The Generation Gap:comparing the starts of two film versions of Romeo and Juliet

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The Generation Gap: comparing the starts of two film versions of Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a timeless, classical love story written by the unmatched author, William Shakespeare. Many of Shakespeare’s works are considered literary classics, but none are more loved, well known than Romeo and Juliet. This play masterfully tells the love story of two teenagers in Verona, Italy.

The title characters, Romeo and Juliet, are members of two feuding families. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet. There are different stylistic ways of portraying Romeo and Juliet, and the two most popular film versions render two very different styles of the Shakespearean classic. Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet was made in the 1960s, and is the film version most commonly shown in high school classrooms. The later film adaptation   of this play is Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet was filmed in 1996. This version sets the classic story in a modern day setting. Both versions, though different stylistically, hold true to the original story line of the play.

Zeffirelli’s is the older and more classical version of Romeo and Juliet. He made the directorial decision to set the film in Verona during the medieval period, as was the original Shakespearean play. The costumes, language, and sword fights were directly reminiscent of the period. He does take liberties with the dialogue, in that he shortens many of the speeches of the characters. This is the version that is most commonly shown in high school classrooms, because while some of the sexual puns are included they are in no way stressed. Another theme that is not brought out in Zeffirelli’s version is the common assessment of Mercutio’s sexual preference. It is commonly believed that Mercutio possessed homosexual qualities. Zeffirelli simply portrays Mercutio as Romeo’s friend. One thing that set Zeffirelli’s film apart was the fact that he used teenage actors to portray the teenage romance of Romeo and Juliet. Using teenage actors gave the characters of Romeo and Juliet the simplicity and innocence they portrayed. He also wanted to attract the teenagers of the time to watch his film. As the story is about teenage lovers he cast young actors to play the two famous lovers roles to make it more attractive to teenagers.  

In complete contrast to this, Baz Luhrmann set his film based on the classic play in modern day Venice (Verona) Beach. The costumes, setting, and swords were all updated, but the language remained the same. Some critics criticized Luhrmann’s decision to update everything but the language. In his defense Luhrmann said that if he updated the language he would no longer be able to call his film William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, because it would no longer be Shakespeare’s.

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Baz Luhrmann took liberties with the setting and costuming of the play. His characters fought with guns rather than swords. The law-making Prince was replaced with a Police Chief. Luhrmann updated the setting of the play, but he actually used a lot more of the original written dialogue than Zeffirelli did. While Zeffirelli had shortened many of the speeches, Luhrmann did not do as much cutting or shortening of characters speeches, but did switch certain dialogues between rival characters compared to the original play. Luhrmann also expressed the homosexual characteristics of Mercutio, and brought to life more of the sexuality ...

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