Compare And Contrast Romeo And Juliet And West Side Story

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

     Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story both have a lot in common as well as major differences that set them apart. Although West Side Story is a direct rendition of Shakespeare's original play, many of the themes and symbols are altered to fit the modern perspective. The characters have a direct correlation to each other, yet racial issues give them a new light. Many of the events also reflect each other, yet small differences give them uniqueness. West Side Story differs from Romeo and Juliet in characterizations, plot sequences, and themes.

     First off, the biggest difference is the time periods of each movie. The older movie was set in Early Renaissance times. The newer movie is set in the early ninety’s. Another difference is the use of special effects. In the

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.

While in Zeffirelli’s version the setting plays little to no role in the story, it is used as a tool for the characters as well as to convey emotion in in Luhrmann’s version. For example Tybalt falls on and shatters a sheet of glass while fighting Mercutio, and uses a shard of this glass to stab Mercutio under Romeo’s arm. Also while Romeo is fighting Tybalt it is raining to convey a sense of grimness in the scene. As well as the better use of setting the actors also give a better portrayal of their characters in Luhrmann’s version, for example after Tybalt kills Mercutio, Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays Romeo, is crying and yelling, cursing Tybalt, while in the Zeffirelli version the actor playing Romeo seems as if the barely cares that Mercutio is dead.

One such scene was the infamous balcony scene. Zeferelli stuck to the classical interpretation, while Luhrmann did not. In Zeferelli’s version Juliet was on the balcony outside her bedroom calling rhetorically, "Romeo, Romeo where fore art thou Romeo?" Romeo appears and climbs up the balcony, and they share a couple of small kisses before he departs. However, in Luhrmanns version of the play, events occurred slightly differently. Juliet is walking by the pool, when Romeo startles her and they both fall in the pool. Their conversation then takes place in the pool. In between getting interrupted by a nosy security guard they share several passionate kisses.

The story of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare and the text West Side Story written by Arthur Laurents both approach the two main themes of love and violence. Both stories are much the same in numerous of ways, though their conditions are generations apart. Similarly, the two authors both deal with (other themes,) such as Fate, Honour and Death. Romeo & Juliet and West Side Story separately teach a lesson of how conflict can cause you to learn to hate others instead of learning to love. But the main two characters of each story defy it.

Zeffirelli 1968 film version shows the emotion of the film through the lighting, sound, and the camera shots. Zeffirelli 1968 version the lighting changes throughout the whole film. For example when Mercutio dies the lighting dims, and everyone gets very quiet to show the effect of the love and friendship they have for Mercutio. The sound both diegetic and nondiegetic Zeffirelli used is also very different from the play. He uses diegetic as another part of the scene when Mercutio dies. There is rain and thunder going on that shows the effect of how much pain this is going to put everyone through after his death. The rain is for the tears and the thunder represents the cries from the people of Verona. He uses non-diegetic when Romeo is confessing his true love for Juliet to Tybalt. The music is showing the care her has for her and how much he will do for her. The music play slow and soft. Zeffirelli 1996 version uses many of different camera shots also. He uses a close-up on the pistol Romeo used to kill Tybalt with. That shows the effect of the weapon that was used to kill the cousin of Juliet. Lastly, Zeffirelli uses a medium shot when the capulets arrive to show the fear that was going on in some of the Montague’s faces because they knew something bad was about to go

They accidentally confront each other and get into a fight, the result being Paris's death, another example, just like Tybalt, of “civil blood makes civil hands unclean,” and that no one will come out of the ordeal unscathed. However, in the film version, Zeffirelli does not include Paris in this scene. When Romeo fights Paris, it makes Romeo look murderous and less innocent. By excluding Paris from the final scene, Zeffirelli focuses the story on the two lovers, choosing not to disrupt Romeo’s grief-stricken, heartbroken, journey to Juliet’s

In both of the films, the actors had lots of dirt on their face from rolling around and fighting on the floor. In Zeffirelli's film there is less blood on Romeo's face and Tybalt's face, but in Luhrmann's film there is a lot more dirt and blood on Romeos face and shirt as well as Tybalts face and clothes. I think the reason why Luhrmann's film had a bit more blood, dirt, and more tears was to show how much Mercutio mean't to Romeo as a friend. In Zeffirelli's film there is less tears, blood, and tears but Romeo still shows how upset he is with Tybalt by his dramatic sword fighting and

Zeffirelli’s film depiction of the balcony scene is superior to Luhrmann’s film because it is truer to Shakespeare's play and has a better interpretation of the play to film. The films are similar in that it's night and Juliet looks out her balcony as Romeo leaves her house. Although the Luhrmann film depiction during the balcony scene was in a lavish house which would have never been seen during the time frame of when the play was written. There may have been lavish houses during the time the play was written, but they don’t come close to the setting in the Zeffirelli film. This plays a key role in the film seeing that the accuracy of the events of the scene help to give the viewers an enhanced feel to the original atmosphere. Another significant

Author Shannon L. Adler once said, “Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in” (“A Quote by Shannon L. Alder”). Adler examines one of the universal characteristics of human nature, implying that people’s dispositions are shaped by how they were brought up and the experiences they have been through. Artists strive to convey similar ideas through the medium of art. Created in 1884, Frank Bernard Dicksee’s oil painting titled Romeo and Juliet pictures the iconic balcony scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. A photograph of a scene from West Side Story, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, also captures a moment between two lovers. Both pieces of art support Adler’s claim about perspective through

The plot of each film has major differences that affect the overall significance of the scenes. Zeffirelli’s movie shows Romeo mourning over Juliet’s body in the Capulet’s Vault. During his final speech to Juliet, Romeo sees Tybalt’s dead body lying next to her, and begins to apologize for killing him. After Romeo’s death, Zeffirelli also includes Friar Laurence entering the vault to come across Romeo’s body. As Juliet wakes up, Friar Laurence tries to lead her away before she discovers her husband had committed suicide to be with her. The inclusion of these characters shifts the attention away from the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet, taking away from the romance and heart break that this scene should convey to the viewer. On the other

While for the Luhrmann film the character seemed like they were just wearing everyday outfits. In both films, we see that they used a different location to film the movie and used different objects as weapons. For example, in the Zeffirelli film, they used swords and knife to murder one another and a knife which is used when Juliet kills herself. For the Luhrmann, since it’s more modern they don’t use and swords or knives instead they use guns. They both also used the same language as in the play which gives it that more realness to the story and gives the audience that the story was written a few hundred years

Thames Shakespeare’s collection and Franco Zeffirelli’s version had different interpretations on the famous play “ Romeo and Juliet” written by William Shakespeare. However, both versions will be compared on it’s scenery and settings, costumes and camera angles. First of all, scenery and setting of Zeffirelli’s version were more realistic than Thames Shakepeare’s. The main reason is because I felt that the overview of the city, including the street made the viewer understand well about the setting and most importantly, since it’s outside, the viewer had more visual