Romeo And Juliet Comparative Essay

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film, Romeo + Juliet effectively appropriates the Shakespearean 16th century love tragedy. So why has Luhrmann decided to appropriate Romeo and Juliet? By changing the context, Luhrmann effectively makes the play relevant, discussing his contextual concerns of the 1990’s. This is done through the use of themes in the film, love, family disputes and hate which have remained similar to the original play, although the way they have been presented are different, in particular the form and characters. The form has had an obvious change as the original play has been adapted into a film. Characters in the film have also been appropriated to correspond with Luhrmann's contextual concerns. Hence, Luhrmann successfully appropriates the original Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet by maintaining similar themes, but altering the form and characterisation to fit his contextual concerns.

In the famous balcony scene, the newer version is portrayed in the Capulet’s swimming pool than in the actual balcony. When Balthesar comes to tell Romeo, who was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, of Juliet’s death, he did so on a horse. In the 1996 film adaptation, he comes to Mantua in a 1983 Ford Crown Victoria. In the scene where Romeo is in Mantua, instead of having Friar John ride a horse to Mantua to give Romeo the letter, the letter is delivered by United Postal Service. Romeo missed the delivery of the letter twice. Once because he was in his backyard hitting rocks and the other time was because the UPS man was walking up to Romeos' door when Romeo drove away. This letter blew away in the wind as Romeo drove off. After departing Mantua and returning to Verona, nobody was conscious of the fact that he was back. In Baz Luhrmann's movie, a search party was after him. The prince is represented as the chief of police. In the play Romeo kills Paris and his servant. However, in the contemporary film, a blameless bystander is killed. While in the tomb with Juliet, Romeo places a ring on her finger. This detail does not occur in the play. While Romeo is telling Juliet his final goodbye, her finger starts to twitch. Just as Romeo is taking the poison, which he bought with dollar bills not gold, Juliet wakes up and sees her lover die. This is a dramatic modification to the text. Juliet then kills herself with a pistol instead of a dagger. Lady

Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic love story about two young lovers who are forced to be estranged as a result of their feuding families. The play is about their struggle to contravene fate and create a future together. As such, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would try and emulate Shakespeare’s masterpiece. This had been done before in many films. Prominent among them were, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.” Both films stay true to the themes of Shakespeare’s original play. However, the modernised Luhrmann film not only maintains the essence of Shakespeare’s writings, Luhrmann makes it relevant to a teenage audience. This is

Baz Lurhmann’s creation of the film Romeo and Juliet has shown that today’s audience can still understand and appreciate William Shakespeare. Typically, when a modern audience think of Shakespeare, they immediately think it will be boring, yet Lurhmann successfully rejuvenates Romeo and Juliet. In his film production he uses a number of different cinematic techniques, costumes and a formidably enjoyable soundtrack; yet changes not one word from Shakespeare’s original play, thus making it appeal to a modern audience.

The play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is about the dilemma of choosing love over loyalty for your family. In the story Romeo and Juliet come from separate families who hate each other, but still find love in each other. They get married without telling their families and eventually the two families get into a fight which ends in Romeo getting banished from the city where Juliet lives. They have a plan for him to get back into to the city to prevent Juliet from being forced to marry another man, but it fails and ends with the suicide death of both Juliet and Romeo. Shakespeare's major theme in the text is that Love plays a major role in our lives and can heavily affect our decisions.

Of the two cinematic portrayals of the climax, in Act II, scene i, of Romeo & Juliet, the Luhrmann version from 1996 is superior to the Zeffirelli version. When comparing the two one can notice that there are many differences, and similarities. While these two films are telling the same story, it is the differences between the two that lead to Luhrmann’s 1996 version being superior. Due to its more dramatic settings, and character interactions and actor

Luhrman has based his version at Verona Beach; America and instead of basing it in the 16th century like Zeffirelli, he had his film based in the 20th century, with mansions, shiny cars and bright lights. While Zeffirelli paced his film in an Iambic pentameter – a traditional Shakespeare pace; Luhrman never kept his film at a solid pace. “By modernizing these aspects of the play, and reconstructing the prologue, Luhrmann creates a movie that is more interesting to the modern viewers.” ("Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet." 123HelpMe.com). As Zeffirelli may have believed famous actors would steal his show he instead hired fresh new faces to give the movie a more fresh, innocence value, But Luhrman used well known actors to play the lead roles. This worked because more people were attracted to the film by the actors.

Romeo and Juliet is a timeless story about two ill-fated lovers. Originally written by, Shakespeare, this story has been adapted by different directors who all commonly try to add their own unique twist to it. Two of the most prevalent adaptations of Romeo and Juliet have been done by Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann, who have taken this love story to the big screen. Franco Zeffirelli’s movie, which was produced in 1968, is extremely authentic and stays true to Shakespeare's vision, whereas, Baz Luhrmann’s version produced in 1996, is contemporary and appeals more to younger audiences. There are various differences and a couple of similarities between Zeffirelli’s and Luhrmann’s movie versions such as the costumes, their interpretations of

In the different film adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, Franco Zefirelli best conveys an emotional impact through the set design, blocking, and other theatrical elements. Zefirelli also chooses to have the film in the fourteenth century so that Shakespeare’s diction is comprehensible. From this, Zeffirelli adaptation is best conveys the romantic impact Shakespeare intends to emphasize.

Discuss the appropriation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare and ‘Romeo+Juliet’ by Baz Luhrmann

The play, Romeo and Juliet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in his early years. With all of Shakespeare's success, it is surely not a shock to see his plays adapt overtime. From Zeffirelli's 1968 version to Luhrmann’s 1996 version, there has been a drastic change. Luhrmann’s 1996 version has taken on a modern perspective, not just within the setting but the costumes and character personalization as well.

The song “Michelle” by the Beatles and the story of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare both assist the notion of the male brain when a male becomes struck with love and how they handle their feelings in those moments. The song “Michelle” supports this idea because it exhibits portraying imagery of a French man trying to express his love to a woman, but not knowing how to do it. The man then uses his verbal gestures to speak to her in the best way he can. Likewise, Romeo and Juliet supports this idea because it expresses a character named Romeo that does his best to convey his love for Juliet but being dumbfounded and incapable of finding the right words to say. Romeo happens to be so awestruck with love that he mumbles and struggles to find the right words to win Juliet’s heart.

William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is considered one of the greatest love stories of all time. It is about two star-crossed lovers from feuding families whose hatred brings the lovers’ lives to a tragic end. Two film directors created what are now the two most popular film versions of ‘Romeo and Juliet’: the 1973 Franco Zefirelli version and the 1997 Baz Luhrmann version. However, the two different directors took completely different approaches on how to produce and direct their films - Zefirelli took a much more ‘traditional’ approach, by keeping the setting and costuming close to that in Shakespeare’s time, while Luhrmann did the opposite by modernising the setting and characters and adapt to today’s audience. By making these changes,

In one of his interviews Baz Luhrmann said, that he wanted to make a film that Shakespeare would have make if he had been a film director. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ definitely conveys the spirit of the epoch of its director and if Shakespeare would have lived in the 20th century, it is most probable that his production as a filmmaker would have looked like that. Although there are some sceptics of blending classics with modern set, it must be admitted that ‘Romeo and Juliet’ directed by Baz Luhrmann contributed to the popularisation of Shakespeare as a genuine dramatist, of his plays and his language. The film of action, with heart-grabbing soundtrack and songs, which ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was, has proven that Shakespeare doesn’t have to be boring and only adult-upper-class experience. It has shown that antimony and contrast in art-making should no longer be associated with kitsch and tackiness, that recovering and rediscovering Shakespeare anew can add something more to the heritage of not only European, but World culture, and, what is more, it doesn’t have to have anything in common with aketoun and ruff.

There are countless ways to interpret a Shakespeare play, particularly the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In the 1996 adaptation, Romeo + Juliet, director Baz Luhrmann uses film techniques such as shadows, contrast between actors and background, the interruption of non-diegetic sounds with brief diegetic sounds, close-up shots, shots from varying angles, and cuts to different faces in order to show the similarity of Romeo and Juliet and the difficulties that lie ahead for their relationship. These choices combine to create a cohesive scene that both follows the basic plot of the play and interprets the play in Luhrmann’s own unique way, setting up the tragedy by interjecting moments of foreboding into an otherwise light and romantic scene.