The work of
William Shakespeare has been adapted to the stage countless times so when
cinema became mainstream it was only a matter of time before countless movie
adaptations would also follow. Of course most young movie audience don’t
exactly have the ear to understand dialogue from the age of Queen Elizabeth
hence the abundance of gunfire in Baz Luhrmann’ Romeo + Juliet (1996), which moves the location from Verona to
modern-day “Verona Beach.” The result might upset stuffy purists, but nobody
can deny it makes for one memorable night of theatre.
Even though the
actors speak using more-or-less the Shakespearean dialogue, upon its release
the movie was a box-office success and helped launch the careers of young
Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as the star-crossed lovers. Further proof of
its success the film was eventually shown in Shakespeare studies classes, much
to the delight of many students. I heard a little about it from my older
brother’s class while we were living in South America at the time of the
movie’s release, but I had to wait many more years to see the whole spectacle
for myself. While at the University of Sherbrooke I took a course on Shakespeare
and his Contemporaries, and lucky me my teacher counted Baz Luhrmann as one of
those contemporaries.
Of course this being
one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays everyone has a rough idea of the story
goes even if they have never read the play or seen an adaptation. Romeo of the
House Montague falls in love with the beautiful Juliet, but unfortunately for
the two them she is of House Capulet, whose members are at war with Romeo’s
family. In the play this involves many sword fights, apothecaries, and a prince
trying to keep the peace between the two families.
Luhrmann sets up
his modernized take in the story right at the beginning of the movie with a
fight between young members of the warring families, in this case crime
families, with an explosive gunfight at gas station. Even though they draw
weapons that fire bullets, the dialogue still works since their guns’ brand
names are “Dagger” and “Sword.” Not immensely clever, but it works.
Other modern
updates include the prince being police Captain Prince (Vondie Curtis-Hall),
the young lads taking ecstasy before going to a party, and a crucial message
failing to be delivered because of a problem with a UPS. At times the modern
setting does clash with the events of the play, most notably when Prince
banishes Romeo from the city for killing Tybalt (John Leguizamo). Surely nowadays
being banished from your hometown is not a legal punishment for manslaughter?
Still, Lurhmann
gets away with it by having his talented cast of (back then) young up-and-comers
fully commit to the dialogue. This is definitely an auteur’s film and Luhrmann’s
theatrical style is all over this, as with the other films in his Red Curtain
Trilogy made up of Strictly Ballroom and
Moulin Rouge! It is difficult to
update the most famous play of the world’s greatest playwright, but Luhrmann’s
version has yet to be beaten in terms of popularity.
Seeing the movie in
class, my fellow classmates and I both laughed at and enjoyed the action
scenes. Afterwards we were also able to have an academic discussion with our
teacher about the modernization and the few differences between the play and
the movie. One thing I believe we all agreed on: the ending in the movie is way
more depressing than in the play.
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