Romeo And Juliet Movie Comparison Essay

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Romeo and Juliet Movie Adaptation Comparison

Shakespeare is a literary genius that wrote nearly 38 plays throughout his lifetime. All of these plays are critically acclaimed and are the basis for many different works of art found throughout the years. It is amazing to see how long the legacy of his works have lasted and what has been produced with those works in mind. Shakespeare wrote plays and plays were meant to be acted. The start of the late 1800’s brought about the creation of the cinema. What better way to portray Shakespeare plays then movies? The beauty of the cinema is that the director can make any changes where he/she deems necessary. This may include tweaking the set or costumes or may even include changing the plot or the entire …show more content…

The set and feel of the play were not much different than what Shakespeare originally intended them to be. For example, Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet that the play takes place in Verona, Italy. This is true for the Zefferelli play. He uses the same set style as the one intended to be used by Shakespeare. In the prologue of the play written by Shakespeare, it clearly states, “In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,” (Prologue.9). Zefferelli accomplishes his task of portraying the original play perfectly. It is shown in the very first scene of the movie that the movie takes place in Verona, Italy. The set is a dry, arid town square with people bustling about around the small shops. This is very much similar to the look and feel of a 14 or 15 century Italian town square. It is presumed that the play was meant to be set near the 14 or 15th centuries so that set in the movie makes quite a bit of sense. The Zefferelli movie was directed in Rome which is also an Italian town. In the Luhrmann adaptation, we fail to see this similarity. He decides to modernize the play making it seem like it takes place in the late 1900’s or early 2000’s. He adds in a California setting with a 21st century feel. With the addition of cars, guns, helicopters and other inventions not known at the time, the movie is very modern compared to the Zefferelli version. This is not what

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