An Analysis of the Opening Sequence of Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

An Analysis of the Opening Sequence of Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

In This essay, I am going to be analysing the opening sequence of Baz

Luhrmann's Interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. I

will talk about the prologue, which is repeated three times, how it

shows the seriousness of the conflict between the houses of Capulet

and Montague and finally an analysis of the opening scene.

This film directed by Baz Luhrmann's, it is an updated version from

the original written by William Shakespeare and which was first

performed in 1595. This interpretation was released in cinemas in

1997. Differences in Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of William

Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet to that of the original by William

Shakespeare that I have been able to notice are that swords become

handguns manufactured by gunsmiths called "Sword", Romeo takes a

mind-expanding drug before Capulet's ball and Mercutio is killed on a

beach, with a sliver of glass, Baz Luhrmann's also cuts out Romeo's

fight with Paris in Act 5 - so at the end of the play, amongst many

other differences.

After watching the opening sequence of Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation

of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Julie, I have been able to identify

that these short scenes are made up of The Prologue which In Greek

tragedy was a speech or brief scene preceding the entrance of the

chorus and the main action of the play. This was usually spoken by a

god or gods. Subsequently, the term has referred to a speech or brief

scene that introduces the play, as by an actor in certain Elizabethan

plays such as Romeo and Juliet. In Baz Luhrmann's ...

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... think that the targeted audience for this film is for

people aged 15 - 30 years old, as some of the violence would be too

much for the smaller children, to take in and mostly the language and

sense of this story would confuse them whereas if you showed it to an

older person over 30 they would probably be more interested in a calm

love story with not so much violence.

In my opinion, the opening scenes to this film were portrayed as an

insight to the rest of the film. I see the representation of the

prologues as a beginning middle and end, but as the first act and

first scene come up, I feel as if the whole film has started again but

from a different angle. I also think Luhrmann took on a great task and

that was to re-enacting Shakespeare's greatest love story and that Baz

Luhrmann has achieved this task successfully.