The camera then shoots out from the statue of Jesus and we see buildings on either side of it. The building on its right (our left) has ‘Montague’ written on top and the left has ‘Capulet’ written on top. The statue of Jesus and the names have been added in using computer effects. The two buildings are the same in height, thus visually representing the line from the prologue: ‘Both alike in dignity’, meaning that they have the same status. The statue of Jesus represents religion and it could be the he is holding the two families apart or that he is making peace between them.
The screen then turns black with a white caption in the middle quoting, ‘In fair Verona’ and it lasts for just a split second. This also come from the prologue and is shown so that the modern audience understand that the play is set in a place called ‘Verona’. It’s monotone so that the writing stands out.
In the next split second a police car zooms past with ‘Verona Beach’ written on it. ‘Verona Beach’ is supposed to reminds us of ‘Venice Beach’, which is a famous area in California – this clearly shows that Lurhmann is updating his version in the US.
We then see a close shot of a police helicopter flying in the air with some officers looking down on violence from it. Something really serious must’ve happened for them to need to get a helicopter. After this we see some shots from the point of view of the helicopter such as people running and shooting at the same time.
Then a family tree with ‘Montague’ on the left and ‘Capulet’ on the right shows up with a greyscale version of the two buildings and Jesus behind them. Showing family trees tells the audience how the characters are related, and also so they know whom the important characters are.
Then, they show fire super-imposed on top of the family tree for effect, this represents violence and hate, and could be the growing anger of the two families being re-ignited like a flame.
Lurhmann further makes his version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ understandable to the modern audience by showing newspapers with their headlines bearing quotes from the prologue.
The first newspaper headline (not from the prologue) reads, ‘Montague VS Capulet’ and being on the front conveys the message to the audience that this must be extremely serious and a lot of violence must be going on. The teenagers of today won’t understand the prologue quoted by the voiceover, but the newspapers clearly convey the messages to them.
The second and third headlines quote, ‘Ancient Grudge’ and ‘New Mutiny’, which means that hate has sparked up again from a long time ago, this was so long ago that they don’t remember what it was about in the first place.
The fourth headline is, ‘Civil Blood makes Civil Hand Unclean’, which means that civilians are killing each other and also that its not just the people fighting who are getting hurt; this also explains the magnitude that the violence has come to.
After the few seconds of the newspapers the camera gives us a close up shot of the chief of police who is dark skinned showing that the film is multi-cultural. In the original version, he was the prince but Baz Lurhmann has updated it to make it more modern since it wouldn’t fit in if had a prince somewhere in America. The camera then zooms out a little and we see that he is inside a helicopter and is seeing all the violence going on inside. We then see some civilians running from the view of the chief of police in the helicopter. We can also see smoke coming out of somewhere – this shows some of the mayhem going on and also a fire is needed for smoke, meaning that some anger, hate and violence has previously appeared there.
To even further make the prologue ‘digestible’ to the modern audience Baz Lurhmann shows us a series of magazines with the camera tracking right and even though it lasts for only a few seconds a lot of information enters our heads. Some of the magazines shown come from real life, for example we see a magazine called ‘Bullet’ with the front page headline: ‘Shoot Forth Thunder’. A lot of people buy this magazine, which is about guns, and can relate to it so will more likely enjoy the film, this is another way which Lurhmann updates his version for the modern audience. The headline, ‘Shoot Forth Thunder’ is a quote from Shakespeare’s play, ‘Thunder’; this is showing parallels between these two works of his.
Another magazine title copied is ‘Time’ magazine, although he makes it into ‘Timely’ magazine; this has the headline: ‘Montague VS Capulet’ and in smaller writing, ‘Youth Brawl’. Lurhmann is trying to make a small joke here since if you’re on the front cover of ‘Time’ magazine then this means that everyone’s talking about you.
The second last bit of the second prologue is when the voiceover quotes, ‘from forth the fatal loins of these two foes’ and on the screen shows the parents of both Romeo and Juliet – yet again Lurhmann visually shows the prologue on screen, to make it more comprehensible to the audience.
And then, as the last bit of the second prologue we see two captions, one following the other. These are monotone so that they stand out more; the back round is black while the writing is white. The first caption quotes, ‘A pair of star-crossed lovers’ and then in a bigger font, ‘Take their life’. The ‘t’s of the second caption are shaped like crosses to show the role of the church and its font is bigger so that the audience understand its greater importance.
After this second prologue and voiceover has finished, to make it more understandable to the audience it shows us close up shots of the important characters moving a little (e.g. turning around), then freezing in a freeze frame (so we can concentrate on their face) and then captions come up with their name, role and how they relate to either Romeo or Juliet (so we know more about each character). Some characters, like Ted and Caroline Montague didn’t have a first name in the original script, however Lurhmann has added it for modernisation. The freeze frames and captions shown here are like some modern soap operas, and the familiarity that the modern audience have will cause them to better understand and enjoy the film.
The first person shown is Juliet’s father who first turns around before his freeze frame, then it shows his wife (Juliet’s mother); we then see a car window opening with Romeo’s father sitting behind it, and then his wife (Romeo’s mother) sitting inside the car (she’s wearing jewellery showing how wealthy they are). Baz Lurhmann makes the face of these first few characters hidden and then reveals it just before the freeze frame (e.g. Juliet’s father needs to turn around before we see his face). A lot of other films use this technique which makes the audience want to know who they are; also most people are familiar with it so they will feel more comfortable with the film.
The other few people shown are: the chief of police, named here ‘Captain Prince’, who has a serious looking expression on his face and looks quite unhappy; Dave Paris is seen smiling (the ‘Dave’ wasn’t in Shakespeare’s original work); and Mercutio starts pointing and freezes, he is dark skinned (showing this is multicultural) and also the caption points out that he is Romeo’s best friend. The pointing finger reminds us of anger and also keeps the tension up in the audience. Baz Lurhmann here shows us the important characters in the play, however he withholds the two most important ones, Romeo and Juliet. This raises the anticipation in the audience and gives it more of an effect when they finally do appear.
Romeo’s face is partly shown though, but blocked by the church doors; then the doors open but the camera goes to the point of view of Romeo and we see inside the church. Showing half of Romeo’s face further raises the apprehension that the audience have to find out what he really does look like.
The prologue is repeated a further third time now, but only in captions and each are shown for only a split second. The effect of this is that we can’t read it properly since it goes so fast and this makes us more agitated and tense.
After this we see a ‘trailer’ of split second captions from the rest of the film, the effect of this is that we want to know what will really happen and will stay to find out. The first shot we see after the split second captions is some fireworks exploding in the air, this represents celebration but could also be an ‘explosion’ of feeling (love) when Romeo and Juliet first met.
The next few shot we see are: a boy singing, Juliet wearing a veil in her wedding dress, then the boy again, and then Juliet lifting her veil a little. We see a boy singing with eyes closed and mouth open, he is dark skinned (multicultural) and is part of a choir in a church; this could be when Romeo and Juliet are getting married. When we see Juliet wearing her veil and lifting it a little, we cannot see her face and so don’t know what she looks like, this will make us even more tense now but more relived when we do see her.
We see a lot of anger and violence demonstrated in the following shots: Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin) running, a close up shot of him holding gun, an innocent boy with eyes wide open (because of a gun pointed at him), Benvolio with gun pointed towards us with mouth and eyes wide open and an angry expression on his face, the police force with lots and lots of guns pointed somewhere, Romeo being cornered by police, Tybalt in a car chase, and a close up shot of Mercutio’s angry face. A lot of the audience are familiar with and enjoy films containing violence (teenagers) and this tells them that they will enjoy this film as well, Romeo was seen here too but the shot lasted for only a split second so we couldn’t concentrate on him properly.
Once we see the statue of Jesus, this represents religion and peace. It could mean that the church is trying to break up the violence or that it’s in the middle of it.
The next few shots remind us of when Romeo and Juliet first met in the fancy dress ball: fireworks, Juliet’s mother getting dressed for the ball and a mask in water. The mask represents Romeo in disguise in the ball, it could mean the he has thrown away his disguise and has revealed his true identity.
The last split second trailer shot we see before the title is Tybalt firing a gun; this means that overall the film is more about violence than love.
The title of the film (Romeo and Juliet) is presented with quite some meaning. We first see a big red cross, with ‘&’ in the middle zooming out to become the ‘and’ joining ‘Romeo’ and ‘Juliet’. The red (cross) could represent love or it could be anger and blood. It’s cross-shaped, which represents religion and it could mean that religion (the church) is joining them (marriage). All of the title is in neon lighting, and this is to show the modernisation of the play.
There are many ways in which Lurhmann’s opening sequence appeals to the modern audience, some techniques he uses are: showing everyday items to represent something (e.g. TV set, magazines etc), repeating the prologue three times so we understand, he shows lots of violence which modern teenagers like, we get an adrenalin rush at the speed at which the trailer happens, he also uses techniques that we are used to, such as the freeze frame introductions.
It’s easier to understand simply because we see visually what the voiceover is saying verbally; also setting it in a modern context makes it easier for us to relate to and know what’s going on. It reminds us of TV and film styles we are familiar with (freeze frame introductions) and this makes us like it more because we feel more comfortable with it and don’t think that they will pull up some surprises which we don’t understand.
Overall, Baz Lurhmann’s version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ appeals to a wider audience then Franco Zeffirelli’s 1969 version because it’s set in the modern age which we are comfortable with and also because he tries to do all he can to show the verbal speeches visually onto the screen using something which we can relate to.
English Coursework~ Page of 4 By Md Onu Miah of 10L
