When put into meaning this short line has a rather large role to the play.
What this sentence is trying to say is that there is basically a civil war between the two households and often leads to occurring murders. This could also mean they are spilling each others blood.
Once the prologue has been read out the camera then goes onto a helicopter view of the city. It shows lots of busy roads and an also gives an idea from all the busy roads that there must be a extreme amount of pollution happening. Whilst the camera is flying through the city giving us a ruff idea of what it is really like to live there, two very important sky scrapers are shown. On top of the buildings are two exceptionally large signs which read ‘Montague’ and ‘Capulet’. These two names are also known as the two households who are complete enemies.
Whilst all these shots are flying onto the screen at an incredible rate of speed a slow and low male voice is reading out lines of the prologue over the top.
Then the two houses are held up at a petrol station where they then begin to fight.
The two gangs, Montague and Capulet are nowhere near alike in many ways. For example their clothes and there culture are completely opposite. The Montague’s clothes are not the neatest of all; they wear brightly coloured t-shirts which are often not buttoned up and they don’t exactly wear the normal pair of everyday jeans most people wear, they are torn and different colours. The Capulet’s clothes are much tidier. They are known to be dressed in black with very clean and shiny cowboy like boots. Another comparison is the accents in which the two gangs speak in. The Montague’s accent is very loud and sounds slightly like slang. They are very open minded and speak what they feel but then when confronted they completely change there way of action from being loud to quiet and civil. They also show signs of scarce when confronted by the Capulet.
How ever some of the Capulet have a very obvious foreign accent and are very nasty. They show no scarce to the Montague but once committed a sin they shown a high amount of guilt. This is shown when Tybalt kills Romeo’s cousin Mercutio.
The two households are also associated with two kinds of music. The Montague’s are associated with rock and are very common looking. The Capulet are associated with the type of scary western music showing they are a strong and powerful household.
There are certain things in the film that add an extra effect and these are the camera shots and the angles in which they are placed at. There are so many different things that you can do with a camera to add effects to a film, but there are 6 main ways in which the camera is used in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and they are:
- Panoramic views.
- Ground shots of feet etc.
- Very brief shots of headlines and people and the city.
- Speeded up movement.
- Slow motion
A place where a ground shot of someone’s feet is used, is when the first Capulet steps out of his car. The effect that this gives us is that it builds up the tension of wanting to know who that pacific character is. When this camera shot is used on the feet of the Capulet, it shows us the scary western boots that he wears, which could also gives us a ruff idea of what the characters personality may be like. Another place where there is a ground shot of feet is when the nuns exit from the shop, at this point in the background you may hear the Montague boys shouting at them and not giving off the nicest language you could use.
Another effect used in the film is when the camera does and extreme close up of a characters face, this effect shows the characters expression and moods. A place in the film where this effect is used is where the looks at Benvolio and he says:
“I do but keep the peace put up thy sword,
or manage to part these men with me.”
Then the camera quickly shoots right up close to Tybalt’s face who then says:
“Peace….. peace….. I hate the word, like
all Montague’s…..”
This shows that Tybalt is angry and unhappy with all of the Montague’s and especially Benvolio.
Along with the extreme close up of faces there are also extreme close ups of objects. An example of this is when the Montague’s come driving into the petrol station at a rather high amount of speed, they put there feet on the break and when the car finally stops the number plate is in very close contact with the camera showing that the Montague’s have a Very updated and modern number plate.
Panoramic views could also be classed as an effect used by the camera. This is used when lines of the prologue are being read out by a male voice over fast shots of the city and headlines, the shots of the city are from extremely high view giving us the idea that the camera is in a helicopter flying over the city. When the camera is focused on the city we can judge many things about it. An example could be that it shows a lot of pollution and very busy roads. Giving us the idea that the city is not exactly the best place to live and not very clean.
Another effect used is when the camera does very brief shots of different objects. An example if when this is used is when, again lines of the prologue are being read out by the male voice and the camera shoots from headlines out of newspapers to fire and people fighting. This gives us the idea that the film could be full of dramatic scenes and violence between enemies. This also shows us brief shots of what is to be seen later in the film.
When the fight breaks out in the petrol station a number of effects are used but one effect that is used more than once is when an action is speeded up. One example of this is when Tybalt drops to his knees and pulls out his gun giving the effect that he has a high amount of skill with his gun.
The last effect used in the film is slow motion. This is used when Tybalts throws himself in the air and takes a good shot of his gun at another character. This gives the effect that he is trying to do something fast and skilfully.
In conclusion I think that the modern film of Romeo and Juliet is set out in an extremely skilfully way. The effects that are use I the film give emotion and tension to what the character is trying to do. The film uses go actions and good emotions when needed. Overall the film really does show us the greatness of the old play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and shows us what it really is about. In a personal view I think that the film has made a great impression on Baz Luhram and I hope to watch many more of his films in the future.
