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Baz luhrmann romeo and juliet review essay
Comparing film versions of Romeo and Juliet
Baz luhrmann romeo and juliet review essay
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Post-modernism in Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet: a comparison of two creative works from two different periods.
In 1996, Baz Luhrmann directed “Romeo + Juliet”, a modern twist on the famous tragedy play by William Shakespeare in 1597 where the main characters Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet where portrayed by Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes. While some praise the strange interpretation of the old tale, there are also those who condemn the rendition as a destructive and disrespectful to the great work of Shakespeare. There will always be two sides to every story and this work will take that into consideration as well as comparing the two different yet similar works to see how post modernism has played a role in Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet.
Baz Luhrmann decided to have a more modern look for the movie, settling on Verona Beach, a teeming seaside metropolis which has been destroyed by the ongoing dispute between Capulet and Montague for the location instead of Verona in Italy. This location consisted of high-rise buildings, gas stations, cars and fast food vendors which did not even exist at the time Romeo and Juliet was written or performed.
In addition to the location, Luhrmann chose to have a contemporary look for the costumes as well. For instance, in the opening scene the Montague boys are sporting Hawaiian shirts and artificially coloured hair whereas the Capulet boys wore leather and metal-heeled boots. This current approach is a major deviation from the traditional Elizabethan wear, location and facilities that were available.
In the film, there were no forced British and Italian accents as one would expect. This was because Luhrmann believed Shakespearean...
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...was one of the people who believed L “Luhrmann, who wrote the screenplay with Craig Pearce, turns the Montagues into flower-shirted, Miami Beach-like punks, who sport 9mm revolvers rather than swords”. (Howe, 1996)
Although Luhrmann’s loyalty to the original story may be questioned, his film has proven to be entertaining and successful. The film has outpaced the other adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and other Shakespearean plays as can be seen from the approximately 30 million dollars that it made through tickets and box office sales. Just as there are avid followers of the original tale by Shakespeare, Luhrmann’s version has a big fan base which, since its release 1996, has seen the film reach cult status and it can be said that Luhrmann has modernized Romeo and Juliet just as it can be said that he has ruined a brilliant masterpiece that was fine the way it was.
Context has greatly influenced how Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare in the 1500’s to how Williams Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet was produced in 1996 by Baz Luhrmann with a more modern intention.
Romeo and Juliet is a play about two lovers who have to risk their lives in order to demonstrate their love and will to stay together, regardless the feud between their families. By the end, the death of Romeo and Juliet finally bring the reconciliation to these two families. It is fate that the two most shall-not meet people fall in love and it love that eventually won against hatred. Since then, there have been many different versions of Romeo and Juliet, whether it was for film, stage, musicals. These different recontextualised adaptions change the original play by many ways, some modernise the language, environment, props as well as changing the original characteristics of some characters. Out of all the different adaptions of Romeo and Juliet, two stood out the most. One was the Romeo and Juliet (1996) and directed by Baz Luhrmann and the other one was Romeo and Juliet Broadway (2013) play version,
One of the most celebrated plays in history, “Romeo and Juliet”, was written by William Shakespeare in the late 16th century. It is a story about two lovers that have to meet in secret because of an ongoing family feud. Tragically, because of their forbidden love Romeo and Juliet take their lives so they can be together. In 1997, a movie was adapted from the play “Romeo and Juliet”, directed by Baz Lurhmann. However, as alike as the movie and the play are, they are also relatively different.
Baz Luhrmann's Success of Making Romeo & Juliet Accessible to a Modern Audience. In this essay I am going to write about how successfully Baz Luhrmann made his film Romeo and Juliet accessible to a modern audience. Baz Luhrmann uses Shakespeare's authentic text, combining it with a modern setting. This combination attracts the off spring of the modern.
In 1996 an australian film director Baz Luhrman introduces the new adaptation of the ageless love story – “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare. The action is moved to America and happening in the end of 20th century. In an imaginary city Verona Beach the two powerful clans Montague (Anglo-Saxon) and Capulet (Latinos) brutally rival. The swords are substituted with the guns, the ancient costumes with jeans and shirts. The art director Catherine Martin didn’t have any lack of materials, since the 20th century brought a great variety of heels, lighters, shirts, bikers, rockers, leather, tattoos, piercing, etc. The creators originally approached the small details: the street posters
Luhrmann’s 1996 Romeo and Juliet is compelling when communicating the main ideas of the play by providing the audience with a modern translation of the play using the motifs in the film which correlate to the play.
Baz Luhrmann's Production of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Julie in Baz Luhrmann's production of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", our expectations are swept aside and a modern film appears. When I sit down to watch one of Shakespeare's plays, I expect to see medieval clothes in a rural setting with plenty of poor people. I also expect the words and acting to blend together harmoniously. Instead Baz Luhrmann chose to set the opening scene at a beachside, gas. station.
He uses many camera angles and film techniques to show the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to a modern audience. Baz Luhrman’s use of Camera angles to convey an audience into his invited reading is second to none, He has managed to change the overall gist of the traditional Shakespeare version of Romeo and Juliet while still retaining the story line to suit a modern teen audience. An example of this is when Romeo is arriving at the Capulet party with a mask on and the invite in his hand after taking an ecstasy pill. Baz Luhrman uses a close up shot and slow motion camera movement to emphasise the fact that Romeo is disorientated because of the drugs. The tablet changes the context from a 70s or 80s to a modern 90s when ecstasy was very common and in ‘trend’. Baz Luhrman has efficiently dressed the real life characters to relate to their Romeo and Juliet meaning. Romeo is dressed as a knight in shining armour to resemble his brave courteous soul by being Juliet’s ‘savour’. Juliet is dressed as an angel to show her innocence and beauty. The antagonist Tybalt is costumed as the devil to resemble the evil that he brings to their relationship and lets the audience know that he is unwanted or bad. The song playing during the party is a well know pop/love song. Baz Luhrman uses it to show the upbeat personality of the characters and the atmosphere of the party.
The classic play Romeo and Juliet by the famous playwright William Shakespeare is one of the most beautiful love stories of all time and has captured and inspired readers everywhere. Regardless of the fact that it was written in the 1500’s, it is still being performed and extolled today. There is a multitude of reasons for such continuance of the play. First of all, its everlasting themes of love and hate enable people to deeply relate to the story. Secondly, its memorable characters deeply imprint on the minds of readers. And lastly, above all, is its magnificent language which many writers today regard in awe. These three elements make the acclaimed play, Romeo and Juliet, one of the most timeless stories of our lives.
Lurhmann sets the film in a fictitious border city between the United States and Mexico. The city is called ‘Verona’ so it maintains its original name from the play. It is extremely built-up and urban just like New York or London so that a modern audience can relate to the film and understand where the film is set. In other modern films, a big urban city is usually the setting where there are big gang rivalries and Lurhmann makes this clear by showing that the Montague’s and Capulet’s are the big two families in the city and they are not to be reckoned with.
Also the colour might represent his character. By using guns instead of swords Luhrmann explores the idea of gang culture, relating to our society that we live today. The guns are effective because they help to emphasise the danger and hatred between the two rival families. Another way Baz Luhrmann brings the classic play, Romeo & Juliet, into modern context is by introducing the prologue through the media of T.V. and having it read by a newsreader. When the movie starts, the newsreader announces: "In fair Verona …... ...
Welcome to Verona Beach, a sexy, violent other-world, neither future nor past, ruled by two rival families, the Montagues and the Capulets...
...f the play, is set what seems to be the Capulets’ backyard which unlike. Romeo and Juliet spend most of the scene in the pool, which symbolically may be referring to some of the missed lines about water and waves in Shakespeare’s original script. The Scene was more fast, or “Spoken in a breakneck pace (as was common in Shakespeares time, and as benefits passionate lovers who are terrified of getting caught.)” (Botnick 2002).
How Baz Luhrmann Uses Props, Iconography, Costumes, and Settings to Create His Own Version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare’s best loved tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, has been portrayed in theatres and on film in many different ways. But none have been quite like Baz Luhrmann’s imaginative and unconventional adaptation. He has brought aspects of the plays Elizabethan origins and transfused them with a modern day background and created, what can only be described as a masterpiece. I believe that his use of Props, iconography costumes and the settings he has chosen has helped him to make this film such a great success. The settings of each scene have been specifically chosen to create a desired affect.
The term 'cultural epoch ' refers to the theory that different periods are defined by a distinctive cohesion, defined by the events and cultural features that are present. Both Franco Zeffirelli 's Romeo and Juliet, filmed in 1968, and Baz Luhrmann 's 1996 movie William Shakespeare 's Romeo + Juliet were filmed in such times, both greatly effected by the cultural epoch that surround them. The influence that each film received from, and subsequent embedding in, the cultural epoch which surrounds them can be seen through various ways: most strikingly, the stylistic decisions of directors, the scenes