Baz Luhrmann(TM)s Romeo and Juliet Film Review

The Capulets are perceived as a rich Latino family that never awoke from the nineties. They tend to wear dark purple colours and have their hair combed slickly back. Whereas, the Montagues are represented as the opposite; they are perceived as rich beach boys , wearing bright colourful clothing, that listen to loud rock music and that enjoy spending all their time hanging out at their local rundown Verona beach. This suggests that the Capulets are a lot more formal and strict whereas the Montagues are a lot more laid back.

The opening scene shows a fight between the Montagues and Capulets at a gas station in Verona Beach. A foolish Montague bites his thumb at a Capulet causing a fight to break out when Benvolio (another Montague) tries to keep the peace and orders everyone to put up their guns (or swords as they are called in the film). However, when Tybalt arrives and Benvolio tells him that he wants to make peace (“I do but keep the peace…”), Tybalt sneers at him and replies, “Peace? I hate the word just as I hate hell all Montagues and thee.” This then leads to the long awaited fight, which not only affects the Montagues and Capulets, but also causes a lot of destruction in Verona. This scene then finally ends when a cop arrests Benvolio and Tybalt (“… put your mis’tempered weapons to the group!”) and warns the two families that if ever they cause any more civil disruption, then they will pay with their lives.

There were a number of visual techniques that were used during this scene to suggest that this visual text would be about the hatred between the Montagues and Capulets and how this hatred would eventually affect these two families. A visual technique used to show the hatred between the families during the scene was the use of close ups, including the close up of the “Add Fuel to Fire” sign, and the fearful faces of the Montagues, which led up to the arrival of Tybalt and created a lot of tension and apprehension. The use of close ups for this purpose made me think about how greatly Tybalt was feared because of his volatile, violent personality.