As clever as luhrmann is he also uses a news bulletin to make the audience think that the situation is happening at that present time. And of course the new bulletin was repeating the chorus which is another clever way of squeezing the chorus into the film. He also allows the camera to zoom into the television set making it get bigger and bigger which makes the audience feel vulnerable.
Music. The biggest advantage of luhrmann. He uses loud dramatic music to make the audience feel more and more vulnerable. With the music comes in the two big buildings of “Montague” and “Capulet” companies with a statue of Jesus in the middle of both of them. The statue can mean more than one thing to me because the statue has its hands out which in a V shape which gives me the idea of the company owners (families) and versus each other and are battling with each other. This gives hints to the audience that there will be conflict later in the film with these two families.
The statue also can look like a scale to measure the power and strength of both families and shows the audience that the powers and strength of the families are the same and there will not be a winner out of both of them. Luhrmann has just used one object such as a statue to mean more than one thing he has been successful in picking what kind of object to put in the beginning of the film to give the audience ideas on what happens later in the film.
Luhrmann has used the same technique of the versus of the families, by using the statue in the news papers too but this time with the pictures of both family members, and again he has used media such as news to capture the audiences attention. The only main difference of Luhrmann and Zeffirelli’s versions of the film was that Luhrmann brought the chorus again but with a more dramatic voice. Using repetition makes sticks the chorus back in the audiences mind.
Many different shot have been used as the chorus is being said quick but affective clip shots also to have the audience think of it as a news report of something happening at that moment in time. The clip shots are short and violent that the audience remembers for a short period of time. I think of it as Luhrmann is introducing a major theme in the film. Violence. He again shows the family members as if to remind the audience conflict between the families.
As the chorus gets to its finishing point Luhrmann shows a black clip shot with the writing “a pair of star cross’d lovers” ……. then “take their life”. Again an affective way to stick simple words and phrases into the audiences mind.
