| abstract | - {{about|the film|Peter Martins' 2007 ballet|Romeo + Juliet (ballet)|other uses|Romeo and Juliet (disambiguation)}} '''''William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet''''' is an [[Academy Award]]-nominated [[1996 in film|1996]] [[United States|American]] film and the 10th on-screen adaptation of [[William Shakespeare]]'s [[Romeo and Juliet|romantic tragedy of the same name]]. It was directed by Australian [[Baz Luhrmann]] and stars [[Leonardo DiCaprio]] and [[Claire Danes]] in the eponymous roles. The film is a modernization of Shakespeare's play , designed to appeal to a younger modern audience. The warring families (the [[Montagues]] and the [[Capulets]]) are represented as warring business empires and swords are replaced by guns. Despite the adaptation, the film retains Shakespeare's original dialogue, albeit edited down for modern cinema audiences. == Overview ==The plot has some changes from the original script: * Juliet's age is never directly stated; it is, however, hinted at by several of the characters' lines in the early scenes of the film.* Certain lines are omitted. For example, [[Juliet Capulet|Juliet]]'s [[Monologue|soliloquy]] is recycled, and she wordlessly commits suicide with [[Romeo Montague|Romeo]]'s gun. * Certain lines are moved from their original context. For example, Mercutio's Queen Mab speech is about a fairy queen in the play; in the film, it is perceived as an [[Methylenedioxymethamphetamine|Ecstasy]]-like drug. Romeo's line "Thy drugs are quick" is moved from Act V to this scene (the meaning of "quick" in this context becomes "fast-acting" rather than "effective")* Juliet's line "Oh God, was it Romeo's hand that shed Tybalt's blood" is changed to a prayer, instead of meaning oh my god. * Certain events have their order altered. For example, in the death scene, Juliet's lines are moved so that she wakes as Romeo is drinking the poison, and he dies in her arms.* Certain lines of dialogue are moved from one speaker to another. For example, in the initial scene, the lines of the [[Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet#Montague|Montague]] and [[Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet#Capulets|Capulet]] servants are swapped, until [[Tybalt]] enters the scene. Some (but very few) lines were added to the movie.* At times whole scenes are omitted, such as Romeo's killing of [[Count Paris|Paris]], but this scene is often cut from stage productions as well.* Romeo buys the poison from the "Apothecary" in Verona instead of in Mantua.* Abra (originally known as "Abram" in the play) is a Capulet instead of a Montague.* When the Montagues meet with the Capulets at the petrol/gas station, the Montagues bite their thumb instead of the Capulets.* Gregory and Sampson are Capulet servants, yet in the beginning of the film they are introduced as the Montague Boys.*The scene in which Romeo first sees Juliet again after the party takes place in a pool instead of on a balcony.Much of the film's story takes place in the fictional [[Greater Los Angeles Area|Los Angeles area]]{{Fact|date=January 2009}} town or suburb called "[[Verona]] Beach", which is based on the real life [[Venice, Los Angeles, California|Venice Beach]]{{Fact|date=January 2009}} (a play on the fact that both are cities in Italy). As with the play, a brief part of the film takes place in a location known as [[Mantua]], which is depicted as a desert-like [[hinterland]]. Verona Beach is the center of a [[Competition (economics)|corporate war]] between two leaders of industry, "[[Montague]]" and "[[Capulet]]", rather than just a mere family [[feud]]. Prince Escalus is renamed "[[Prince Escalus|Captain Prince]]", and instead of being Prince of Verona, he is the Chief of the Verona Beach Police Department. His relationship to Paris (called "[[Count Paris|Dave Paris]]" in the movie) is removed from the film. Romeo and Juliet's parents are given names here too, the names in this case being Ted and Caroline Montague and Fulgencio and Gloria Capulet. Dave Paris is stated as being the Governor's son rather than a nobleman, and throughout the film he speaks in a conceited and pompous manner around Juliet and her father. He only wants to marry her for [[wealth]] and [[ego]] rather than real love. In addition to the characters being updated, many of the props were replaced with analogous contemporary props. In place of [[sword]]s, the characters wield [[firearm|guns]] with fictional brand names like "Sword [[9 mm Luger Parabellum|9mm]]" (which was used in the beginning gas station shootout, "Dagger" (which [[Mercutio]] throws to the ground before using his fists, or "Rapier" (Which belonged to Tybalt, and Romeo uses it to shoot Tybalt); Lord Montague's "[[Longsword]]" is a South African [[MAG-7]] [[shotgun]]. Instead of chasing Tybalt on foot, Romeo and Tybalt engage in a [[car chase]]. Romeo crashes out Tybalt's car by the central fountain of the city, during which Romeo presses the barrel of Tybalt's pistol to his head and asks him to end his life. Tybalt refuses and in a resurgence of anger Romeo kills Tybalt with his own custom handgun. Although most of the fights are done with guns (and fists) instead of swords, Mercutio's death comes at the hands of Tybalt wielding a large shard of glass found on the beach. Mercutio's "[[Queen Mab]]" is an [[Methylenedioxymethamphetamine|ecstasy]]-like drug in the form of a pill that Romeo takes before attending the Capulet party. [[Friar Lawrence]] gives the letter for Romeo in Mantua to a [[mail|postal service]] called "Post Haste". == Production =={{Expand-section|date=June 2008}} Most of the film was shot in [[Mexico City]], [[Mexico]], but other parts were shot in parts of [[Miami]]. A section of the film was filmed during a real hurricane, causing the stage producers to rebuild the set. When filming the gas station scene at the start of the movie the actor Dash Mihok who played Benvolio accidentally ran out into the real traffic. == Cast ==* [[Leonardo DiCaprio]] as [[Romeo Montague]]* [[Claire Danes]] as [[Juliet Capulet]]* [[John Leguizamo]] as [[Tybalt|Tybalt Capulet]]* [[Harold Perrineau]] as [[Mercutio]]* [[Dash Mihok]] as [[Benvolio|Benvolio Montague]]* [[Pete Postlethwaite]] as [[Friar Lawrence]]* [[Miriam Margolyes]] as [[Nurse (Romeo and Juliet character)|Nurse Angelica]]* [[Paul Rudd]] as [[Count Paris|Dave Paris]]* [[Paul Sorvino]] as [[Lord Capulet|Fulgencio Capulet]]* [[Diane Venora]] as [[Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lady Capulet|Gloria Capulet]]* [[Brian Dennehy]] as [[Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lord Montague|Ted Montague]]* [[Christina Pickles]] as [[Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lady Montague|Caroline Montague]]* [[Vondie Curtis-Hall]] as [[Prince Escalus|Captain Escalus Prince]] * [[Jesse Bradford]] as [[Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet#Balthasar|Balthasar]]* [[M. Emmet Walsh]] as [[Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet#Apothecary|Apothecary]]* [[Zak Orth]] as [[Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet#Gregory and Sampson|Gregory]]* [[Jamie Kennedy]] as [[Minor characters in Romeo and Juliet#Gregory and Sampson|Sampson]]* [[Vincent Laresca]] as Abra [[Leonardo DiCaprio]] was Luhrmann's first choice to play Romeo, while the casting of Juliet was a lengthy process. [[Natalie Portman]] was the original actress to play Juliet, and she traveled to [[Sydney]] for rehearsals. After rehearsing a few scenes, the producers began to feel that she was too young for the role; according to Portman, they felt that the footage looked like DiCaprio was "molesting" her. Eventually, Luhrmann agreed that the age difference between the two actors was too great. Filming was halted to find another actress for the part. [[Sarah Michelle Gellar]], [[Kate Winslet]], and [[Jennifer Love Hewitt]] were the front-runners to replace Portman. Gellar couldn't take the part because of her commitments to the soap series ''[[All My Children]]''. Hewitt was then cast in the role, but during rehearsals Luhrmann began to feel that she didn't look "modern" enough. [[Reese Witherspoon]] was then offered the role, but couldn't take it because of prior commitments. [[Alicia Silverstone]] was another actress who turned down the role of Juliet . [[Jodie Foster]], who worked with [[Claire Danes]] in ''[[Home for the Holidays (film)|Home for the Holidays]]'', suggested that she audition. Danes did one audition, and was hired later that day. == Response ==Financially, the film was very successful, grossing [[United States dollar|USD]]$147 million worldwide at the box office on a USD$14.5 million budget. The film premiered [[November 1]], [[1996]] in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]] in 1,276 theaters and grossed $11.1 million its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office. It went on to gross $46.3 million in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]]. Critics gave the film generally positive reviews. According to the review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]], 74% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 38 reviews. [[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' disliked the film, giving it 2 stars and saying, "This production was a very bad idea ... I have never seen anything remotely approaching the mess that the new punk version of Romeo & Juliet makes of Shakespeare's tragedy." Ebert wrote that [[Pete Postlethwaite]] and [[Miriam Margolyes]] were "the only actors in the film who seem completely at home" and said, "In one grand but doomed gesture, writer-director Baz Luhrmann has made a film that (a) will dismay any lover of Shakespeare, and (b) bore anyone lured into the theater by promise of gang wars, MTV-style." The film won several awards. At the [[Berlin International Film Festival]] in 1997, [[Leonardo DiCaprio]] won [[Berlin International Film Festival#Silver Bear|the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor]] and director [[Baz Luhrmann]] won the Alfred Bauer Award. Luhrmann was also nominated for the [[Berlin International Film Festival#Golden Bear|Golden Bear Award]] for Best Picture.Leonardo DiCaprio won Favorite Actor and [[Claire Danes]] won Favorite Actress in a Romance at the 1997 [[Blockbuster Entertainment Awards]]. At the 1997 [[MTV Movie Awards]], Danes won Best Female Performance. DiCaprio was nominated for Best Male Performance, and DiCaprio and Danes were both nominated for Best Kiss and Best On-Screen Duo. At the [[51st British Academy Film Awards|51st BAFTA Film Awards]], Baz Luhrmann won [[BAFTA Award for Best Direction|the award for Best Direction]]. Luhrmann and Craig Pearce won the [[BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|award for Best Adapted Screenplay]]. Nellee Hooper won the [[BAFTA Award for Best Film Music|award for Best Film Music]]. And Catherine Martin won the [[BAFTA Award for Best Production Design|award for Best Production Design]]. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Sound. At the [[69th Academy Awards]], [[Catherine Martin]] and [[Brigitte Broch]] were nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Art Direction|Best Art Direction/Set Decoration]]. == Music =={{see also|Romeo + Juliet (soundtrack)}}The film made use of modern [[alternative rock]] and [[pop music]] coupled with a dramatic symphonic score by [[Nellee Hooper]], [[Craig Armstrong (composer)|Craig Armstrong]], and [[Marius De Vries]]. The film's soundtrack was also noted for featuring [[choral]] renditions of the songs "[[When Doves Cry]]" and "[[Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)]]" performed by [[Quindon Tarver]]. The [[Romeo + Juliet (soundtrack)|soundtrack album]] to the film was issued in two volumes, with the first release containing most of the songs from the film and Volume 2 containing the original score. Although the film featured the [[Radiohead]] song "[[Exit Music (For a Film)]]" in the closing credits, the song did not appear on Volume 1; "[[Talk Show Host]]", a different Radiohead song. "Talk Show Host" featured heavily in the film overall, the entire song playing during a montage and the main riff playing at several pensive moments throughout the film. A number of hit singles resulted from the soundtrack, including "[[Lovefool]]" by [[The Cardigans]], "[[Kissing You (Des'ree song)|Kissing You]]" by [[Des'ree]], "[[Young Hearts Run Free]]" covered by [[Kym Mazelle]], "[[Number One Crush|#1 Crush]]" by [[Garbage (band)|Garbage]] and Quindon Tarver's remixed version of "[[When Doves Cry]]". Tarver's rendition of "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" was later used in Luhrmann's "[[Wear Sunscreen|Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)]]" single. Choral arrangements were performed by [[Metro Voices]]. The final scene in the film contains the final bars from Wagner's music-drama Tristan und Isolde. The soundtrack was a popular and solid seller, and was especially successful in Luhrmann's native [[Australia]], where it was the second highest selling album in Australia in 1997, going five times platinum in sales. A 10th anniversary release of the soundtrack with bonus tracks also eventuated. == Further reading ==* Lehmann, Courtney. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0037-3222%28200122%2952%3A2%3C189%3ASSDLGF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4 "Strictly Shakespeare? Dead Letters, Ghostly Fathers, and the Cultural Pathology of Authorship in Baz Luhrmann's 'William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet'."] Shakespeare Quarterly. 52.2 (Summer 2001) pp. 189-221. ==References=={{reflist}} == External links ==* [http://www.romeoandjuliet.com/ Official website]* {{imdb title|id=0117509|title=Romeo + Juliet}}* {{amg title|id=1:136681|title=Romeo + Juliet}}* {{rotten-tomatoes|id=william_shakespeares_romeo_and_juliet|title=Romeo + Juliet}}* {{mojo title|id=romeoandjuliet|title=Romeo + Juliet}} {{Romeo and Juliet}}{{Baz Luhrmann}} [[Category:1996 films]][[Category:1990s action films]][[Category:1990s drama films]][[Category:American drama films]][[Category:English-language films]][[Category:20th Century Fox films]][[Category:Estudios Churubusco films]][[Category:Romantic drama films]][[Category:Gangster films]][[Category:Shakespeare on film]][[Category:Shakespearean teen films]][[Category:Modern adaptations of works by William Shakespeare]][[Category:Teen romance films]][[Category:Tragedy films]][[Category:Films shot anamorphically]][[Category:Films directed by Baz Luhrmann]] [[ca:Romeo + Juliet]][[cy:Romeo + Juliet]][[de:William Shakespeares Romeo + Julia]][[fr:Romeo + Juliette]][[it:Romeo + Giulietta di William Shakespeare]][[nl:Romeo + Juliet]][[ja:ロミオ+ジュリエット]][[hu:Rómeó + Júlia]][[pl:Romeo i Julia (film 1996)]][[pt:Romeo + Juliet]][[ru:Ромео + Джульетта (фильм)]][[simple:Romeo + Juliet]][[fi:William Shakespearen Romeo + Julia]][[sv:Romeo & Julia (film 1996)]][[tr:Romeo + Juliet]][[uk:Ромео+Джульєта (фільм, 1996)]]
- [Shakespeare Month Intro] Oan: [reading the play] Two households, both alike in ... Ah, [puts down the book] Welcome to Brows Held High. We're going to be covering a wide range of movies in "Shakespeare Month," so let's start with something ... accessable, something wild, something fun, something light, something ... kind of stupid. [Clip of the "trailer" from the beginning of the film] Oan: Oh, so they put the trailer for the movie in the actual movie? How thoughtful of them. Oan [v/o]: One of Shakespeare's most popular plays has always been "Romeo and Juliet" and arguably more than any other play, it has been quoted by ... Oan: Everyone. (Cut to a clip from The Wizard of Oz; the Tin Man sings "If I only Had a Heart") Tin Man: (singing) Picture me a balcony, above where a voice sing low. Female voice: (offscreen) Wherefore art thou, Romeo? Oan: Everyone. (Cut to clip from The Simpsons: "The Principal and the Pauper") Lisa: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Bart: Not if you call 'em Stench Blossoms. Homer: or Crap-Weeds. Oan: Everyone. (Cut to a clip from Twilight) Edward: Seal with a righteous kiss, A dateless bargain to engrossing death. Oan [v/o]: The story of two lovers caught between their feuding families is globally ubiquitous. It is the most frequently taught text in American high schools. Verona, Italy has a tourism trade based on visiting sites from the work. Even the name "Romeo" has became short-hand for "a man in love." Naturally, the play has been adapted into paintings, ballets, operas, and, of course, films. One of the most popular being ... Nurse: Juli-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-et!!!! Oan: This one. Baz Luhrmann, you scamp. [Cut to a photo of said person] Oan [v/o]: So, Baz Luhrmann, The Boy from Baz, the Bazmanian Devil. [Showing the posters for Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Australia, The Great Gatsby] The Australian director has only made five films in his career, but damn, if he hasn't done so with panache. After mild success with his first outing [Strictly Ballroom], he achieved his mainstream breakthrough with his utterly wonky-bonkers adaptation, "Romeo Plus Juliet." Oan: When adapting Shakespeare, the inevitable decision every director has to make is "how much of the text do I use?" Use every line and the movie ends up four hours long. [Cut to poster of Hamlet (1996).] Hi, Kenneth Branagh. [Cut back to Oan] So, in order to make a serviceable movie, cuts have to be made. We'll see varying degrees of textual infidelity over the course of the month, but here, for this movie, it's notable for how faithful, almost fundamentalist, it is about the text itself. Oan [v/o]: Even though it plays liberally with action, they make cuts here and there, but the words included are not to be touched. Romeo: Here is my gold. Oan [v/o]: My green papery gold. Oan: The worst example of this - Elizabethan England had guns. Like, they knew what guns were. They had primitive firearms back then, Shakespeare knew what a gun was, he used the word "gun" in his plays in a modern context, and it's not entireably unreasonable to imagine a Shakespearean character wielding an early firearm. And yet ... [Cut to a zoom-in extreme closeup shot of "Sword 9mm Series S" on Benvolio's gun.] Benvolio: Put up your swords! Oan: They label the guns "swords" so they don't have to say "guns." [cracks his knuckles because of how incredibly stupid that change was.] Montague: Give me my long sword, ho! Oan [v/o]: Stupidest goddamn thing. I've hated this movie for years purely on the basis on that one stupid decision. Oan: [texting on his cellphone] Yah, just give me a minute to place my wax seal on this letter, so my courtier can send it. [Sends the message] Done. Oan [v/o]: That said, the language is intact and the lovely poetry is, afterall, one of the main reasons why this play remains so beloved. Romeo: The reason why I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. Oan: Such a shame that no one can actually say it. Oan [v/o]: It is such a letdown. Almost every young actor delivers their lines as if they were asked to learn Ancient Sumerian phonetically. Juliet: My only love sprung from my only hate. Oan: Words words words. Words words words words words words words words. Oan [v/o]: Which has always baffled me. They're speaking English. Aside from a few antique words and poetic rewordings, it is the same language I am speaking now. Oan: "But Old English is hard," whined the straw-man commenter. Alright, so we're all in the same page, Old English sounds like this: [Oan recites a phrase in Old English. The text from "Beowulf" appears on the left screen.] "Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum, peodcyninga prym gefrunon!" [by the way, this editing feature doesn't include a special character feature, but what you see is what you get.] Middle English sounds like this: [Oan recites a phrase from Canterbury Tales. The text appears on the right screen.] "Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote, The droughte of March hath perced to the roote." And English, [exaggeratedly moving his lips] the language that I am speaking now, sounds like this: "Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene." Trailer voice: From ancient grudge doth break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. Oan [v/o]: The film's greatest failing is its two leads. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes are such dull actors given lush words. There is a technique and cadence to it, but a good rule of thumb is to know what the hell you're saying. And they just don't know what they're saying. Romeo: How sweet is love itself possessed when but love's shadows are so rich in joy! Oan: [monotone voice] Saying things that are good because they are old. Oan [v/o]: Well, sure, there are those who can say the lines. Miriam Margoyles can say them, Paul Sorvino can say them, Harold Parreneau can really say them, even Paul Rudd can say them, Pete Postlethwaite can sing them. John Leguizamo ... Tybalt: Peace? Peace? I hate the word. Oan [v/o]: [imitating Leguizamo's lisp] I am a ground sloth! [normal] And the rest sound like they're reciting contextless punchlines. The only time when they seem to know when to match the emotion to the word and the word to the emotion, IS WHEN THEY'RE SCREAMING THEM!! [Montage of actors screaming their lines] Romeo: I AM FORTUNE'S FOOL! Juliet: ... SO LONG TO SPEAK, I LONG TO DIE!! Romeo: ... I DEFY YOU, STARS! Mercutio: ... IS SHE!!! Romeo: GO WITH HIM!! Prince: PUNISH THEM!! Gregory: ... MOVES ME!! Lady Capulet: JULIET!! Nurse: JULIET!! [Montage of more characters screaming, along with Captain Kirk yelling "Khha-a-a-an!" Fred Flintstone shouting "Wilma!" and a roaring Tyrannosaurus from Jurassic Park.] Oan: And honestly, it kind of fits. Oan [v/o]: At least with the tone they're going for. Hell, this movie made Queen Mab into a Quaalude. [Romeo takes the drug and sees a bunch of fireworks and dancing people in costumes] [Cut to a clip from "The Wolf of Wall Street"] Jordan Belfort: Xanax will take the edge off, pot to mellow me out, cocaine to wake me back up again, and morphine ... well, because it's awesome. Romeo: Thy drugs are quick. [Cut to a zanily edited party sequence] Oan [v/o]: And so, the dialogue is drowned out by everything else. Luhrmann is mildly insane. Lady Capulet: [extreme closeup of her mouth] JULIET!!! [fast paced editing of Lady Capulet spinning into the house.] Oan: Zounds, is that shtick I espy? Oan [v/o]: But, as phonetic as he can be, he's also an incredibly talented panderer. He knows his audience well: Teenagers. Oan: And what do teenagers want? Validation, to feel like they're the smartest kids in the room. Plus, they're studying Romeo and Juliet in ninth grade English, so they'd probably rather watch a movie than read a book. Oan [v/o]: Yes, you're learning Shakespeare, you smart, smart kids, you. Hey, kids, did you know that Romeo and Juliet is about love? [Lord Capulet dressed as Julius Caesar singing operatically "Amore, amore amore."] The man is not subtle. Orson Welles once said that we sit through Shakespeare just to recognize the quotation. This movie feels the same way. It's a Sparknotes-friendly rendition. Blah-blah-blah, boring stuff, boring stuff, IMPORTANT QUOTE, blah-blah-blah-blah. Mercutio: A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES!!!! [echoes] Oan [v/o]: [faster tone] This is a very important quotation. Make sure you use it in your essays. Oan: And honestly, fine ... It's not a terrible retelling of the story ... Well, it hits the beats ... Well, you can understand the words ... Actually, this makes no sense whatsoever. [Cut to clips of Franco Zeffrelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968).] Oan [v/o]: The story works thanks to its routes in the politics of the day. People swore fealty to houses and were willing and able to thanks to their lacks of constabulary, which would be an easy sitting for noble houses to allow ancient grudges to break to new mutiny. [Cut to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet] But here, where the Montagues and Capulets are construction magnets or something, where their private parties are advertised on local news and potential suitors have their faces on TIME Magazine and their petty squabbles produced this? News Anchor: [on TV] From ancient grudge break to new mutiny. Oan: Hey, remember that time when Donald Trump's chauffeurs got into a knife fight with Warren Buffet's secretaries? Man, those Trump boys sure do know how to bite a thumb. Oan [v/o]: The story doesn't quite work in a modern setting unless it's outside of the law. West Side Story got that. Geez, even Tromeo and Juliet got that. The setting feels more trendy and sensible, pandering to the times of the day. Choir boys: [singing] ... Sounds like, when doves cry. Oan [v/o]: Twentieth Century director, Harley Granville Barker, famously marked R and J with the elegant descriptor, "Tragedy of youth as youth sees it." The original story, Arthur Brook's "The Tragecall Historye of Romeus and Juliet," was a cautionary tale, warning of apparels for young foolish unchecked lust and disobeying parents. The lovers in Shakespeare's adaptation are also foolish, but he asks us to see the world as they saw it. Oan: Shakespeare rites to the places and the minds of those young lovers. Minds where love is deep and seeming eternally, where ancient conflicts seem petty and absurd, where authority figures are, at worst, oppressor and, at best, incompetent. No wonder it's taught to high school kids. Oan [v/o]: As for this movie, in 1996, this was youth as youth saw itself. "Romeo plus Juliet" was born at a time when demographic focusing was intense in Hollywood movies. It catered to 90's teenagers and the world they saw it. A world informed by MTV and Nickelodeon and American surfing parlance. Mercutio: Ro-MAY-o! Oan [v/o]: Luhrmann is doing his damnest to convince the kids of the day that the story is still relevant. Oan: [smooth] Hey, kid from the nineties. I know it must be tough hiding from your parents, listening to Radiohead, and reciting your own poetry. But, you know who also hid from his parents, listened to Radiohead, and recited his own poetry? Romeo, that's who. Oan [v/o]: I'm sure this felt necessary at the time, filtering through the trends of the mid-nineties. And so, we have our Romeo and Juliet where the Capulets versus Montagues became El Mariachi versus the Burger King Kids Club. [Cut to the funeral scene] All that said, there are many touches to admire in this film. The cinematography for one, like I love this shot; this is the movie in a nutshell. Neon on candlelight. Early modern through kitch. And let's face it, Luhrmann knows how to stage a scene. [Cut to a scene where Samson shoots at a sign in a gas station in the beginning of the movie. As he shoots it, goofy slider whistles plays.] Oan [v/o]: Alright, amending that. [Cut to balcony scene] Luhrmann knows how to stage a scene, unexpectedly. He knows that the story's been done countless times and knows people's expectations. Everyone knows that Romeo and Juliet speak to each other separated by a balcony. So, he brings them together, replacing their chaste distance with erotic proximity, and toss them into a pool. Okay fine. Well, actually, there's a lot of water imagery, fitting too. It is an erotic element. Sex is afterall fluid exchange. Or, less dirtily, perhaps it's just a visual expansion of Juliet's promise that "her [my] bounty is as boundless as the sea, her [my] love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite." And this scene [Where Romeo and Juliet flirt at each other through a fish tank] I simply think it's genuinely brilliant. Seeing each other through water, each refracted in each other's eyes, made much deeper and more beautiful by their young eyes. It's a perfect visual metaphor for depth and naivety of first love. Oan: It's such a shame we had to go through all this nonsense first. [Cut to the same scene with Samson shooting the gas station sign.] Oan [v/o]: It is a deeply flawed movie, though a depthly made flawed movie. Maybe more clever than smart, but serviceable to it's audience. But that audience of people who were teenagers in the nineties will only dwindle in time. So, I wonder how well this will age. Even almost twenty years on, the dust appears to be showing. Still, I won't say it isn't fun. At least. Oan: After all, for never was a story of more "Whoa!" Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. [pause] I am so much better than that last line. Jesus Christ.
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