Romeo And Juliet Film Analysis

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.

So begins Baz Luhrmann’s production of Shakespeare's beloved play, "Romeo and Juliet," from the famous opening line of "Two Households both alike in dignity.." to the tragic end, the viewer is whisked away into the ‘depths’ of heightened realism in the world of Verona Beach.

Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic love story about two young lovers who are forced to be estranged as a result of their feuding families. The play is about their struggle to contravene fate and create a future together. As such, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would try and emulate Shakespeare’s masterpiece. This had been done before in many films. Prominent among them were, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.” Both films stay true to the themes of Shakespeare’s original play. However, the modernised Luhrmann film not only maintains the essence of Shakespeare’s writings, Luhrmann makes it relevant to a teenage audience. This is

Baz Lurhmann’s creation of the film Romeo and Juliet has shown that today’s audience can still understand and appreciate William Shakespeare. Typically, when a modern audience think of Shakespeare, they immediately think it will be boring, yet Lurhmann successfully rejuvenates Romeo and Juliet. In his film production he uses a number of different cinematic techniques, costumes and a formidably enjoyable soundtrack; yet changes not one word from Shakespeare’s original play, thus making it appeal to a modern audience.

Act III, scene i of Romeo & Juliet is the climax of the story, in which two fights are portrayed, one between Mercutio and Tybalt, and one between Romeo and Tybalt, which lead to the deaths of both Mercutio and Tybalt. When portrayed in film form in Zeffirelli’s 1968 version, and Luhrmann’s 1996 version, 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 portrayals.

In the 1996 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Luhrmann portrays the tension between free will and fate as Montagues Romeo and Benvolio converse in a pub. When questioning Romeo about his recent depression, Benvolio discovers that it stems from his unrequited love for Rosaline, a Capulet niece. By placing this conversation in a pub with a pool table, Luhrmann evokes the idea of

Although dated, the story of Romeo and Juliet still holds great appeal and relevance to today’s society, despite the differences in morals and values between William Shakespeare’s audience 500 years ago, and Baz Luhrmann’s audience today. The arising issues of order and authority, fate and love entertain/ed and appeals/ed to both viewers in different ways.

Judith Buchanan says that the story of Romeo and Juliet seems “narratable, containable, amenable to tidy, newsworthy summing up” . An important word to consider in that argument is the word “newsworthy”, as that is exactly Luhrmann’s intention; to reduce arguably the most well-known Shakespeare play to bite size pieces of teenage drama and an explosion of blatant symbolism. The extreme close ups to signs on police cars, newspaper headlines and shaky camera angles just after that short scene not only enhances Buchanan’s opinion, the urgency of this tale, but also sets the scene for the blatant product placement that is going to occur afterwards. Skyscrapers are also made the main focus of the prologue, which clearly displays the affluent lives of these infamous families with a notorious drive for conflict between them. When analysing the first ten minutes of William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, it is easy to see where the comparisons for the MTV style music videos come from. Shots of the Montague boys are shown as the film bursts into life with bright, gaudy colours and close up shots of tattoos and fluorescent pink hair that screams teenage rebellion; something that Luhrmann’s intended audience are most likely to desire at this stage. Emma French supports this by claiming that Shakespeare films rely on “appealing to the ‘teenager as rebel’ stereotype”. The camera angles are used in these aforementioned scenes to develop the backstory between the main

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love story about two star-crossed lovers held back from their family rivalries. Two great directors, Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann, tell the story of Romeo and Juliet differently, through their eyes and with their interpretations. Franco Zeffirelli expressed his version of Romeo and Juliet in 1968.In the beginning of the 1967 film, a narrator speaks the famous line, “Two households, both alike in dignity,” as a backdrop of an Italian city is shown, the city of Verona. Franco Zeffirelli’s film contained a very authentic version to what Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was mainly about. In Mr. Zeffirelli’s film, original Shakespearean dialogue is spoken among the characters, with their dialect seeming to be very accurate for the movie’s time period.

Shakespeare in Love attempts to answer the hard question of how do we make the work of William Shakespeare seem relevant to the present day, much like Baz Luhrmann attempted to in his version William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet, a play written by William Shakespeare, has been developed into numerous film adaptations. Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet adaptation does a superb job in capturing its vehement emotions and scenes. This adaptation does a superior job in encapsulating key aspects of the characters, such as mercutio and tybalt, and the time frame oF the play. In the adaptation, play’s plot is closely followed and fluidity between events is created. The movie does a exceptional job in staying true to the original piece of work.

It is one of the most honored plays in history that we all know to its best. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a timeless, classic love story set in 16th century Verona about the two star-crossed lovers, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, who keep a tender yet tough relationship. This great piece of literature is reproduced into two differing versions of movies and a live stage play that has captured the essence in their unique styles. Among all three, the 1968 film of Romeo & Juliet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, prominently captures the essence of the breathtaking moment of Romeo and Juliet’s first contact and gives off audience a great sense of romance.

The astounding perils of young love has been eloquently captured in the story of Romeo and Juliet. Franco Zefferelli and Baz Luhrmann are the creators of the two most renowned film adaptations of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Zefferelli, the more traditional director, created his Oscar winning version in 1968. Baz Luhrmann put an abstract, modern twist on Shakespeare's classic and created the 1996 version that raised millions of dollars in box office sales. Being that these two films are so different, I have chosen to compare them to one another, using the famed balcony scene as my focus.

Based in a tragic love, Shakespeare's play,”Romeo and Juliet” is set in Verona, Italy where his script involves the prolonged feud between the Montague and Capulet family. Star-crossed lovers from each family, Romeo and Juliet both find themselves in a situation where they try to conceal their love for each other from their families while putting their life on the line. Even to this day, Shakespeare’s idea of inevitable love from “Romeo and Juliet” stands true as love relationships many young teenagers have are similar to the relationship linked between Romeo and Juliet. Through the depiction of love, movies like the 1968 version and the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet are both comparable and different from one another in how the balcony scene in the old version and the masquerade party scene in the new version are rendered.

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo and Juliet plays with the genre of Shakespearean tragedy as much as it plays with it's chosen medium, film. It draws from it's Elizabethan language and also plays with the conventions of postmodernism, melding in aspects of popular 90's film, like crime and mob movies. Luhrmann's use of intensified continuity, motifs, and exciting editing styles all serve to show you Shakespeare's poetics rather than recite the poetry to you. However, that is not to say that Luhrmann entirely leaves the text behind in his film. His overtly clever imagery and word play creates a world that is detailed, textured and intertextual. The level of detail in his world indicates that a certain level of fantastical realism remains in this film, but every aspect of that detail exists to serve the poetry and the understanding and entertainment of the audience. There is never a detail that is too realist to the point of redundancy, it's all innately clever. Luhrmann is in every sense of the term, a film poet.