A comparison of the Zeffirelli and Luhrman versions of the 'Romeo and Juliet' Film

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A comparison of the Zeffirelli and Luhrman versions of the

‘Romeo and Juliet’ Film

William Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a very popular tragedy and has been for hundreds of years. However, the play from the script runs for around three hours, so in recent times two films have been made of the play. One is the Zeffirelli film and the other the Luhrman film. These films do not run for 3 hours, however. Therefore these films differ from the play in many ways, have scenes cut out and bits added for effect. Not only do these films differ from the play, they differ in many ways from each other.

In both of the films many of the long and winding speeches are shortened a lot, and in some cases are cut out completely. This helps to shorten the films, as there is not as much to say. In some cases little scenes are omitted and some characters have even been left out. The Zeffirelli film has the Montagues and Capulets as they are in the play. However, in the Luhrman film there is a new Capulet, Abra, although he does not play much part in the story. There is no such character in the Zeffirelli film.

Zeffirelli stays more true to Shakespeare than Luhrman does as he sticks with many things that would be the case in Shakespeare’s time. The main example is the setting. Zeffirelli actually films his film in Verona, which has changed very little since the time when Shakespeare wrote the play. This keeps the old style of the play, with no sense of it being modern. He uses the same clothing as would have been used in Shakespeare’s time and with the old buildings and old transport it is very like the way Shakespeare would have imagined it. There are no modern weapons, vehicles or buildings and this makes the film look as though it was actually filmed when Shakespeare wrote the play. It is set back in time to when Shakespeare was around, even though it was made hundreds of years after the play was written. To add to the old setting and costume, the play uses old language as well. Overall, the Zeffirelli film is very similar to the play that Shakespeare wrote.

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The Luhrman film however, is very different from both the Zeffirelli film and the play itself. It is similar to the Zeffirelli film in the fact that it uses the same style of language. However, the play is not set in Verona but is set in a fictional setting in America called ‘Verona Beach’. This setting is just as a city would be nowadays, with cars and petrol stations. The transport is modern, the buildings are modern and the costume is modern too. It is almost as though the film has completely made the play modern, except that the ...

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