In this assignment I am going to compare two versions of Romeo and Juliet, one modern and on old

The Baz Luhrman version was interesting because it used the contrast of mostly modern props such as guns and cars which an teenage audience can relate to and the original speech, this made the film watch able, as if you did not concentrate you would get lost but because it was a good script the watcher would become increasingly interested as the story unveiled. In the film different costume was also used to bring the story as far away from renaissance Italy as possible, instead of what could be expected such as normal casual clothes along the theme of Miami, Hawaiian shirts were used on the main characters, I think to create more relaxed persona of the inhabitants of Verona even though the is a feud that is claiming lives in some cases. Also all of the gang members were gun holsters very openly and in there free time they play with them as if they were not guns but toys.

One of the most influential characters is the priest who saves Romeo from being caught by the police who have banned him from entering Verona, the priest wares also a Hawaiian shirt when he is not in his robes and has a giant tattoo of a crucifix on his back again showing how laid back Verona is.

The Franco Zefferelli is I think as Shakespeare intended Romeo and Juliet to be, it is set in renaissance Italy and is a more classical version of the story. The characters all where slightly theatrical cloths and the props are exact to what the play was written for.

The main difference about the play is the difference in camera work in the Baz Luhrman version scenes were short to create a more varied affect this enhances tension and you get a better view of all the people involved, but now in the older version the scenes are longer and far more like theatre, it is shot more in first person and can make it look like you are with the different houses especially when Romeo kills Tybalt because the fight moves about a lot and the camera does this as well to give a sense of participation. In my opinion it is by far the more uninteresting version and that is why I have found it hard to write about an because a am to assess thins on what a teenage audience would rate it I would have to say that it would not do to well.

So I conclude that the Baz Luhrman version of Romeo and Juliet would do better in front of a teenage audience than the Franco Zefferelli simply because of style and age, at the time when the older was shot I don’t think they intended a teenage audience as a target market and the Baz Luhrman did.

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