Romeo + Juliet- Lurhmann

The film Romeo + Juliet is a American modernised version of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. The film was released November 1st 1996. It was directed by Baz Luhrmann and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. The film retains the original Shakespearean dialogue, but much else was changed to appeal to the target audience.

 

Synopsis
The film is set in the fictional modern-day location Verona Beach (which is thought to supposedly be somewhere in Mexico or California, as it was filmed in mostly California and Mexico). The Capulets and the Montagues are arch-rivals. The animosity between Fulgencio and Gloria Capulet and Ted and Caroline Montague is felt by their younger relatives. A gunfight between the Montague boys led by Benvolio, Romeo's cousin, and the Capulet boys led by Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, creates chaos in the city. The Chief of Police, Captain Prince warns the two families not to behave in such a way or their lives "shall pay the forfeit of the peace".

Benvolio meets Romeo on a beach. They play a game of pool and then learn of a party being held by the Capulets that, evening which they decide to gate-crash. Romeo agrees to come only upon discovering that his 'crush' Rosaline is attending.

The Montague boys meet their friend, Mercutio, who has tickets to the Capulet party. After Romeo takes an Ecstasy pill that Mercutio gives him, they enter to the Capulet mansion. Romeo finds the effects of the drugs and the party to be overwhelming and he goes to the rest-room for a break. He observes the Capulet's home aquarium he and Juliet catch one anothers' eyes. Tybalt sees Romeo and vows to kill him for invading his family's home, but Fulgencio stops him.

Romeo and Juliet sneak into an elevator and kiss. The nurse witnesses them together when the doors open and drags Juliet away, while telling her that Romeo is a Montague. At the same time, Romeo realizes that Juliet is a Capulet. Mercutio takes Romeo away from the party, but Romeo sneaks back to the mansion, where he hides under Juliet’s balcony. Juliet makes her way into the yard and gives a speech about her love for Romeo. before Romeo sneaks up behind her, causing her to scream. Juliet is terrified that he might get caught and risk death, but Romeo admits that he doesn't care. Juliet knows that her nurse is looking for her and hurriedly tells him that, if he sends word by the following day, they will be betrothed. Romeo goes to visit Father Lawrence in order to tell him that he wants to marry Juliet. Father Lawrence agrees to marry the pair, hoping that their marriage will help to ease the tensions between the families. Romeo tells Juliet’s nurse that he will marry Juliet and the two lovers are married.

Tybalt finds Mercutio at the beach just as Romeo arrives. Romeo tries to make peace with Tybalt but Tybalt attacks him. Mercutio intervenes and attacks Tybalt. Mercutio was about to finish Tybalt off by hitting him with a log, but Romeo stops him. Tybalt slashes Mercutio with a shard of glass. Mercutio, in denial, laughs it off as a mere "scratch", but then realizes that the cut is deeper than he thought. Angered over his pending death, Mercutio curses the warring houses. He angrily storms off but ends up dying in Romeo's arms. Angry that Mercutio, (who was neither a Capulet nor Montague), was murdered, Romeo chases after Tybalt and shoots him.

Romeo is banished from the city by Captain Prince. Romeo hides with Father Lawrence, and states that he would rather die than be banished. Father Lawrence lectures Romeo about the fact that the end result of his actions could have been his death as opposed to banishment. Father Lawrence treats Romeo's injuries and tells him that after some, he will help Romeo and Juliet return to the city and reconcile with their family and friends. The nurse comes to tell Romeo that his wife Juliet is waiting for him. At the Capulet mansion, Juliet prays and is horrified that Romeo killed her cousin. Romeo climbs over her balcony, she kisses him and they have sex. Fulgencio tells Juliet that she will marry Paris, the Governor's son.

The next morning, Romeo escapes just before Juliet's mother tells her that the family has promised she will marry Paris. She refuses, but her father angrily threatens to throw her out if she disobeys him. Juliet asks Father Lawrence to help he, saying that she would rather commit suicide than marry Paris and live without Romeo. He suggests that with the help of this potion, she should fake her death and be put in the Capulet vault to awaken 24 hours later. He planned for Romeo to be told of the plot so that he could sneak into the vault, and once reunited the two can travel to Mantua. Juliet drinks the potion after saying goodnight to her mother. She is found in the morning, declared dead, and placed in the vault. However, one of Romeo's cousins, Balthasar, witnesses the funeral and tells Romeo that Juliet is dead. As he was not home when the messenger arrives to tell him of the plan, he believes that his love is truly dead.

Romeo returns to Verona, where he buys poison. He goes to the church, but Captain Prince finds out he is back, and tries to capture him, without success. Father Lawrence learns that Romeo doesn't know that Juliet is alive. Romeo enters the church where Juliet lies and gives a farewell speech. She wakes up just as Romeo takes the poison and watches him die. After he dies, Juliet picks up Romeo's gun and shoots herself in the head, dying instantly. Their bodies are found and Prince condemns both families, whose feuding led to such tragedy, and coroners are shown removing the two bodies

Cinematography

This film is accessible because it was available to watch in the cinema and was then released on DVD and VHS. The DVD was only invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995, but by then people were replacing their old video players with DVD players. The cinema tickets were much cheaper than tickets for the play version at The Royal Shakespeare Company, for example. The specific cinematography of the film aimed to captured the modern idea of the film and it also aided the audience in understanding the language, especially younger audience members who may find a version of this film set in the Renaissance period difficult to follow.

Film-makers made a conscious effort to make sure that bullets were hitting objects rather than people, likely due to the fact that they wanted to ensure that the film was awarded as low a certificate as possible. If the film had received a 15 certificate in the UK, young adolescent and pre-teen girl- one of the biggest constituents of the likely audience- would not have been able to watch the film.

The picture was specific to films of the 90s. It is neither in as high definition as films of the 21st Century (e'g' Gnomeo and Juliet) or as in as low definition as films set in the 60s (e.g. the Zeferelli version). The film made use of various camera angles and there were some extreme close-ups, especially when a character was giving a speech. At times the characters moves at super speed, as though someone had pressed the fast forward button on the remote control. This often happened in scenes with Tybalt and his friends, to make them seem almost like cartoon comical villains. It also happened when the mother was first introduced, to show the audience that she was quite a comical character at first. The use of exaggerated sounds, such as the tinkle of spurs for boots that do not have any spurs, and strange‘wooshing’ sounds for abrupt camera movements is their to contribute to the flashiness of the opening scene and underlining the cowboy and cartoon elements.

The film also makes use of flashing images of important words in the film and newspaper articles. Near the end of the film their are flashbacks of the happy and romantic moments Romeo and Juliet shared together to remind the audience how tragic the story is. Romeo and Juliet first kiss which takes place in a cramped elevator with the camera swirling around them was achieved by making the elevator into sections and putting the camera on a circular dolly. As it spun round, stage hands would lift and very hurriedly replace the elevator panels to accommodate the bulky camera equipment.

There are various billboards, advertisements and magazines throughout the movie that contain quotes from other William Shakespeare plays: (I.i.1 = Act, scene and line number)

• 'Shoot forth thunder' (the gun advert) is from 'The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth', IV.i.109.
• 'Experience is by industry achiev'd' (in the Capulet lift) is from 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona', I.iii.25
• 'Such stuff as dreams are made on' (another advert) is from 'The Tempest', IV.i.168-169. Prospero (the name of the drink in the advert) is the player who says these lines.
• 'Add more fuel to your fire' (sign at gas station) is from 'The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth' V.iv.70
• 'Retail'd to posterity' (Montague corporate poster) is from 'Richard the Third' III.i.77
• 'A rash fierce blaze of riot' (newspaper headline seen through flames at the end of the gas station scene) is from 'Richard the Second' II.i.34
• 'I am thy pistol and thy friend' (gun poster in the pool hall, which is named the Globe after after the Globe Theatre in London where Shakespeare's plays were first performed) is from 'The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth' V.iii.85

A lot of the film was filmed in Mexico because the director wanted find a place in the modern world in which such factors could still credibly coexist. The film-makers also needed a location that was not immediately recognisable as they wanted to set it in a place that didn't actually exist but would be immediately recognised as an urban landscape.

Baz Luhrmann stated that he chose to film in Mexico because, ‘There are textual facts in Romeo and Juliet, having to do with Elizabethan England that exist in Mexico. The population was very involved in politics; there was a very small percentage of people with great wealth and a large population of poor: it was violent: and people were openly armed. We’ve interpreted all of these Elizabethan things in the context of the modern, created world. In fact, much of this occurs in modern day Mexico, in varying degrees. You could virtually set the piece in Mexico City itself and just play it. It has mysticism.’

Differences

• The Montagues and the Capulets are represented as warring business empires
• Swords are replaced by guns (with brand names such as "Dagger" and "Sword").
• Some of the names were also changed. Lord and Lady Montague and Lord and Lady Capulet were given first names (as opposed to the Shakespeare original where their first names are never mentioned), Friar Lawrence became Father Lawrence, and Prince Escalus was renamed Captain Prince.
• Most of the iconic balcony scene was filmed around a swimming pool 
• There was no Friar John, who was in the original play.
• Some characters were switched from one family to the other—in the original, Gregory and Sampson are Capulet, but in the film, they are Montagues. Abra and Petruchio are shifted from the Montague to the Capulet family.
• They travelled in modern vehicles such as cars and helicopters, as opposed to riding on horseback.
• Romeo didn't kill Paris in a dual, but instead he tried to take on the police in a desperate attempt to be with the assumed dead Juliet
• Speeches were cut short

Director

The films director, Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann, was born 17th September 1962. He is an Australian film director, screenwriter and producer. He he directed Romeo + Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Australia (2008). He won, The David Lean Award for Direction for Romeo + Juliet in 1998. He was nominated in 2002 for a Golden Globe for Best Director – Motion Picture for Moulin Rouge! Luhrmann also produced the soundtrack albums for the film which collectively went on to sell over 8 million copies worldwide.

 

Actors

Leonardo DiCaprio was born 11th November 11 1974. He is an American actor and film producer. He has acted in films such as 'Catch Me If You Can' (2002) and 'The Beach' (2000).
He has been nominated for five Academy Awards and ten Golden Globe Awards. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama for The Aviator (2004) and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).

Baz Luhrmann was determined to get Leonardo DiCaprio to play Romeo. He stated, ‘I thought that Leonardo was an extraordinary young actor (he had recently been nominated for an Oscar for his part in the film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?), and I thought he would make a great Romeo. It’s important to reveal these eternal characters anew for every generation, and Leo is particularly suited for this. He does seem to symbolise his generation.’

DiCaprio was seen as a rising star, so getting him to agree to the project would boost its credibility with the money people at Twentieth Century Fox. Lurhmann also thought that by having an American lead there potentially risky adaption of Romeo and Juliet could have some success in the USA. Since the USA is considered a crucial market for films if they are to make an immediate profit.

DiCaprio was invited to Australia for a week so that he could participate in a a nuber of workshops and readings. DiCaprio interested in the fact that Baz Luhrmann didn't want to make a traditional version of the play. DiCaprio said ‘I wouldn’t have done it if the movie had been a period piece. At first, I thought why do it again? It has been done so many times and so many people loved the Zeffirelli film. But what Baz has done is reinvent it, and in the process, he’s discovered new ways of treating the play and the characters.'

Claire Danes is an American actress who was born 12th April, 1979. She has acted as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life (1995), as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), and as Cosette in Les Misérables (1998).She stars as Carrie Mathison in the Showtime series Homeland. She has received three Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards.

The film-makers liked her‘girl next door’ appearance, but the studio were wary. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kate Winslet and Christina Ricci were considered for Juliet. Gellar's commitment to All My Children interfered, and Hewitt was thought to be too youthful-looking. Natalie Portman was also considered and even flew to director Baz Luhrmann's hometown, Sydney, to film scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio, but 20th Century Fox felt that she wasn't suitable. Luhrmann said, "Although she's a fantastic young actor, she's a tiny little girl and Leonardo's six feet tall. He's 21, but can look 18. She made him look all of 21, and it just became obscene." Portman said "They said it looked like Leonardo was molesting me when we kissed. It was really disappointing, but I wouldn't have wanted to be in the movie and have it look wrong. If I was in the film, I would have wanted it to be perfect."  Both actors were older than Romeo and Juliet in the play and were older than the actors in Franco Zeferelli's version.  Claire Danes was only three years older than the character she played.

Ethnic Minorities

• The Capulet's seem to be mostly Latino as opposed to the Montagues, who are mostly white, sugesting a reference to Westside Story and racism. 
• Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, and John Leguizamo auditioned for the role of Mercutio before Baz Luhrmann decided to make Mercutio black.
• Benicio Del Toro, a Puerto Rican actor, was considered for the part of Tybalt. The role was instead given to John Leguizamo who is of Colombian, Puerto Rican and Lebanese descent.
• Vincent Laresca, who played Abra Capulet, is of Panamian and Italian Descent.
• Miriam Margolyes, who played the Nurse, is Jewish.
• Harold Perrineau, who played Mercutio is black.
• Vondie Curtis-Hall, who played Captain prince is black.
• Quindon Tarver, who played a Choir Boy, is black.
• Edwina Moore, who played The Anchorwoman/ Narrator is black.
• A black woman sang at the Capulets' party.

The American Civil Rights Institute, led by founder Ward Connerly, has promoted and won a series of ballot initiatives that prohibit state government institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity in the areas of public employment, public contracting, and public education. Such initiatives have been passed in California (California Proposition 209 (1996)), Washington (1998 - I-200), and Michigan (the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative - MCRI, or Proposal 2, 2006). California's initiative was co-authored by academics Tom Wood and Glynn Custred in the mid-1990s and was taken up by Connerly after he was appointed in 1994 by Governor Pete Wilson to the University of California Board of Regents.The Non-Traditional Casting/ The Colour Blind Casting Project was founded in 1986 to examine problems of racial discrimination in theatre, film and television. Actors Equity is a co-founder.
 

The nineties were a time of racial tension. One example of this was caused by the Rodney King beatings and riots in the early 1990s. King's friends had been drinking and were behaving erratically and after a high-speed chase four officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Stacey Koon, ordered King out of his car and beat him repeatedly with their batons. In Autumn 1991 a lenient sentence was given to a Korean-American convenience store assistant convicted of shooting dead a young black woman. In April 1992 all four officers in the Rodney King case were cleared of assault. a few hours later violence erupted across the city's black neighbourhoods. 55 people were killed in several days of rioting, looting and retaliatory attacks against whites and Asians. Around 2,000 people were injured, and about 12,000 were arrested. Over $1billion worth of property was damaged and the National Guard was deployed to help police restore order.

Out of all four versions of Romeo and Juliet that we are talking about today, this film makes the most use of black actors and possibly has the greatest amount of actors who are of ethnic minority (considering that a lot of the actors in Westside story were white and wore fake tan. This is most likely due to the fact that it was made in 1990s, when there were plenty of black actors and some like Denzel Washington in 'Much Ado About Nothing' (1993) had already played characters from Shakespeare's plays, who were not normally portrayed by black people. Also Lurhmann was determined to make the film as modernised as possible and felt that the only way to do this was to have representation of ethnic minorities.

 

Gender

In the other films, during the prologue a man's voice is heard. In this film there is a female Anchorwoman/Narrator. Here Lurhmann is trying to stay true to his idea of non-traditional casting.

Religion 

The film has a very strong Catholic influence. Statues, icons, and holy images are visible in virtually every scene. Elements of the film are similar to the religious aspects of the Mexican fiesta, which mingles the sacred and the profane. Although most of the film's characters seem unresponsive to the religious imagery around them, for Romeo and Juliet this symbolism denotes the spiritual dimension of their love. This suggests that Luhrmann payed close attention to the religious dimensions of Shakespeare's play, since the original version it was set in a very catholic country.

The iconic image in Romeo + Juliet is the cross, and the recurring presence of crosses establishes the motif of the lovers as both 'star-cross'd' and having to bear the cross of their love. Luhrmann filmed part of the movie in Veracruz, Mexico, a city whose full name is La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz ("the rich town of the true cross"). Some other examples of crosses in the film include:

• A cross on the wedding rings of the couple
• A cross on top of the back seat of the Montagues' limousine
• A cross etched into the windshield of Balthazar's car
• Small crosses on the rear wall of the elevator in which Romeo and Juliet steal their first kiss
• Crosses formed by the window panes of the Capulet mansion
• A large, ornate cross tattooed on Friar Laurence's back.
• A central aisle is lined with neon crosses of blue, the traditional colour associated with the Virgin Mary.

Another catholic symbol that is featured in the film is that of holy statues and the recurring, iconic faces of saints. Luhrmann opens with an aerial establishing shot of a statue of Christ dominating the city from atop a church ( this is actually the Catholic church of St. Peter in Mexico City). Throughout the film the statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary reappear in both high- and low-angle shots, suggesting a framing spiritual reality above and beyond the world of the violent city, a reality to which Romeo and Juliet's love offers them unique access.

All the guns in the film are named after types of swords e.g  the handguns belonging to Benvolio (SWORD 9mm Series S), Mercutio (DAGGER 9mm) and Tybalt (RAPIER 9mm). Some guns had Catholic symbols on them, such as an image of the Virgin Mary.

Culture

By suggesting the Hispanic ethos of both Miami Beach and Los Angeles, " Verona Beach” is a cinematic amalgam of Latino life and its Chicano subculture. By placing the film's Elizabethan stage motifs in a Hispanic context, Luhrmann calls up a variety of Latino elements for example; the overbearing Mediterranean father, the historic Black Legend which derides Spanish Catholicism, Juliet's nurse as the stereotypical Latin American servant- all of which establish a multicultural context. Luhrmann's film involves the Latin folk context, the fiesta. The film's colour, music, emotional intensity, and unpredictable violence all recreate features of the fiesta, a social event central to the Mexican identity. The details combine to create a world of carnival that is both festive and threatening: the movie's rapid cutting, especially in the opening twenty minutes as Montagues and Capulets confront each other; the repeated use of extravagant fireworks and strings of bright, decorative lights; the faded gaiety suggested by the "Sycamore Grove” amusement park on the beach; the customised cars driven by the feuding youths; the ever-present glint of their pistols (given names such as "Sword” and "Rapier”); and the allegorical costuming of Tybalt (wearing devil's horns at the costume ball) and Abra (with a metal plate across his teeth engraved with "Sin”). Two of Tybalt's sidekicks even appear as skeletons at the costume ball, a gesture toward the Mexican festival of the Day of the Dead. The celebration of the dead, like those fiestas dedicated to various saints, recognises the flawed and passionate nature of human life, linking it to a dominant theme of Shakespearean tragedy.

Octavio Paz stated in 'The Labyrinth of Solitude', "all give [the Mexican] a chance to reveal himself and to converse with God, country, friends, or relations. During these days the silent Mexican whistles, shouts, sings, shoots off fireworks, discharges his pistol into the air. He discharges his soul. . . . This is the night when friends who have not exchanged more than the prescribed courtesies for months get drunk together, trade confidences, weep over the same troubles, discover that they are brothers, and sometimes, to prove it, kill each other. . . . Now and then, it is true, the happiness ends badly, in quarrels, insults, pistol shots, stabbings. But these too are part of the fiesta@.

One of the films key hair stylist Aldo Signoretti was kidnapped by gang members and held for ransom. The Bandidos rang up and stated that they would return him for $300. So a man called Maurizio left the money to outside the hotel, held it up, chucked them the bag and they threw him out of the car and broke his leg.

Shakespeare described Tybalt swordsmanship as "showy". John Leguizamo wanted to transform this into flamboyant gun play, so he worked with choreographer John O'Connell to create a flamenco-inspired style. This is used to further enhance the Hispanic element of the film. Flamenco is a form of Spanish folk music and dance from the region of Andalusia in southern Spain. It includes cante (singing), toque (guitar playing), baile (dance) and palmas (handclaps). 

Political 

Social

Romeo takes an ecstasy pill. Romeo smokes. There is a nude scene (though nothing is scene). This implies that the characters had sex. 

Mercutio dresses as a woman at the party and is thought to be gay.

Socio- economic Group and Costume
 

Costume designer Karen Barrett wanted to make it clear that the gangs were from the same socio- economic group and also wanted to make sure that the audience could easily differentiate between the 2 groups. She stated "The Capulet's style is more decorative and the Montague kids are more Utilitarian. The Capulets wear more expensive and ornamental pieces of clothing and bullet proof vests have become required accessories. It's a place where guns are the norm, so life and clothing would have to change to adapt to that. The Capulets are more Manicured and preening and wear clothes that are extremely well-cut and body conscious."The Designers Dolce and Gabbana were the inspiration for the Capulet's clothing. The Montagues have a distinctive, colourful style, with short hair and Hawaiian shirts.

Dolce and Gabbana clothing

The Capulet's Clothing

The soundtrack combining modern rock acts like Garbage, Radiohead, the Cardigans, and the Butthole Surfers with contemporary soul like Des'ree and adult alternative like Gavin Friday. Quindon Tarver even covered Prince's song 'When Doves Cry' for the film. The soundtrack was a popular and solid seller, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and doing triple-platinum sales in the U.S. It was especially successful in Australia, where it was the second-highest selling album in 1997. The film's prominent use of tracks from popular bands including Radiohead and The Cardigans (and especially promiently Mercutio's wild transvestite dancing to the disco anthem Young Hearts Run Free) led to two hit soundtrack albums.