I watched two versions of Romeo and Juliet, A man called Franco Zeffirelli made one of the films in 1968 and it was set in Italy. And the other film was made in 1999 this film was set in America

Roy Dharmarajan 11N

Romeo and Juliet

Comparing and Contrasting

Act 3 Scene 1

I watched two versions of Romeo and Juliet, A man called Franco Zeffirelli made one of the films in 1968 and it was set in Italy. And the other film was made in 1999 this film was set in America. The stars in the Zeffirelli version were Leonard Whiting and the stars of the Luhrmann version starred Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes. In the Zeffirelli version the actors wore jerkins and pantaloons and in the Luhrmann version they wore shirts and trousers. This shows me that the Zeffirelli version was set a long time ago and the Luhrmann version was meant to be a more modern.

In the Luhrmann version at the beginning they showed a newspaper called ‘Ancient Goudge’ It showed the Montague building and it showed the Capulet building. This shows that they were angry about each other because of each of their businesses doing better than the other. And in the Zeffirelli version they were angry at each other for no reason, probably about something they argued about a long time ago. In the Zeffirelli version the opening was set in a market square but in the Luhrmann version the opening was set in a petrol station. The reason the films have different openings is because in the olden times they did not have any petrol stations. And the Luhrmann version has a petrol station is because he is trying to use more modern scenes. In the Luhrmann version the Montagues and the Capulets meet up and they have an argument, which was quite angry and fast. But in the Zeffirelli version they are laughing, acting like it was just a joke and thinks it’s all funny. I think that they make the scene sound like a joke is probably because they probably had a lot of fights like this before and they just do not seem to care anymore. Or it could be because their families were fighting for so long that they forgot what they were fighting for. And at the end of each sentence they shout ‘Sir’! In both versions of the film Romeo meets Juliet for the very first time at a party and as soon as they say each other they fell in love. As the story goes on their love gets stronger and stronger.But it gets harder for them because both their families can’t get along with each other. But they love each so much enough for them to die for each other. Romeo cannot live without Juliet and Juliet cannot live without Romeo. Tybalt is a mean and angry character he does not care about Romeo’s love to Juliet in either versions of the film. Tybalt just wants to hate Romeo because he is all Montagues even though Romeo has done nothing to him.

Mercutio insults Tybalt he says to Tybalt “make it a word and a blow”. And Tybalt gets angry and he says “you shall find me opt enough to that, sit, and you will give me occasion”. In the Zeffirelli version they were fighting with swords and then

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They were fighting like it was just a joke they were fighting slowly and their faces had a smile. But in the Luhrmann version they were all serious and they were fighting fast with their guns. And they had more anger within them that they wanted to release because I can tell by their faces especially Tybalt. And then Mercutio was injured but he says “a scratch”. Right after he says “A plague of both your houses”! This is trying to say that there is a curse between both their houses and that they can never get along. As he was continuously saying that about 3 times on the Luhrmann version you can hear thunder and it is darker. They used this technique to show that when Mercutio died it was a sad moment and that it was a big part of the story, that is the turning point of what is going to happen in the rest of the story. But in the Zeffirelli version the weather does not change it was still sunny even after Mercutio died.

Romeo does not like to kill people he likes to love people better but Tybalt killed his best friend so he has forgotten about who he is now he is just furious with Tybalt. Then he kills Tybalt then he gets away from the scene of the crime.

In the Zeffirelli version the characters used more dialogue, which made it less interesting for me to watch, and so the story was slow too. But in the Luhrmann version they did not talk as much but it was good because as the story changed the music changed too e.g. when they were by the petrol station in the Luhrmann version the music was fast as they were moving fast and when Mercutio died I could hear the sound of thunder.

In the Zeffirelli version the scenes were much longer and the story was much shorter and it did make me want to watch more of the film because I am used to seeing more cuts and faster clips. And in the Luhrmann version the scenes were faster and there were shorter clips. And in the Luhrmann version, When Romeo Killed Tybalt there was a close up on him for a while. In the Zeffirelli version they used older clothes, transport and other things. And In the Luhrmann version they used newer things like transport, clothes, guns and other things so the people want to keep on watching and they can understand the story more.

I am going to finish my essay by telling you about what I liked and disliked most about the Zeffirelli version and the Luhrmann version. I mostly liked the Luhrmann version because when I was watching the film it made me continue watching more of the films. It had shorter scenes and the story was faster. I would not want to watch the Zeffirelli version because it was not very realistic like when they were fighting it looked like they were just fighting for fun. And another reason I did not like it because it was slower and it was not a film that I would want to watch again. This made the whole film less serious.