Romeo and Juliet Movie Reiew

Romeo and Juliet: The Never Ending Tragedy

Review on the movie Romeo and Juliet Directed By Baz Lurhmann

Title of play/movie: Romeo + Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)

Original Author: William Shakespear

Date viewed:

Location of Viewing:

Important Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio (Romeo), Claire Danes (Juliet), Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino, Diane Venora

Romeo and Juliet is a timeless, classic, story that exhibits the vile hate that two families have against each other and the war, death, and despair it brings upon the households. In, Romeo and Juliet the town of Verona is heavily plagued by the continuous Disputes from the Montagues (Romeo's lineage) and the Capulets (Juliet's lineage). The two households begin the story fighting with each other in public (The gas station in the movie). The prince intervenes before any deaths occur and refuse to let this continue in his city, therefore he warns the next brawl will end in the punishment of death. This heavily displays the anger and hostility between the two families, as to go to a gunfight in the middle of a public place (Movie version). It also shows the disregard for others lives, and the blinding abilities of their feud. Skipping forward, Romeo gets word of a party at the Capulet house; to this, his friends (Mercutio and others) convince him to go with them and crash the party. When the camera changes and Juliet is shown underwater, we see her young face and the innocence that she holds. The water is a recurring theme to show a cleansing and waking up from the illusion of rivalry. At this costume or masquerade party Romeo is first under the impression of drugs, again this happens in the movie, and he begins to freak out, rushing to the bathroom, he uses water, our recurring 'wake up' and cleansing element, before seeing Juliet through a fish tank, there a lot of water in this movie clearly there is a big meaning behind the idea of water. This is the first look they have at each other, and Juliet is dressed as an angel (innocence), Romeo is a knight (Protector).The two later dance and kiss in an elevator before being separated. Later that night in the first balcony scene, Romeo learns about Juliet as she does him, deciding their names have no interest to them as to affect their new undying love for each other. In this scene, Romeo and Juliet end up both in the water (again innocent, cleansing, and rejuvenation). In the morning Romeo meers up with Friar Lawrence to ask for his permission to marry Juliet (They agreed on this in the balcony scene the night before, also the night they met.) Reluctantly he agrees, marries' them. Later Tybalt goes to speak with Romeo (Who he saw at the party but held back due to Lord Capulets insrructions), Romeo, however, is not there so Mercutio stands up and the two share crude words before Rmoeo shows up trying to calm the situation and avoid fighting. Tybalt will no longer have peace and he beings to beat Romeo, who is not fighting back. Mercutio teps in and the fight goes across the street to a run down theatre, a glass mirror breaks, and Tybalt, now loosing, uses a piece to try and stab Romeo, Mercutio stads in nteh way and gets stabbed hiself. As he is dying her refused help from Romeo (his closest friend) gets back to the beach across the road, and dies there cursing the two houses. Romeo, in a fit or rage chases Tybalt, crashes into him with his car befroe shooting him into a fountain. Romeo runs but the police show up and Benvolio (Romeo's cousin) says that it was Romeo who killed Tybalt, but that Tybalt had already killed Mercutio. THe Prince (Police cheif) banishes Romeo. To which Romeo says he would rather die so he could atleast be with Juliet, the Friar and Nurse convince him to go to Juliet to which they spend the nigth together and Romeo leaves in the morning. JUliet is then being forced to marry Paris ( a rich Bachalor) and rushed to the Friar for a solution, she then claims she would like to kill herself to be with Romeo, the Friar gives her a sleepign draftto make it look like she is dead, and he will send for Romoe so the two can run away together. Juliet agrees, takes the vile that night, and the Friar sends a essage to Romeo. Romeo never gets ther proper message and instead gets one of her acutally being dea, which she is not, he goes to an apothicary, gets poison and goes to Juleits grave. Her hten in the book fights and kills Paris in the movie just walks in and speaks to Juliet before taking the posion. Juleit wakes up just after Romeo drinks teh posion and they see each otehr for one last time and speak goodbyes befroe Romeo dies. Juliet, so distrauht kills herself soon after. 

In the movie, there is a lot of the same colors, such as orange, blue, red, black, and so forth. It seems like the whole city that they are living is supposed to be destroyed, much like an actual full war went on there. They also made costume choices that the Capulets would look more like a gang and the Montagues looked more like beach boys. They also kept it so that they Capulet mansion was much more extravagant than anything else in the movie, as far as places. The only place that could have been more overdone and extravagant would have been Juliet's funeral and the tomb where Romeo sees her. This is filled with candles but it is also in the place where she had the funeral rather than a stone tomb in a graveyard or somewhere like that. This particular version also had a lot of yelling, the characters would often yell around or over each other which made it hard to understand int he beginning sometimes, amoung that there were many dark scenes with very little light, sign it in class that didn't work because you couldn't see what was happening from your seat so you have to read the subtitles. Romeo looked quite a lot older than Juliet in many of the scenes, there was also alot of smoking in the movie, mainly the male characters, this could show a certain dominace. The Nurse wasnt as prominate intheis movie aswell, it seemed like she lacked certain lines and towards the end just started falling away.The music choices, however did fit really well especially during figth or death scenes. THe charaters didn't seems to folow very many positions on the screen that were consistat enough to call out in order to show a change or any type of power. That I din't like but Romeo and Juliet were almost always across from each other. They were the only ones that had a consistant position. 

My favorite actor in this movie was, by far, Leonardo DiCaprio. He played Romeo in the movie and was able to pull off very poetic scenes but also bring anger and dangerous tendencies during fights. It was a great balance between gentle and tough. Leonardo was amazing in his scene where he killed Tybalt because it was so raw and powerful that is actually made me freeze. He held a certian softness in parts with juleit but made subtle changes almsot when away from her and he needed to be tough and protect.He was by far the best and most believeable at being distraugth about death. When he craddled Mercutio aswell, the audice could feel his emotions from eathcing with mad the character of Romeo seems so much more realistic and he kept it from justbeing about the dea4th in the end. 

I did not really like this verson aside from Romeo (Leanardo DiCaprio) becaseu itg seemed to exajurat4ed and cheesy for me. I felt liek every one else was just kindof messing aorund andhad moments o seriousnessbut over did it alot and Romeo blended the ost seamlessly between scense so that you could follow and feel their emotions. I also thought that it was tofake looking with the scene, and was very loud. It deffinatley was a digfferentideaa about how to do Romeo and Juleit, and I am very glad taht I got to see it but it was far from my favorite version taht I have seen before.