of the play, Baz Luhrmann successfully preserves the same concept of family rivalry but modernises it by portraying the two families as two large business corporations and brands who are constantly in competition with each other. Shakespeare implements the theme of love through main character Romeo being made to resemble and fulfil the role of a typical "Petrarchan lover". Luhrmann also effectively integrates the theme of love through his successful use of filmic techniques to illustrate the unbreakable love between Romeo and Juliet whose love resembles and portrays the characteristics of a 20th century relationship. Using these modern elements, Luhrmann’s film effectively appeals to the contemporary teenage audience whilst powerfully conveying the themes of family rivalry and love. These adaptations made by Luhrmann in his film create a more comprehensible meaning as teenagers can relate to the film with a

Luhrmann’s production of Shakespeare’s tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, appeals to the audience members largely due to Mercutio’s death. The weather, the acting and the music make this version powerful. The acting makes this scene of the movie believable when Mercutio was dying, Romeo was getting sad and started crying. Tybalt felt so bad that he killed Mercutio and didn’t know what to do he was just shocked and stood still looking at Romeo and Mercutio. The weather was sunny, hot and the sky was blue and the clouds were out and about. When Mercutio cursed both Romeo and Tybalt houses and started to die the weather started to change. The skies started to turn dark grey and thunder and lightning began and the wind so powerful started to blow all things around it away. Then out of nowhere a powerful storm has began to start when Mercutio was dying in Romeo’s arms. After Romeo killed Tybalt the storm began to become calm down and the storm had stop.

In the play, the audience observes that the relationship between Juliet and her mother is dreadful as the relationship is very formal between Juliet and Lady Capulet. Shakespeare portrays this by Juliet calling her mother, ‘Madam’. This implies that Juliet is distant with her mother as she addresses her in a formal tone and this is not what you would call a mother. This illustrates that the relationship between Juliet and Lady Capulet is so bad, that she is equal to a stranger. Baz Lurhmann does not cut out this part, but, the camera angle faces Juliet to show the respect Juliet has for her mother. The effect created by this action is the audience can see that Juliet has deference for her mother even though she addresses her as a stranger, not as a mother and Luhrmann expresses this well. The Nurse cannot be seen at this time, which makes it more personal between Juliet and her mother. Baz Luhrmann and William Shakespeare both portray the terrible relationship between Juliet and her mother in the same way. However Baz Luhrmann has an advantage of camera use to depict the relationship between Juliet and her mother, whereas the audience will be watching all the characters in the play and they will not gain a sense of personal relationship which Luhrmann portrays through the camera angles. As a result, Baz Luhrmann and William Shakespeare both express the relationship using similar

However Zeffirelli included lot’s of details related to the book. For example, in 1:5 Shakespeare showed some good graphics. Without the need of illusions or making the character seem like they’re on drugs and shows he’s done a good job. This is because the party had to seem fun. Also the mood in the Zeffirelli version gave off a more romantic feeling. What this illustrates is how the Luhrmann version seemed more like a party, but not with the right feeling. For example, in the party scene, Romeo and Juliet had to meet for the very first time, and Luhrmann doesn’t really have a pleasing point of view. As a result Zeffirelli had a better eye on the tragedy.

Another significant scene that was portrayed differently in the two versions was the suicide scene. Zeferelli’s version is once again almost exact to what we read in the book. Romeo sees what he perceives to be a dead Juliet lying in her family’s tomb, and distraught by the sight he drinks poison. When Juliet awakens from her sleep she finds Romeo dead, and stabs herself with his knife. In Luhrmanns version Romeo goes to the church where Juliet is laid out for her funeral. He also sees what he perceives to be a dead Juliet and drinks poison. When Juliet awakens from her sleep she finds out Romeo has swallowed poison and is dying. The main difference lies in the fact that we are led to believe that maybe he will see her awake

Of the two cinematic portrayals of the climax, in Act II, scene i, of Romeo & Juliet, the Luhrmann version from 1996 is superior to the Zeffirelli version. When comparing the two one can notice that there are many differences, and similarities. While these two films are telling the same story, it is the differences between the two that lead to Luhrmann’s 1996 version being superior. Due to its more dramatic settings, and character interactions and actor

Luhrman has based his version at Verona Beach; America and instead of basing it in the 16th century like Zeffirelli, he had his film based in the 20th century, with mansions, shiny cars and bright lights. While Zeffirelli paced his film in an Iambic pentameter – a traditional Shakespeare pace; Luhrman never kept his film at a solid pace. “By modernizing these aspects of the play, and reconstructing the prologue, Luhrmann creates a movie that is more interesting to the modern viewers.” ("Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet." 123HelpMe.com). As Zeffirelli may have believed famous actors would steal his show he instead hired fresh new faces to give the movie a more fresh, innocence value, But Luhrman used well known actors to play the lead roles. This worked because more people were attracted to the film by the actors.

This director’s choice shows that both directors cherished and respected Shakespeare's written text. In Zeffirelli’s film, the dialogue fits in with the other aspects of the film, such as the costumes and set. since everything is traditional, but what is interesting is that the actors manage to sound very natural and comfortable with the dialogue. They managed to convey strong emotion with help of the text and entirely transformed into the characters. Since, Zefferelli's version both includes the traditional sets, costumes, and language it makes it easy for the audience to understand the original play, the film is straightforward and does not contradict the original play, making the film a credible resort for those who want to have a better understanding of the story. Unlike Zeffirelli’s version, Luhrmann’s costumes and set do not suit the dialogue, making the Shakespearean dialogue in his version both strange to watch and hear, another odd aspect is that at times the characters did not precisely mean what they were saying, for instance, when a character was talking about their sword, they were actually talking about their guns named sword, consequently, this made the dialogue confusing to follow at times. Nevertheless, the actors in both films managed to execute an admirable performance and did Shakespeare's text

Is the movie Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann’s good or bad? A movie where took place in fair Verona. Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet was about two families mortal enemies for a very long time where in just one night where so called love at first sight happen. The friction of Montague and Capulet ended by the death of the two young children who fall in love with each other from both families. Baz Luhrmann’s movie version of Romeo and Juliet does a great job of retelling this love story.

Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet was an accurate representation of the famous Shakespearean play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and was very entertaining for today’s audience. First, this modern version presented the original play in both an appealing and entertaining way for the younger generation. People today are interested in movies that are more romantic yet action packed, and Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet met these preferences. The film included many scenes from the original play that were changed to be action packed and tragic, such as the gunfights between the Capulets and Montagues, which appealed to the younger audience because of their modern day thinking. Because the film was action packed, the audience took an interest

There were quite of few differences between William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet play and Baz Luhrmann’s movie based on the play. For example, the ending scene in the movie left out a lot. Paris never showed up at the cemetery to place flowers at Juliet’s tomb. Thus, Paris and Romeo never got in a quarrel that had ended in Paris’s death. Baz Luhrmann probably left out this small part in the movie because Paris wasn’t a major character in the movie. Also at that part in the scene there was already a lot going on, so leaving out that fight between Romeo and Paris wouldn’t have taken a huge toll in that certain scene. In the play that small detail told the readers that Paris’s love was true for Juliet. However by leaving out that part out in the movie it didn’t tell the audience if Paris was actually into the marriage for true love. Also Juliet was awake before Romeo died as well. However he didn’t notice that she was awake quick enough before he had drank the poison. By having Juliet wake before Romeo passed away made that

Baz Luhrman’s Romeo +Juliet is a modernised version of the famous play by Shakespeare also called Romeo and Juliet. The story follows the life of two “star-crossed lovers” and their struggle to come together because of the feud between the Montague and the Capulet families. Throughout the movie important settings such as the pool(the modernised version of the balcony scene), the church where Romeo and Juliet marry and finally the setting inside the church where the infamous double suicide takes place. These settings help the viewer to understand the idea of their love being pure and exciting by modernising it from the original play, showcasing the importance Verona Beach and Romeo and Juliet gave religion in their love and finally their quest

Have you wondered how much romeo and juliet movies are out there and how much are actually worth watching? Let me inform you which movie is worth watching. The Baz Luhrmann version was the best well at least in my opinion. For one it had better graphics, better clothing and just better scenes.

The story of Romeo and Juliet is a romance that has weathered the test of time, with many different renderings and views of it. In class we saw two different retellings of this classic story. With many differences and similarities both movies shared a new perspective on this tale. After much deliberation I believe that Luhrmann did a better job bring this romance to life. His version of the story was more understandable, and got through to the watchers.