Romeo and Juliet

             Romeo + Juliet = the most wonderful love story in the world. It's about violence. It's about hate. And of course, it's about love -- of the teenage, on- first- sight, suicidal, mad variety, the kind that gets two kids wildly infatuated at a costume party, that gets them in big trouble with the folks and with the law, that drives them to, like, deadly ends. As such, Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet" is the stuff rock'n'roll dreams are made on (viz. that Dire Straits song), and more than any other classic text this tale is ripe for the fast- cut, guns-blazing, MTV treatment.
             For the most part, director Baz Luhrmann (of STRICTLY BALLROOM fame) pulls this off, with a glorious bang. The opening five minutes are an adrenaline rush -- the prologue being read out like a "60 Minutes" segment, the characters introduced to us in freeze-frames, Reservoir Dogs-style, and a plunge into the street brawl scene which fuses elements of gangster chic, matador-dancing grace and spaghetti western spoof. It all climaxes with a gas station up in flames (shades of Natural Born Killers). This sets the tone for Luhrmann's take on Shakespeare -- irreverent, campy, and great fun.
             The film effectively creates an alternate universe, where Montagues wear Hawaiian shirts and Capulets black leather, where advertising billboards contain Shakespearean in-jokes ("Out Damn'd Spot" as an acne cream ad, "Rosencrantzky's" as a hot dog brand). Sometimes this is taken to the point of gimmicky cheesiness -- the guns sport prominent brand names like "Sword" and "Rapier", as a way of explaining why gangsters say things like "Put up your swords". Other times, there is an inspired aptness to the updated imagery -- Mercutio twirls a psychedelic-looking pill as he performs his "Queen Mab" speech ("She is the fairies midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate stone"), providing a modern-day equivalent of the trippy myth-world that Shakespeare put in Mercutio's mouth.
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Romeo and Juliet . (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 04:50, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/67884.html