Zeffirelli's Adaptations Of Romeo And Juliet

Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, two star-crossed lovers, will do anything to show their deep affection for each other. Since they are from two different families, who happen to be enemies, they can be punished for expressing their love for one another. Unfortunately, their passion sparks many outrages. Due to Father Capulet’s feud with the Montague family, Romeo and Juliet's love life results in death.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been modified numerous times and has been a source of inspiration for many playwrights and directors. Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann are examples of directors that use Shakespeare’s legendary tragedy as a basis for their films.

No matter how strong and absurd your hatred towards something is love always conquers in the denouement. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, composed by William Shakespeare employs dramatic and language techniques to explore important themes and ideas in his play. The play was set in Verona Italy and is a story about the long feud between the families of the Capulets and the Montagues. The feud caused tragic consequences that led the beloved couple to their suicide. Romeo and Juliet talks about love and hate as an individual factor in the play and love and hate combined as one and the sacrifices endured because of it.

In William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, about two love struck teenagers whom aren’t able to be together due to their families feud/ social situation. There are two key themes that of love and hate. Before Romeo and Juliet meet, the audience is only aware that he is a Montague and that she is a Capulet. This adds to the scene being so dramatically effective as do other happenings throughout the length of the scene. These include the speech of Capulet and the happy and joyous mood of the party, The romantic speech of Romeo, The hatred and harshness of Tybalt’s speech, a direct contrast with that of Romeo’s and the drama when the two lovers, Romeo and Juliet first meet.

The 1996 film, Romeo and Juliet, is Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of William Shakespeare’s play by the same name. This film is part of Baz Luhrmann’s Red Curtain Trilogy where Luhrmann uses a theatre motif in each, with poetry and language being the motif used in Romeo and Juliet. This play was originally written by William Shakespeare who was an English poet, playwright, actor and a man who is considered one of the greatest contributors to English literature as he invented over 1700 now common words and wrote some of the world’s most famous plays. Romeo and Juliet was written in 1595 so Luhrmann had to give the film a contemporary twist but keeps the original themes of forbidden love and young romance to appeal to a modern audience. In the

Romeo and Juliet is a timeless, classic love story written by the incomparable William Shakespeare. Many of Shakespeare’s works are considered literary classics, but none are more loved than Romeo and Juliet. This play masterfully tells the love story of two teenagers in Elizabethan England. The title characters Romeo and Juliet are members of two feuding families, Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet. There are different stylistic ways of portraying Romeo and Juliet, and the two most popular film versions portray two very different styles of this one play. Zeferelli's Romeo and Juliet was made in the 1970s, and is the film version most commonly shown in high school classrooms. The newest film version of this play is Baz Luhrmanns

“The most filmed of all plays, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, with its universal themes… remains uniquely adaptable for any time period,” (Botnick, 2002). Directors Franco Zeffirelli (1968) and Baz Luhrman

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

Hate is one very important idea examined in Romeo and Juliet and is explored by Juliet when she states ‘Here's much to do with hate, but more with love’ (1.1.166). William Shakespeare conveys the consequences of hate in his play through the ancient feud between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s, the irrational decisions made and the deaths that resulted. It is the ancient feud between the two families that lead to the irrational decisions made by Romeo and Juliet as well as their demise. It is questionable as to whether Romeo and Juliet’s lives would be spared if their families were not feuding.

Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet was an accurate representation of the famous Shakespearean play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and was very entertaining for today’s audience. First, this modern version presented the original play in both an appealing and entertaining way for the younger generation. People today are interested in movies that are more romantic yet action packed, and Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet met these preferences. The film included many scenes from the original play that were changed to be action packed and tragic, such as the gunfights between the Capulets and Montagues, which appealed to the younger audience because of their modern day thinking. Because the film was action packed, the audience took an interest

There are several aspects that make the balcony scene from the 1968 movie different from the 1996 movie. The most visible of these is the setting. The 1968 version takes place on the Capulets’ balcony, just like the play. It is also unique in the costumes and the blocking. The costumes are what people would wear during the time period Shakespeare wrote the play. The blocking has the two main characters starting out far apart from each other, then coming together before going apart again. The acting also was different in Zeffirelli’s movie. The actors’ faces were easy to read, helping the characters to appear as teens in love. They also spoke their lines with a rhythm, as if

While the 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, does tell of the destructive nature of feuds, this adaptation fails to convey Shakespeare's full commentary of overwhelming hate feuds and rivalry bring, leaving no one unscathed. Zeffirelli changes the mood and therefore

In the Zeffirelli version, Tybalt asks for Romeo and Mercutio starts taunting him, but Tybalt just takes it with a smile, which teens see as strange considering what Tybalt did the night before. When Romeo finally arrives, Tybalt almost forgives Romeo, but due to peer pressure, he instead starts a playful duel with Mercutio. Toward the end, Mercutio gets hurt by accident and Tybalt flees with panic creating creases in his brow. This behavior further alienates Tybalt from the antagonistic characterization Shakespeare had built toward the beginning of the play, making him seem more playful and easy going. This tends to be unsatisfactory with boisterous adolescents who often refuse to accept benevolent behavior because being dark, edgy and unforgiving is cool, even though it’s considerably immature to think in that fashion.

The event of Romeo and Juliet taking their own lives is central to the story, as it is the end to their tragedy. Therefore it is his most prominent example of hatred’s destructiveness. After both of them have killed themselves, the Prince says this to their families: “See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, / That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love, / And I, for winking at your discords too, / Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished” (5.3.302-5). This shows us that because of the Montague and Capulet’s hatred for one another, they were blinded and didn’t realize what they were doing until their children and many more, including the Prince’s family, were

Shakespeare manifests the final scene of Romeo and Juliet to illustrate how love triumphs over the terror of death and depicts how the Capulet and Montague parents’ mutual love for their children dismisses the ancient feud. The protagonists, Romeo and Juliet’s preference of being killed rather than “death be prorogued, wanting thy love” (Page 91; Act 2, Scene 2), indicates they would rather die than death be delayed without the fulfilment of each other’s love. Romeo commits suicide as he is unaware that Juliet’s death is fiction, which results in Juliet finding his corpse when she awakens and stabs herself as they both do not wish to live with the absence of each other’s love. Again, Shakespeare portrays that love conquers the most feared prospect of life: