Luhrmann uses silences effectively in this scene and the most poignant one is when Romeo has just shot Tybalt and there is silence until we hear the chink of the metal gun hit the floor then further silence. Luhrmann is showing Romeo contemplate with disbelief and shock what he has just done and the viewer realises that that action is a turning point in the play as it is accentuated so much. The wind and music pick up as the rain breaks and as Romeo leaves the scene before there is another crescendo, there is a sense of unfinished business that will not stay unresolved. The sounds of the elements such as wind, crashing of waves, the lashing of rain and rumbles of thunder suggests how nature and the heavens are involved in the fight and that there are actions that the characters have put into motion that have larger repercussions than the characters could ever have imagined. The scene I am analysing opens with an ominous crash of thunder which suggests something bad is waiting to happen.
Luhrmann’s use of special effects to create weather conditions in the movie help to give it a very Shakespearean style. The idea of the elements rebelling, such as they do in the storm that Luhrmann creates, is typically Shakespeare. The brown filter he uses in the opening shot creates a sense of a brewing storm, heat, humidity and sweat which taints the scene from the beginning with a feeling that something is about to kick off in this midday heat under the storm which is rumbling away, getting ready to erupt. The points at which different stages of the storm are unleashed fit closely to advances in the story. As the scene begins and there is a sense that trouble is afoot, the storm is slowly brewing. As fighting begins and prominent plot points that move the story along occur, the storm intensifies and the skies darken as the rumbling of thunder becomes louder. At the climax of the scene when Romeo kills Tybalt and the plot is directly affected by this act, the storm cloud breaks and the rain begins to pour down. This creates a sense of something terrible having happened which will have major consequences. The weather is closely linked to the plot and fits in with the emotions and actions of the scene, which are to have dire consequences.
Other sounds such as the loading of guns and screeching tyres of cars are used to heighten the tense situations that arise in the scene. The raw sounds of the blows the characters inflict upon each other are very realistic and you can almost feel their pain. The echoing of Prince’s voice at the end as he cries,
‘Romeo is banished’,
seems almost God like as it is deep and booming and the echo is heard by Romeo which links it to the next scene. Echoing is also used effectively as the thunder rumbles and Mercutio curses,
‘A plague on both your houses’.
Perhaps by echoing the key lines from the scene which are to make the story progress, Luhrmann feels the viewer will be able to identify these lines as key to the story’s progression also.
Luhrmann also made other changes to Shakespeare’s original text. While Shakespeare had not written that certain lines should be echoed, Luhrmann found that changing the way in which certain lines were
delivered heightened his ability to adapt this scene effectively. For example, he has Romeo deliver the lines,
‘Either thou, or I, or both must go with him (Mercutio)’,
three times, each with more passion than the other. This clearly shows Romeo’s distress at Mercutio’s death and gives the viewer an understanding into why Romeo shot Tybalt; he was enraged and devastated at the death of Mercutio. Likewise, by omitting, merging and selectively choosing different scenes and dialogue from Shakespeare’s
play, Luhrmann has been able to create a movie faithful to Shakespeare’s text yet also suited to a modern day audience.
His screenplay involved merging Act 3, Scene 1 with some of Juliet’s speech in Scene 2 whilst omitting the rest of this scene. Luhrmann chose not to include the conversation between the Nurse and Juliet regarding Tybalt’s death as he perhaps felt that a modern day audience would not believe Juliet could still love Romeo as much after he had murdered her own cousin, and this means the movie would not have been able to progress. He also cuts out a lot of the original dialogue. This is more easily explained though, as a movie is more about being able to portray emotions through other mediums than dialogue such as visual images, music and the expressions on actors’ faces. Where it is not always possible to identify why characters become so angered at the comments of other characters in the play, it is made more obvious in Luhrmann’s adaptation. For example, when Tybalt taunts Mercutio near the beginning of Act 3, Scene 1,
‘Mercutio, thou consort’st with Romeo-‘,
the connotations of what he has said are not that clear in Shakespeare’s play. However, in the movie it is clear to a modern day audience that Tybalt is trying to rile Mercutio and it is more understandable as to why Mercutio is angered by the comment.
The sets created by Luhrmann and his design team portray the attitudes of the times and the people of Verona. Verona beach is seedy and all about advertising, a real contrast to the holiness and religiousness of the wedding ceremony of Romeo and Juliet in the previous scene. This sets Romeo and Juliet away from the rest of the characters in that they seem more elevated and pure. The seeming religiousness of Juliet in the shot juxtaposed between the two fights makes her seem innocent due to the candles, religious figures and warm glow of her room. It also gives the audience a sense of what Romeo is losing by continuing on with this fight.
By having the statue of Christ damaged at the end of the scene, Luhrmann promotes the idea that not only is this feud tearing the city and the families apart but that it is also damaging the religion of the families involved. The religious symbol has started to break as it gives up on the feuding families. The use of guns in the movie as opposed to swords and daggers has much more effect than just modernising the play. The fact that Romeo shoots Tybalt in the play helps Luhrmann portray him as a softer character as opposed to in Shakespeare’s play where Romeo stabs Tybalt. In Shakespeare’s play he seems a harsher character as it takes real will to stab someone, actually plunging a knife into them with such force that it kills them. To shoot someone is much easier and more spontaneous and can be done in the heat of an emotional moment.
Lighting is also used to great effect to portray the personalities of different characters and their feelings and the intensity of different actions of the scene. The dull brown filtered light of the start is used to accentuate the heat and brewing trouble of the day. The sun only shines in the scene on people who are doing the right things and not getting involved with fighting. For example, when Mercutio and his friends sit about before the Capulets arrive, the sun is shining as they are just laughing and having fun, not harming anyone. Also, when Romeo enters the scene, the sun is only shining on him as he is trying not to get involved in the fighting. When he extends his hand to Tybalt to ask for peace, the sun highlights it, whereas Tybalt is set against the dull brown light of the brewing storm clouds. As the fighting begins the sun sets quickly and it gets darker as the characters are doing wrong by fighting each other.
Luhrmann uses shadows and silhouettes to create mood and sympathy in this scene. The shadows of the Capulets are elongated and obvious which makes them look sinister and give them a more western feel. Shadows are also used effectively after the death of Mercutio when they move across the beach creating a sense of foreboding, darkness, an
ominous feel and a sense of bad things having taken place. He uses
silhouettes to show how Romeo looks weaker against the figure of Tybalt standing over him and this arouses sympathy from the viewer. They are on the beach against the backdrop of the stage with the sun setting behind them. It has a warm glow to it which perhaps signifies hope that peace can be reached between the two before things escalate out of control.
It is much darker and grey as Mercutio is slashed and the characters white shirts look battered and dirty, much like them. There is no sunlight as the camera pulls away from Mercutio lying dead on the beach and this contrasts to the shot of Juliet in her room in the warm glow of candlelight. This gives us a sense that Romeo is giving up this warmth, comfort and love for the darkness and dullness of death and fighting. This contrasts even more against the severe black of night when the scene climaxes.
The blue lighting and headlights of the shot make it seem almost surreal and the fast driving and sound effects give it a video game feel to it. This could be to make it more modern and allow audiences to relate to it. Flashes of light are used in the darker night setting and one flash particularly stands out. It is when Romeo and Tybalt fall to the ground and there is a momentary flash from between the trees in the background. There are also the white blasts from the gun when Romeo shoots at Tybalt, allowing us to make no mistake that he is shooting the
gun. The blue flashes of the police car lights denote a cold, dead feeling
appropriate to the death that has just occurred and the red flashes create a sense of danger and warning.
Highlighting by light is used on Romeo on the beach to start with but also on the statue of Christ in the closing stages of the scene. His outspread arms are highlighted, and as we look down on Romeo, Christ’s shoulders are highlighted. This makes the statue seem central to the action and intensify the sense of fate and religion and the heavens intervening in the feud. It also suggests the impending sacrifice of Romeo and Juliet’s lives as Romeo bent down on his knees and bleeding, looking up at the statue, makes him look desperate and weak in front of the towering statue of Christ.
Luhrmann has employed many techniques to complete his successful adaptation of this scene but I think the really great thing he achieves in this scene is his use of camera angles and shots. He manages to make it look as if the characters are performing on a stage which is very true to Shakespeare as his plays were performed on stages for audiences. For example, when Romeo is on his knees below Tybalt the setting sun creates silhouettes of them and they are against the backdrop of this sun shining through a hole in the wall, highlighting them as if they were on stage. The square in which Romeo and Tybalt begin to fight after the car crash is highlighted at first, like a spotlight on a stage and with everybody looking on, it heightens the idea of it being a performance. The same can be said for the way the beach cleared as Mercutio made his way down to the shore. The beach clears of people as they want to get
away from the unfolding trouble and it is like a stage being cleared for
them. People watch them through the wire fencing, giving an idea of them performing. They fight against the backdrop of a stage as if they are acting and the stage is also used effectively to convey deeper messages. Mercutio stands on the stage to shout his curse, which gives it power and dominance as it is being shouted down to the people it is aimed at. There is a low-level shot of Tybalt’s head in line with the stage platform and Mercutio’s shoe which makes Tybalt seem very inferior and small. As Mercutio dies, Luhrmann cuts to a wide, high-angle shot of the whole scene, with the stage central to it, focusing on all the events which have unfolded.
A high level shot at the beginning of the scene is shot from behind Benvolio but in his eye line, and the camera looks out to sea, noting what is brewing and feeling a sense of things not being quite right. As the camera cuts from the beach to Juliet’s room her face is framed by the fading out stage. This gives the viewer a sense that she is central to the drama about to unfold as a result of the actions on the beach.
During the fight scenes Luhrmann uses choppy camerawork and cuts between close ups of faces, extreme close ups of eyes for example, and
wide shots showing the scene unfolding. He pans the camera round and shoots close ups of the faces to give the viewer a sense of violence and make them feel ‘in’ the fight. There is a sense of violence and chaos which is how the characters would feel, for example, when Tybalt swipes
at Mercutio. There are slow motion shots and they all fall so the viewer is
confused as to who has been hurt, just as the characters are confused too. Luhrmann uses big close-ups of characters’ faces to express their emotions such as worry. Often he will cut between faces to show their reactions to different actions and so build tension. The close up of Prince’s face when he declares Romeo’s punishment indicates the seriousness of it. A two shot is used well with Mercutio and Romeo in shot to show the emotion of both characters as a result of Mercutio’s imminent death.
The extreme close up of the gun magazine and the gun being cocked are in contrast to the extreme close up of Romeo offering his hand in peace. Luhrmann uses high and low-angle shots to accentuate the vulnerability of different characters. These shots are usually used with Romeo as their subject, that is that either Romeo is shot from a high angle or him looking up from a low angle. This accentuates the vulnerability of him as a character but also the vulnerable positions he puts himself in such as having Tybalt point a gun to his head. As Romeo cries,
‘I am Fortune’s Fool!’,
there is a high angle shot down on him from the top of the statue, making him look, insignificant, vulnerable and giving a sense that he is in trouble for killing Tybalt. There is a high angle shot on Romeo as he
shoots Tybalt which is ominous as it suggests higher powers are looking down on the wrong he is doing.
Luhrmann has adapted Act 3 Scene 1 effectively in his movie. He had to decide what to include and how to shoot the scene to convey the emotion that fuels it, indeed one of Luhrmann’s main concerns when shooting this movie was staying true to Shakespeare’s original play. Luhrmann had an advantage over Shakespeare in that he could visually show a lot of the emotion and feeling that Shakespeare had to have his characters explain when he staged it. Where Luhrmann has omitted text from the original play, he has shown the emotion that was expressed in the text through the actions of characters and, among other factors, sets, lighting and music. So while Shakespeare supplied the wonderful story behind Luhrmann’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, it is Luhrmann who successfully turned the play into a modern day movie that stayed true to Shakespeare’s play while being suited to a modern day audience.
