There are quite lot violence actions in the very short opening sequence. There is a frozen action of someone pointing a gun at a child, and there is an extremely close up shot of someone firing a gun. The phrases and the violence fighting background are cleverly cut and edited, so if the audience did not know the play before, this might give them an impression that violence and fighting is involved in this film. When the phrase “take their life” appears on the screen, the letter “t” is replaced with a cross. The cross symbolises holiness and Christ. Luhrmann uses a cross at the beginning of the film, which is a hint to the audience that Romeo and Juliet will both die in a church later on in the film. The irony of the cross is that people should not fight against each other, because Jesus teaches “Love your neighbours as yourself; love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” The cross a symbol of peace, which contrast clearly with all the fighting and violence in the play. The image of cross also appears on the newspaper headline juxtaposed with the picture of Montague and Capulet. Once again, it contrast between the violence and peace in this film.
At the beginning of the film, the camera gives an extremely close up shot of a police car, which labelled “Verona Police Department”. This gives the audience a clear idea the story happens in Verona. Then there are some extremely close up shots of two tall buildings named “Capulet” and “Montague”, they stand opposite to each other. This indicates that the two households are feuding families and the rivalry is mainly down to the business empires. The camera then focused on the newspaper articles of the two families. It says on the newspaper “Montague VS Capulet”, this further proves that the two families are enemies. The newspaper burns with fire. The fire suggests the conflicts between the two families and the two families’ burning anger.
Although this film is filmed in a very modern city, Luhrmann kept Shakespeare’s old English language in the film, which makes the film more original.
In the opening sequence, characters are being introduced as the action is frozen and the caption with their names appear. This is a very clever way of introducing characters, because in that way, the audience can take in the names and images of the characters and will not get confused later on. When Mr Montague and Mr Capulet are being introduced, they are in their black cars and wearing black suits. The code of dress suggests that they are serious businessmen. However, black colour also foreshadows the death of their children later on in the play. Pairs dresses tidily and formal, it suggests he is well governed; in contrast, Mercutio is wearing casual clothes, it suggests he is young. Paris and Mercutio were wearing different styles of clothes, so the audience can tell clearly which family they belong to.
The characters from this film are well chosen, especially the actor of Mercutio. Because I have studied the play before, so I know that Mercutio is a quite irritable, aggressive and impulsive character. He never thinks before he acts. In the film, there is a frozen action of Mercutio being furious and pointing his finger at someone. Mercutio is exactly how I imagined he would be like. However, the main characters Romeo and Juliet are not introduced in the opening sequence. In Shakespeare’s original play “Romeo and Juliet”. the main characters Romeo and Juliet are not introduced at the beginning of the play either. They both have the same effect of making the audience curious and wanting continue watch the film and find out more about the main characters.
The sound track of the opening sequence is magnificent and desirable. It has sound of people roaring and gun shot among the background of the loud soaring music. The music is appropriate to the theme, because it gives audience an impression of violence, fighting and death.
The opening sequence of Luhrmann’s “Romeo and Juliet” is very well presented. Although the fast pace of the opening might give the audience headache, but overall, it presented the theme of this film well. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film and I highly recommend people from any age group to watch this film.
