"Baz Luhrmann said that in his version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, he wanted to "re-reveal the real Shakespeare". Consider the effectiveness of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, focusing on its opening scene(s)"

“Baz Luhrmann said that in his version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he wanted to “re-reveal the real Shakespeare”. Consider the effectiveness of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, focusing on its opening scene(s)”

Romeo and Juliet is arguably the most famous play written by William Shakespeare. Set in Verona, Italy, the play marks “a pair of star-cross’d lovers” caught in between a violent feud between their families. Though the families are similar in wealth and in social class, the feud between them remains strong, meaning that Romeo and Juliet, despite being in love are never allowed to be together. The end of the play marks the death of the “star-cross’d lovers”, and a peace being found between the two families. The play has merited many different versions – theatre productions, operas, ballets and films being inspired by it, including Baz Luhrmann’s famous film of Romeo and Juliet. Baz Luhrmann had an aim to “re-reveal the real Shakespeare”. This means he is creating a version of the play faithful to Shakespeare’s original and yet which would appeal to a modern audience. By creating modern day characters with specific modern day costumes, by editing dialogue, by creating a fitting setting and by adding modern day film effects such as music and camera editing, Baz Luhrmann has generally been effective in achieving his aim of re-revealing the real Shakespeare.

The setting chosen by Baz Luhrmann shows his desire to “re-reveal the real Shakespeare.” Baz Luhrmann uses Mexico City as his stage. Mexico City nowadays is a city known for violence and street gangs. This is useful for the opening brawl between the servants in Romeo and Juliet. The film begins with a news-reader reading the Prologue as if it were a news story. This gives viewers a sense of urgency to watch, as a news bulletin is usually of importance. By having a news broadcaster, Baz Luhrmann enables the modern audience to familiarise more with the prologue. To emphasise the setting, the city is initially shown with clips of skyscrapers, police helicopters, violence and crimes, which are fitting scenes for the modern audience to understand. In Shakespeare’s time, settings would have been described by the characters or narrators. Baz Luhrmann creates a setting for the audience without having to describe it to the audience using narrators or characters, modernising the setting’s appearance to viewers. Any viewer in Shakespeare’s time would have recognised the passion and honour between characters as the Italian setting, since Verona was then known as a city much like Mexico City is known today: a city of street wars and gangs, and honour between families. Also, Verona city was known for its strong Catholic followers creating open fighting and street brawls, as Mexico City is today. In modern time, Baz Luhrmann successfully uses visual scenes of crime and violence to relate the setting to a modern day audience. However, the setting Luhrmann uses does not stay faithful to the original text. Modernising the play using modern scenes also changes the setting Shakespeare uses in his original text, meaning Baz Luhrmann is not entirely faithful to the original text. Luhrmann successfully “re-reveals the real Shakespeare” by adapting the setting to fit a modern day audience, but ends up slightly altering Shakespeare’s original setting as a repercussion.

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Costume is used by Baz Luhrmann to show his wish to “re-reveal the real Shakespeare”. When the Capulet boys enter the scene they are seen wearing loose, casual clothes, much like teenagers wear today. This enables such viewers to immediately familiarise with the characters. In Shakespeare’s time, modern costumes of the time would have been worn. Luhrmann also uses separate costumes for each family. This enables easier recognition of the members of the two families. When the Montague boys enter the scene, they have their own style of dress. They all wear black leather jackets, have black shoes with metal studs, and are easily distinguishable from the Capulets. The use of guns instead of the original swords used by William Shakespeare modernizes the film. One would not expect swords to be used in a film with modern settings and the such like. Luhrmann also stays effective to the original text of Romeo and Juliet by labelling the handgun “sword”. In the original text, Shakespeare uses swords as the weapons, so by calling the weapon brand “sword”, (by having the name “sword” engraved on the gun) Luhrmann cleverly stays faithful to the original text. Luhrmann modernises this play to effectively communicate with the present day generation. Props such as cars and helicopters are also used to communicate with the present day viewers. Luhrmann therefore effectively “re-reveals the real Shakespeare” whilst staying faithful to the original text.

The dialogue used by Baz Luhrmann shows his aim to “re-reveal the real Shakespeare”. Luhrmann decides not to change the dialogue from the initial text, but rather to edit some lines out. In Shakespearean times, the language would have been the standard language of the time, or a “stage language” that people of the time would have understood. However, to one living today, that language is very hard to understand, and so one may have difficulty comprehending the story. Baz Luhrmann effectively keeps to the original text, but edits out lines to avoid long speeches; to make the scenes faster and easier to understand. By doing so, he makes the language compatible with present day speech, and yet still keeps the original text which shows his success in “re-revealing the real Shakespeare.”

Another example of Baz Luhrmann’s success in “re-revealing the real Shakespeare” is shown in the creation of characters. Shakespeare would have used characters that people could relate to in Shakespearean times. For example, the name of Lady Montague was always said as “Lady Montague”. However, Baz Luhrmann has again adapted this to make the film more applicable to a modern day audience. He characterises people by adding first names. For example, he labels Lady Montague, “Caroline Montague”. In Shakespeare’s time, the range of people the play had to appeal to was limited, for it would have been performed to a theatre audience of all roughly the same social class and ethnic group. However, Baz Luhrmann creates a film that has to appeal to all audiences. For this reason, he has included different ethnicity of actors, such as Black and Latino actors. This is modernising Romeo and Juliet, since this film appeals to a variety of ethnic groups. By appealing to a modern contemporary audience, Baz Luhrmann has successfully “re-revealed the real Shakespeare” in the creation of characters.

Furthermore, Luhrmann is successful in his goal of “re-revealing the real Shakespeare” in his modern day effects and camera editing. Of course, Shakespeare never had the ability to use such features, so Luhrmann cleverly adapts scenes using camera editing to modernise the play. Luhrmann uses zooms and other modern technological effects to involve the viewer with the scene. In the Prologue, fast digital camera effects such as swivelling the camera and zooming in and out are used in order to create an atmosphere of chaos. This makes the viewer feel caught up in the chaotic scenes going on in the film. In the theatre, such effects are not available, making the play harder to understand in the theatre and easier to comprehend in film. These effects enable Luhrmann to create the right atmosphere for the right scene. Luhrmann has achieved his goal of “re-revealing the real Shakespeare” in using the camera editing.

Finally, Baz Luhrmann uses music in his attempt to “re-reveal the real Shakespeare”. However, he is not entirely successful in his desire to do this. Shakespeare often used to use contemporary popular music of his time to accompany his plays. Baz Luhrmann effectively uses modern music in our time to do the same. Luhrmann uses opera singers to dramatise and he uses fitting music to create characters. When the Montague boys first enter the scene, modern music plays in the background, a low drum beat with modern stereo effects. This aids one’s understanding of the Montague boys’ personalities, as that type of music is generally associated with the Montague boy’s type of character. Another example of when Luhrmann uses music to aid our understanding is when Romeo is first introduced. The slow music in the background romanticises the scene and Romeo appeals more to the audience. In many films nowadays, music is there to aid the viewer in understanding the situation or person. Luhrmann has successfully converted the Shakespeare into a film as such. However, some people may feel that perhaps Luhrmann has slightly overused the music, causing the movie becomes loud and aggressive, which is in fact unlike the original text which has a more peaceful context to it. Luhrmann is unsuccessful in staying faithful to the original text in this aspect. Luhrmann is not successful in all aspects of the music. He is not entirely successful in “re-revealing the real Shakespeare” in the music.

Luhrmann effectively creates a fitting setting for the modern version of this Romeo and Juliet by using Mexico City – a city known for its violence and yet prevailing religiousness, much like the Verona city of Shakespeare’s time. By modernising costume and editing dialogue, Luhrmann effectively introduces Romeo and Juliet to a wider, multi-ethnic modern audience. Luhrmann also creates characters that can be understood by a modern audience by using first names and creating characters using music and other means. He effectively uses film techniques to modernise Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Such effects are swivelling the camera and creating zooms and still shots. Baz Luhrmann also uses music to effectively modernize the film. However he occasionally overuses the music which does not stay faithful to the original text. Although Luhrmann is not entirely successful in “re-revealing the real Shakespeare in the music, overall, Baz Luhrmann effectively “re-reveals the real Shakespeare” in his version of Romeo and Juliet.

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