An Analysis of the Opening Sequence of Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.
An Analysis of the Opening Sequence of Baz Luhrmann's
Interpretation of William Shakespeare's
Romeo & Juliet
By David Blick
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In This essay, I am going to be analysing the opening sequence of Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. I will talk about the prologue, which is repeated three times, how it shows the seriousness of the conflict between the houses of Capulet and Montague and finally an analysis of the opening scene.
This film directed by Baz Luhrmann's, it is an updated version from the original written by William Shakespeare and which was first performed in 1595. This interpretation was released in cinemas in 1997. Differences in Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet to that of the original by William Shakespeare that I have been able to notice are that swords become handguns manufactured by gunsmiths called "Sword", Romeo takes a mind-expanding drug before Capulet's ball and Mercutio is killed on a beach, with a sliver of glass, Baz Luhrmann's also cuts out Romeo's fight with Paris in Act 5 - so at the end of the play, amongst many other differences.
After watching the opening sequence of Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Julie, I have been able to identify that these short scenes are made up of The Prologue which In Greek tragedy was a speech or brief scene preceding the entrance of the chorus and the main action of the play. This was usually spoken by a god or gods. Subsequently, the term has referred to a speech or brief scene that introduces the play, as by an actor in certain Elizabethan plays such as Romeo and Juliet. In Baz Luhrmann's Interpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet the prologue is repeated three times, each of which are in different contexts, one is of a black newsreader giving a news broadcast and the prologue is delivered in her persona, next the prologue is repeated by a South-American-accented man, then thirdly the prologue is shown to us with another male voice-over, but this time images from the film and newspaper cuttings flash across the screen. Another section of the opening sequence also comes from act one scene 1, where we see the servants of the Caplets are on the street waiting for some of the Montague's to arrive. When they do, one of the Capulet "bites his thumb" at them, essentially a strong insult. The Montague's accept the insult and the men start to fight in the petrol station.
In my opinion, I think that Baz Luhrmann has chosen to repeat the prologue three times to make people understand what was to come, and this gives us a sense of foreboding about the play of Romeo & Juliet, and Baz Luhrmann defies conventions of the traditional director and he tells us what is going to happen even before the film has barely begun. He tries to make people understand what was to come, but he defers form adding in the last two lines of the prologue, which are "In which if you with patient ears attend, what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend". In other words this means that if you have not understood this piece then they hope that the rest of the film helps you to understand it and appreciate their hard work.
The first time the prologue is seen, we are shown a black American woman. The sequence starts with interference, and then automatically tunes into the news, then after taking breath the news reader systematically starts to give her broadcast through the original words of William Shakespeare. To talk in media terms I would say that the first few shots of the prologue, a zoom effect gives us a sense of building up to the eventual extreme close up of the news reader. The black American woman uses a modern accent whilst giving a news broadcast, and she keeps ...
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The first time the prologue is seen, we are shown a black American woman. The sequence starts with interference, and then automatically tunes into the news, then after taking breath the news reader systematically starts to give her broadcast through the original words of William Shakespeare. To talk in media terms I would say that the first few shots of the prologue, a zoom effect gives us a sense of building up to the eventual extreme close up of the news reader. The black American woman uses a modern accent whilst giving a news broadcast, and she keeps within the persona of her profession, but Baz Luhrmann has kept to the old Shakespearean language; thus uniting the modern Americanisation of the Newsreader and the Traditional and originality of Shakespeare's work. Throughout the News broadcast, we are also shown a picture of a wedding ring, this may be symbolic of what is to come, but we do not know this for sure. I think that this particular interpretation of the prologue represents how important and how serious the conflict between the houses of Capulet & Montague is and it shows the end of both lovers thus signalling the end of the feud.
It is important at this point for the audience to understand the story of Romeo & Juliet as they may become slightly confused later in the film. The second time the preface is shown; Baz Luhrmann shows us a series of images of Verona beach according to the lines of the prologue, which is now being voiced over by a man with a deep Mexican voice. Either the change of voice was deliberate by Baz Luhrmann to create a change of scene or to see the story through another perspective, repeating the prologue makes it stick in the viewers head. There are many newspaper cuttings which appear on screen, these illustrate the words that where said during the monologue, but the final cutting shows both families, this then bursts into flames, this could be metaphorical of the hate that the families share for each other, or that if they carry on behaving like this they will be sent to hell as the flames appear to be symbolic of this hate.
The second foreword displays to us images of two Skyscrapers, one which is emblazoned with the logo on the Montague Company, and the other which possesses a Capulet symbol on its rooftop. There are also many other smaller buildings and skyscrapers in the background which only amplify the enormousness of the two featured skyscrapers, this representation of the buildings demonstrates to us the financial status of the raging families. Between the two buildings there is a statue of Christ, thus showing the use of iconography by Luhrmann, this illustrates to us that the houses of Capulet & Montague think that they are equally above everyone else, people, the law, and even Christ, which could be interpreted as being blasphemous. The statue of Christ seems almost to have been picked from Rio de Janeiro At the end of this scene, the families are shown apart form Romeo and Juliet, this could be symbolic as Romeo & Juliet are not essentially a part of their families feud, but they (by no fault of their own) become a part of it.
The next part of the sequence is accompanied by operatic and extremely dramatic music; we are then almost barraged by images of tragic action from the forthcoming film, which hint to us that there has been some sort of catastrophe. For example, we are shown shots of objects burning and people with children screaming as if they are running for safety. There are helicopters above, the sound from which is echoed throughout the prologue. In the now fast-moving version of the prologue we are shown images of some of the characters in Romeo & Juliet, such as Romeo being hunted down and eventually surrounded by the police. The black choir boy displays to us his innocence through his voice whilst depicting a sense of equality in the church. There is a child at the petrol station, which is dressed as though he has just come out of, or is on his way to church, he is dressed in a black suit and is then shocked as the sight of violence as he and his guardian vacate the petrol station. Throughout this version of the prologue there are images of guns and the shots being fired from them, violence on the streets of Verona, which now appears to be a bizarre contrast between rundown Miami and a city in Mexico? Finally we are met with images of police and their presence in Verona city, these 9images demonstrate the American iconography of the policeman, as they are all dressed in American police uniforms.
The screen then switches between images of violence and fear to newspaper cuttings that depict the words previously said in the prologue. the constant changing between still and moving images, along with the sound of the helicopter and other background noise including the now extremely loud dramatic music help towards creating a great deal of tension in which one has to struggle to find ones breath after the prologue has finished, as in my opinion it is breath-taking.
Moreover, these three identical prologues give to the viewer a greater insight into the plot of the film, also I think that in the final interpretation of the prologue, Baz Luhrmann decided to give the impression of a fast-moving environment as this indicates to the viewer how fast the story of Romeo & Juliet actually moves, in contrast to this Baz Luhrmann may also have used this to help modernise the film as this shows the audiences familiarity with fast-paced action films.
The picture now moves to Act 1 Scene 1, Baz Luhrmann does this by dividing the end of the prologue and act 1 scene 1 with an edited wipe with the use of a drum roll. In Act 1 Scene 1 the chance is given to Baz Luhrmann to demonstrate his 'contempory' view of Shakespeare as he achieves this. He are first introduced to the Montague boys whom are speeding recklessly down a highway, with load rap/hip-hop music blasting out of their convertible car which again appeals to a modern audience as this differs from the traditional and operatic music which was used to open the film through the prologue. The boys from the houses of Montague possess personalised number plates on their cars and their family crests are emblazoned onto the bases of their guns. They all appear to be dressed in yellow, which mirrors the immense vigour and energy that they possess. The Montague's then arrive at the petrol station which is a very public place, they begin to fill up with petrol, and then low and behold the boys from the house of Capulet arrive. We are shown high-angled shots of a group of nuns and convent schoolgirls that are walking past and whom appear to get caught up in the forthcoming conflict between the two families. The Caplets are introduced with echoes of music from spaghetti westerns playing in the background. The shots that we see are a pair of feet that get out of a car and stub out a cigarette. These shoes have a traditional western feel about them, and they have spurs on them, which in my opinion mirror the attitude of Clint Eastwood in his western films such as the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and that memorable quote "are ya feelin lucky....punk!"
The two houses then employ in a vicious attack of word which psyche each other up, they then engage in a terrible gun fight in which many members of the public become involved resulting in more violence around the petrol station. One of the Montague boys is constantly hit over the head by an outraged nun, this mirrors the iconography that I explained earlier between the skyscrapers and the statue of Christ and that the two houses think that they are above Christ and religion altogether.
The Capulet boys appear to be greasier, and are dressed in more traditional colours, rather than the flamboyant yellow that the Montague's are attired in. they have moustaches and they could be easily be passed off as a member of the mafia. The Capulet's also possess a more sensible and somewhat conservative choice in car colour - blue, they (like the Montague's) also have personalised number plates and guns.
The fight that follows these dramatic introductions signals the beginning of a new wave of conflict between the two families. Baz Luhrmann creates an atmosphere of many things in this scene including tension, fear & excitement. Baz Luhrmann appears to have created this by showing the anger and the ongoing feud between them, and they appear to have equal fear of one another, the Montague boys seems to show this more than the Capulets. Baz Luhrmann then builds up the atmosphere in this scene starting with the opening comments from the Montague's - "a dog of the house of Capulet moves me" - this eventually leads up to the "do you bite your thumb at me, sir" speech. Both houses show their fear and sense of tension through their use of facial expressions and body language, but overall the Montagues appear to be more fearful of the Capulets than the Capulets are of them. The excitement in this scene continues with the exchange of bullets changing place and the growing amount of violence occurring in the very public place that is the petrol station, but with the huge amount of atmosphere and tension being created by Baz Luhrmann, he attempts to lift this tension by introducing humour, for example when one of the Montague boys is seen licking his nipples at a nun sat in an adjoining car, he does this to try to scare them but this feeble attempt only results in the nun retaliating and hitting the Montague boy over the head continuously, which in turn creates more humour.
In my opinion I think that Baz Luhrmann makes good use of traditional cowboy film cliché to add a more interesting look to Shakespeare's work, plus to create more tension and to make the whole scene more appealing by adding traditional cowboy-orientated props such as guns, spurs, the flipping sign and the spaghetti western music. But by doing this he has really stereotyped the western cowboy material, but I am not trying to say that he is not doing what any other modern director does because they all stereotype in their films, and in turn create stereotypical characters one way or another.
I feel the opening scenes to a film are most crucial and I found that the opening scenes to Romeo and Juliet were quite substantial, the scenes of the prologue were quite short but in fact it was very informative. However, I think it was difficult for Luhrmann to create the rest of the movie after such a good start but I think he has conveyed the dramatic impact of the prologue during Act 1, Scene 1 by showing just how terrible the feud between the houses of Capulet and Montague was, in this case I mean hurting people who are not even involved in the fight, such as the little white boy, who was dressed in black, the nun's etc.
I personally think that the targeted audience for this film is for people aged 15 - 30 years old, as some of the violence would be too much for the smaller children, to take in and mostly the language and sense of this story would confuse them whereas if you showed it to an older person over 30 they would probably be more interested in a calm love story with not so much violence.
In my opinion, the opening scenes to this film were portrayed as an insight to the rest of the film. I see the representation of the prologues as a beginning middle and end, but as the first act and first scene come up, I feel as if the whole film has started again but from a different angle. I also think Luhrmann took on a great task and that was to re-enacting Shakespeare's greatest love story and that Baz Luhrmann has achieved this task successfully.
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David Blick Romeo & Juliet
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