Show how Baz Luhrman's film opening attempts to the link the language of the original play to modern themes. How does it appeal to a modern audience?

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MEDIA STUDY HZ3

        

        Show how Baz Luhrman’s film opening attempts to the link the language of the original play to modern themes. How does it appeal to a modern audience?

        Romeo and Juliet is a famous play written by William Shakespeare. The play is a tragedy based on an allegedly true story. The play itself was written for the theatre. The story is set in Verona in Italy. The story is about two lovers who come from rich families, the Capulets and Montagues. Both of the families are sworn enemies. Their love brings tragic consequences. The play is known throughout the world.

        The two main themes in the play are love and conflict. The play is dominated by these themes. Themes include romantic love and passion between Romeo and Juliet and gang warfare between the Montagues and Capulets, family arguments and conflict between generation gaps. These themes are universal. These themes are common today just as they were four hundred years ago. However, there are differences between today and Shakespeare’s times. One example of the differences is entertainment. In Shakespeare’s time the only entertainment they had was live plays where as nowadays we still have live entertainment but most of our entertainment comes from television and c.d.’s, which is not live. Today technology and media can bring entertainment into every home in England. Baz Luhrmann has used the skills and inventions of today to present Shakespeare’s play to a wide, new and modern audience.        

        Baz Luhrmann uses modern themes combined with cinematic techniques and features to appeal to a modern audience. Themes like violence, conflict, romance and backed up by a powerful soundtrack. These are the sort of themes that attract a young and modern audience. I like watching films that have a lot of action with fast changes of scenes. Baz Luhrmann has used the theme action, this is one of the themes that the modern audience enjoy. In the rest of my essay I am going to discuss whether or not Baz Luhrmann has succeeded with his aim to attract a young audience, to a Shakespeare’s play.  

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            The Prologue

        The film opens with a shot of a small television in the centre of the blank screen. The television gets bigger and bigger gradually filling the screen. The audience immediately realises that the film is set in modern times because in Shakespeare’s time they were no televisions. In the small screen there is a reporter reading the prologue. The reporter does not show any emotions whilst reading the original Shakespeare prologue. In the screen behind the reporter there is a picture of a broken ring and underneath the ring it says ‘star ...

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