While he is bathing in the fountain the Capulets arrive wearing bright orange and yellow clothes. This is different to the Luhrman version as in it the Montagues wore the bright clothes and the Capulets wore dark black and navy clothes. The Capulets spoke with posh accents and seem to be of a higher class than the Montagues. Even though the Capulets seem to have more authority and control, Mercutio shows great confidence and it is obvious that he is not at all worried. On the other hand Benvolio shows fear as he tried to get Mercutio to leave.
Mercutio takes no notice of what Benvolio is trying to tell him and proceeds to get out of the fountain and stand alongside Tybalt. He shakes hands with him surprising him greatly. Tybalt is shocked by this and then washes his hands in the fountain in disgust. Mercutio is angered by this and gets his sword out. Many people try to stop Mercutio but he refuses to listen. Romeo arrives and Tybalt tries to end it with Mercutio, as Romeo had been the man he had really wanted to fight. Tybalt refuses to bury the past. Trying to protect Romeo who hadn’t wanted to fight Tybalt, Mercutio steps in his place and starts to fight Mercutio. As they fight the camera moves very fast. It circles around the two characters and zooms in on their faces to set the mood by showing their facial expressions.
After a lot of sword fighting Tybalt finally gets Mercutio down on his knees, holding a sword to his throat. Mercutio is now scared. There is silence as the camera zooms in on Mercutio’s face showing how vulnerable he is. Then there is relief from both Mercutio and the crowd as Tybalt laughs and drops his sword. These actions change the mood totally from the eerie tension there was to the light hearted playing it had been only minutes before.
They shake hands before starting up again. This time Tybalt drops his sword leaving him vulnerable now. The crowd starts to laugh and to make matters worse Mercutio picks up the sword. This angers Tybalt greatly and by the time he finally gets his sword back his attitude has changed totally. He is no longer fighting for fun and joking but is fighting for revenge. He accidentally stabs Mercutio. Even though he had been angry he hadn’t meant to do this. He was stunned and couldn’t believe what he had done.
No one takes Mercutio’s injury seriously, as he is still joking and being cheerful. However the wound is deeper that first perceived and even though Mercutio knew he did not let anyone know and no one noticed until Benvolio notices that something is not quite right. Not long after this Mercutio falls to the ground and dies.
Romeo is furious and runs after Tybalt who by now was quite far away. Romeo finally catches up he is in the old cobbled back streets of the town, which are in the shade of the sun. As the two characters first make eye contact there is complete silence. Then with a look of sheer rage on his face Romeo lunges towards Tybalt and rub’s a cloth with Mercutio’s blood smeared on it on Tybalt’s face letting him know that Mercutio is dead. This is where another fight scene starts but this on is different, this one is more aggressive and the characters are serious. This time the crowd were not joking and egging them on but were loud and aggressive. The crowd helped the two characters to take off their outer garments so that they were both in neutral colours. They also gave them two swords each. There is silence as the two characters look at each other and then they start to fight. As they move about they kick up dust from the ground. After a while they’re down to only one sword each. They drop their swords and start street fighting on the ground. It is getting really serious now and the crowd tries to break them up. They were too late though Rome had already grabbed his sword and stabbed Tybalt. He hadn’t meant for things to go as far as this. He stood looking at Tybalt as he die but his men take him away. At this part of the scene they use close UP’s of Romeo’s face to show how shocked he is.
In the Luhrman version the scene is set in a really strange place. It is set beside the sea, and is near to a fairground. There are ruins of an old amphitheatre and some other rubble.
There is thunder in the distance but it is still sunny. Mercutio and Benvolio are joking with each other and Mercutio is being very cocky. There is a light-hearted atmosphere and distance shots are used to show the full surroundings. When the Capulets arrive Mercutio is still very cocky and forward. Tybalt, one of the Capulets and Mercutio start talking to one another heading towards a fight but then Romeo arrives. Tybalt cares no longer about fighting Mercutio bet tries to start a fight with Romeo. He detests him for marrying his cousin Juliet. Romeo doesn’t want to cause any trouble and so apologises and tries to placate Tybalt instead of reacting to his taunts. He then turns his back and starts to walk away. Tybalt orders him to ‘turn and draw’. He does not and so Tybalt starts to beat him up. Mercutio tries to stand up for Romeo and heads towards Tybalt. Tybalt kicks Rome off the edge of the stage and onto an abandoned car. Mercutio then punches Tybalt and starts to beat him up. Tybalt is lying back on the car (dangerously). Romeo runs over and hugs Mercutio and as he does this Tybalt lunges at him to stab him, but Mercutio turns round and ends up getting stabbed. Mercutio refrains from showing the pain he is in for quite a while and like in the Zefferelli puts on an act and pretends that nothing is wrong. Eventually he gives in to the pain and dies.
The wind picks up and things start to blow over and people start leaving the nearby fairground this gives a kind of eerie effect. Tybalt is then dragged away by his men, he cannot comprehend what he has just done.
The wind picks up even more and then suddenly there is a loud roar of thunder. The scene gets darker and darker until finally it is pitch black until only the reflection of the moon in the sea is visible. This shows Romeo’s sadness.
Then out of the blue comes a scene of Juliet talking to herself about how wonderful her Romeo is. This is a calm dark scene with candles being the only source of light.
Meanwhile Romeo is in a car, he is raging and has a look of terror on his face. Tybalt killed his cousin and he was going to get revenge. It is raining heavily now. He finds Tybalt and runs at him pushing him over. He is now the more dominant of the two. Tybalt drops his gun and Romeo picks it up. This is unlike the last scene where Romeo was refusing Tybalt’s challenge. Romeo shoots Tybalt several times causing him to fall into a nearby river. There is silence and the camera pans slowly down Romeo’s arm to his hand at which point he drops the gun and you see it crashing onto the ground.
Benvolio now arrives and gets Romeo into his car. A wide distance shot is used at this point to show the full surroundings. They drive off just as two police cars arrive. This leaves the viewer wondering what the consequences of Romeo’s actions will be.
My favourite version of Romeo and Juliet was Luhrman’s as it was more modern and up to date. It was easier to understand and used special effects making the movie more exciting. It used the use of sound and music a lot more that Zefferelli’s version. However I do think Zefferelli’s version was more suited to the text and was the way Shakespeare would have wanted it to be.
