The characters are portrayed in a different way.
The appearance of both characters is very different. The Montagues are wearing beach clothes and very bright colours. This suggests a carefree, fun approach and childish behaviour. The Capulet are in a stylish car, dark blue. Which suggests more a serious, mature and sophisticated manner.
It also helps the audience to realise that there is a conflict between them in this film. It also shows that the Montagues are very humorous, which makes the audience that they are serious, aggressive and evil. This is an important theme in the film.
The modern version was actually set in L.A in Venice beach. You can see how the scene is set at the beginning. There are two tall building. Usually in America they have tall building. When the scene opens, there is a bus going past with says Verona beach on the bus. This effect is the fact that it is set in L.A it makes the young audience attracted to it.
Shakespeare uses the prologue in a modern way. This is because back then there was no news to broadcast and no newspapers. So he uses the important words like ancient grudge and new mutiny in a newspaper as a headline.
By examine the visual imagery; I could say both households have supremacy. But Capulets shows me that they have stronger power by being organized more than the Montagues. The way that both households show power is by having two massive buildings. Which show more power and they have lots of wealth.
The language is original Shakespearian with some changed meaning. Shakespeare has used a lot of pun in the play. Which illustrates a word or a sentence describing two things. For example the phrase add more fuel to your fire means two things. One is that you add fuel to your car and two is more rage and vicious act. The language at the petrol station draws our attention further to the families’ conflict because we correlate the words with anger and rage.
The pace and the camera angle are very fast in the film. But it also shows that Romeo and Juliet die quickly. Also the petrol station, when the two households are fighting the camera shots and the pace happens so quickly. This quickness helps to draw the audience attention, so that they would not miss anything happening in the film.
On the whole, Bas Luhrmans film interpretation is effective and successful because he used the old Shakespearian play to a modern version. Which suited to younger audience. Which made it enjoyable to watch. He uses modern objects like T.V screen and the uses of the media like newspapers into his film.
