Analysis of the opening scene of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. In particular, the contemporary relevance of its setting and characters.

The themes of the play are Religion, War, Gang warfare and racism which were all written in the original by Shakespeare and are still kept as part of the film today. In this scene there are 170 different camera shots and it lasts about five minutes. Luhrmann stresses the rivalry between the two families and the theme of racism by making the Capulets Latino and the Montagues Anglos.  

Luhrmann’s version of the scene has been set in a petrol station instead of a market place because now a day you are more likely to see people in a petrol station rather than a market place.  This would help the audience because most of them would have cars. Luhrmann has also added effects such as freeze frames and subtitles so that the audience can identify the characters more easily. Humour is also added such as when Sampson licks his nipple at some nuns. This provides a contrast to the tension before the fighting.

The costumes for the Montagues are bright beach clothes to show that they are easy going and the Capulets wear dark suits with religious icons on them. This helps the audience to understand who is from which family because both families wear different types of clothes. Both the Montagues and the Capulets have their own crest on the butt of their gun and on the barrel it says ‘sword 9mm’. This enables Benvolio to still say the words “Put down you swords”.

Tybalt’s character is based around a character from a western film because he has spurs on his boots and every time you see him and when they zoom in on his face in the opening scene there is a western theme tune playing. This tells us that he is like a cowboy. It makes him appear menacing and fiery as if he is always looking for a fight. He speaks slowly through clenched teeth and reassembles a Clint Eastwood character.

Baz Luhrmann uses music and special effects from other western films. He uses close ups and panning to introduce different characters. ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ is similar to ‘Romeo and Juliet’ because both use the genre of spaghetti westerns. Luhrmann used other ideas from other spaghetti westerns and he got the music and added it to some of the scenes. This helps the audience understand the film because they are used to watching showdowns and duels in this genre.

Other music used stresses other ideas such as the rap music which is played by the Montague boys in their car to stress their laid back life-style.

Even minor details can influence the audience to better understand the plot and characters. The sign that says ‘Phoenix, Add more fuel to your fire’ suggests that there is going to be a big explosion or something to do with fire. Another sign says ‘I am thy pistol and thy friend, 9mm sword series s’ says that they have pistols that have 9mm barrels and are called swords. It is also so that when the Chief of Police says ‘throw down thy trusted swords to the ground’ it still makes sense.

I think the film has been very successful because in the first two weeks it got $20million. It was also successful in its aim because Luhrmann wanted more young people to understand it. My personal opinion of Baz Luhrmann’s version is I thought it was ok and it helped me to better understand Shakespeare.