The fast climactic music crescendos at this point, when the prologue reaches the sixth line,
“A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,” and we are then introduced to the parents of both Romeo and Juliet, music plays loudly through their introduction. During this line the narrator is careful with his tone. He speaks in an almost passionate way especially when he says, “take their life.” He gets slightly louder and a little more aggressive with his tone.
I think Luhrmann gave a lot of thought to his the names of his characters because the Montagues, Ted and Caroline are given modern white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant names whereas the Capulets, Fulgencio and Gloria are given more Latinate names. He gives them these names maybe to suggest a reason for their hatred of each other. Their “ancient grudge” may be a racially motivated issue. He gives them Christian names too, something which Shakespeare did not do, this is to modernise the text and flow with the times.
We are also introduced to Captain Prince, Chief of Police who is an obvious figure of authority. He is the equivalent of the Prince in the text. However, because the film is much more modern and set in America, they do not have Princes and the Chief of Police will play almost the same role. The “new mutiny” is something that Captain Prince must deal with because of his stature. Luhrmann has kept the name Prince to try and stay with the text and it will probably work because the Montagues and Capulets cannot fail to recognise his efforts to keep the peace between the two families.
The music gets faster and louder at this point as the prologue is repeated, this time in black and white captions for emphasis and then we see more dramatic scenes from the film.
Luhrmann continues to keep the film modern all the way through, choosing to use a gas station to film this scene, which is so very different from Zeffirelli who shoots his in a market crowded with people. Firstly we see an open topped yellow car being driven along a highway by the Montagues. The man who is sitting on the back seat has Montague and a symbol tattooed on the back of his shaven head, says, “A dog of the house of Montague moves me.” This line is about the eighth line down in the play so it is clear at this point that Luhrmann isn’t going for accuracy but he is trying to help people to ‘get into’ the movie and not to be bored with unnecessary lines that they do not understand.
While ‘the boys’ are being introduced music is playing which repeats the words the boys. Signs are shown while they drive up to the station showing major business rivals, rivals just like the Montagues and the Capulets. When they pull in I noticed that their number plate was MON 005, which is a form of identification for them.
We are shown a blue car with the number plate CAP005 and a man step out. The number plate is just like the Montagues but with CAP instead of MON, which relates to the line in the prologue
“Two households alike in dignity.”
The music changes to western and this is indicative of a change in subject and style. Another man gets out of the car while the first moves towards the Montagues’ car. The Capulets are dressed in a totally different way to the Montagues. They wear slick, smart clothes; some could be described as western for example the waistcoat Abra wears and his footwear, steel heeled boots whereas the Capulets are casually dressed in Hawaiian shirts and jeans. A vehicle moves out of the way to reveal a Capulet, at this point the camera moves to the shocked face of Sampson.
Abra Capulet is introduced here and I notice that Luhrmann has given him a shortened name, which I think is to do with modernity. A Montague says, “Quarrel, I will back thee,” at which point we are shown the butt of both the Montague and Capulet guns. The have similar crests on them which symbolise that they come from wealthy backgrounds and the fact that they are similar show again that they are “alike in dignity.” This is linked to the car registrations because Luhrmann is trying g to emphasis their likeness.
Knowing that the Motagues are feeling intimidated by him, Abra shows his silver teeth with the word ‘SIN’ on them and shouts to scare them. He gets into the car mocking the reaction he got from the Montagues who are having a discussion.
“I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.”
He bites his thumb at the Capulets in the hope that he wont be seen but at that moment Abra moves his rear view mirror and see him making a mockery of him. He dances around while biting the tip of his thumb and waving his spread out hand and making a mocking noise. This is a well-known modern sign of mockery and is disrespectful, something to which Abra doesn’t take kindly. He gets very aggressive and angry; he thumps the steering wheel and accelerates while grinding his teeth to show this.
The Montagues get scared and fumble to try and fill the car with petrol. Deciding against this he rolls over the car to shield himself and Abra turns his car to face theirs and he gets out to face them. He asks, almost politely, “Do you bite your thumb at us sir?” Sampson replies, “I do bite my thumb sir,” having failed to answer Abra’s question he asks it again in a more aggressive tone. While they are shouting across the forecourt, there is a drum roll for background music, which gets louder as their speech continues. As Gregory pointed out that their kinsman was returning Sampson replies, “Yes, better sir.”
They draw their weapons to fight at this point when Abra says, “Draw if you be men.” He says this as if he is daring them to fight him and his kinsmen and he is questioning their manhood. The forecourt is now dotted with Montagues and Capulets ready to fight when Benvolio tries to break things up. This is when we are formally introduced to him as a character.
“Part fools. Put up your swords.” This, in a modern version of Shakespeare’s play seems to be a illogical thing to say, however, Luhrmann has been very clever by previously showing us a close up of Benvolio’s gun which is a ‘Sword 9mm.’ By making the brand name Sword he has modernised the setting but he has kept the original text, a very clever idea in my opinion.
The camera fixes itself on a Capulet man who stops to light a cigar. He drops the match, which falls in slow motion and then drops, the sound is amplified here for effect, and turns, this is when he is introduced as Tybalt Capulet prince of Cats. From his introduction we can tell that he is to be an influential character in this scene. The high-pitched western music begins again.
Tybalt who is not keen on calling off this most recent dispute shows Benvolio his weapons and implies that he will use his weapons to kill. Benvolio puts away his gun and looks willingly upon a disgusted looking Tybalt. Tybalt says in reply to Benvolio’s talk of peace,
“Peace? Peace? I hate the word as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee.” This is changed from the text, which says, “What, drawn and talk of peace?” and keeps the rest the same.
Tybalt says “peace?” calmly, but maliciously and he says it twice to put emphasis on it; he says it calmly but in a way that makes you think he doesn’t understand, like he has never heard the word before. At this point we see a close up of his face and his tone becomes much more aggressive and vindictive as he carries on with the phrase.
After he says, “I hate the word” the camera switches to Benvolio to see what his reaction is then, “As I hate hell,” the camera concentrates on Tybalt’s eyes to draw out the hatred for the audience to see. When he says, “All Montagues,” it switches to Benvolio’s eyes to see him squint fearfully at Tybalt. Finally the camera concentrates on the ground where Tybalt is grinding out a match, in slow motion with amplified sound to emphasise the effect and heighten drama, he does this as though it were Benvolio he was grinding or as if he was ready to and going to extinguish Benvolio forever. He then says, “and thee,” to emphasise that it is Benvolio that he is directing his action towards; he grinds his teeth as he does so.
They begin to fight, the Capulets being the aggressors. There are times when low motion is used for dramatic effect and when the action is sped up and there is a lot of jumping, yelling and screaming. The Montagues leave the forecourt with the Capulets on their tails, however Tybalt and Benvolio are left behind.
Benvolio, who is lying on the ground, narrowly misses being set alight by a cigar dropped by Tybalt into a pool of petrol, which, incidentally, is in the shape of a cross, at a moment where reconciliation is needed most,. At this time it is clear how much damage has been caused by their “civil brawl.”
The scale of destruction is now realised. There is total gridlock on the streets, car horns beeping and flames everywhere. The music which was heard during the prologue returns ever more climactic. A burning newspaper is seen with the words “Second civil brawl” on it, which makes it clear that this is only the beginning of the third. There is smoke everywhere and over the music we can hear helicopters and see at least half a dozen of them. We are shown the two buildings “Montague” and “Capulet” with the statue of reconciliation between them; reconciliation is what is needed at this point.
The helicopter ‘0001 VBPD’ is one of Captain Princes’ coming to try and resolve the situation. The writing on the helicopter shows his authority over the rivals. Their registrations have the number 5 in them which is less important than the number one which is at the top and the Captain’s VBPD is a sign that he is a member of the Police Departement, more superior to civilians ant to these “Two households.” By this time the Montague parents know of this “New mutiny” and are on their way to try and sort the situation out. Ted Montague says, “Give me my Longsword, ho!” and Caroline Montague says, “Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.” Again Luhrmann stays with the text where swords are involved. He makes the brand name of the gun ‘Longsword’ so that it is easy to fit it in with the film and the text. He obeys his wife unlike Montague in Zeffirelli’s version.
Captain Prince is shown hanging from the helicopter. “Rebbelious subjects, enemies to peace! Throw your mistemper’d weapons to the ground!” Luhrmann skips out some of the Prince’s speech in the text but he gets the importance across. What he uses he uses it well. He is the figure of authority in this whole situation. He repeats his request “On pain of torture, from those bloody hand Throw your mistemper’d weapons to the ground!” He stops the violence because people look up to him and they listen to him. Everything comes to a standstill when he begins to speak and comes to an end when he has control over the enemies.
There is a change of location here. We move to the courtroom where Benvolio and Tybalt are in the hands of the police force. Captain Prince speaks using the lines in the text.
“Three civil brawls,” here he enunciates every word and the camera looks at Benvolio and Tyblat the to the Captain to show the three sides of the situation. “Bred of an airy word, by thee old Capulet,” at this point he looks towards the Capulets. “And Montague,” he looks at the Montagues, “Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets.” The camera goes to the Captain on the last line and again this shows the three parties involved, the authorities, the Capulets and the Montagues.
The Captain ends on the line “If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” This is a very powerful line because it is a direct threat and can be said with aggression and meaning. The Captain does this but remains calm and his speech is slow and no louder than before. This line shows the severity of the whole situation and the two previous incidents. The fact that the setting is modern and that the Captain is speaking in an old way makes no difference because we are so used to hearing legal representatives speak in this manner, again this shows modernity. I think Luhrmann ends the way he does because the line he uses is so final and it emphasises what he is saying and cannot mistaken for anything else, it is abrupt in comparison to the text yet more dramatic.
In my opinion Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet is the better of the two. I think that Luhrmann must be a very intelligent man to be able to use this play and turn it into something different but keeping with the text. I love the way he made it modern and easy to understand. I found Zeffirelli’s version slightly boring to watch maybe because it was old but I think that Luhrmann showed what was written a lot better. Zeffirelli was no doubt intelligent but in comparison to Luhrmann he lacks originality and imagination however, it was hard to produce a film like that whenever he directed. The characters in Luhrmann’s adaptation were suited to their parts and they really made the film easy to understand. I think it was mainly because of the modernity and sheer imaginative effects and scenery that I liked about his film.
