How Does Luhrmann Make His Version Of 'Romeo And Juliet' Accessible For A Modern Audience?

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How Does Luhrmann Make His Version Of ‘Romeo And Juliet’ Accessible For A Modern Audience?

When Baz Luhrmann decided to make a modern film version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, one of his main reasons for doing so was because he was such a big fan of Shakespeare himself. He wanted everyone else to enjoy Shakespeare’s work as much as he did and he did so through the power of film. In other words he wanted to ‘Re-reveal’ Shakespeare to a modern society. But Luhrmann realised that the audience of today probably wouldn’t appreciate Shakespeare’s work if he made a film that was set in the old days. So he came to the decision that the language of the play would be mostly kept the same, but the film would be set in a modern world and with a modern society, that would include modern icons and objects so that the audience, (Late 20th Century, Early 21st Century), could understand the film properly.

But to make the film version more accessible, Luhrmann had to read and update the play which presented him with a few difficulties. For example, as the play is over 500 years old, many values and settings from that time no longer apply for a modern society. Also 500 years ago religion was one of the biggest things to anyone’s life at that time. But for the people of today, although religion still has some impact it doesn’t have as much as it did 500 years ago. Therefore, Luhrmann had to show the audience how important religion is for the people in the play. One way he does this is by placing a statue of Jesus between the Montague’s and Capulet’s buildings that we see in the prologue. Also, the language that was used in the play has mostly now become archaic, meaning that it is not used anymore. Therefore, most people in the audience are probably not that familiar with Shakespeare’s language, so they could have trouble understanding the language, but because of the modern settings and surroundings they could pick up on what was happening fairly easily. For the remainder of the essay I will be writing only on what I see from the Prologue and Act One Scene One because I feel that these scenes first introduce us to a ‘modern Shakespeare’.

Luhrmann uses modern 20th century icons to put the audience at ease because they give the audience something they know and can relate to. For example he uses a television to read out the prologue because I think that if he didn’t, the audience wouldn’t hold their gaze and take in what was said if it was another way. He also uses cars, which obviously had not been invented at the time the play was written, but everyone who watched the film would instantly recognise them as they play such a big part in the society of today. He also changes the settings to make them more suited for the modern audience. In the play of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ the first scene is set in a marketplace. Considering that the audience would mostly be an American audience, Luhrmann had to change this as average Americans would have no idea what a marketplace is as they don’t have markets in America. So Luhrmann used a petrol/gas station as the setting for the first scene as probably every American would recognise a petrol station as soon as they saw it. The fictional Verona Beach has replaced Verona in Italy. The Verona Beach we see in the film is actually Mexico City. The film was shot in Mexico City because it was cheaper than filming in a big city such as New York. This was because in a city like New York you had to get a license to film but in Mexico City this wasn’t needed. From the prologue to the end of scene 1 we get a fair number of religious images flashing out towards us that are almost subliminal. These are here to make us further understand how religion was an important part of the play and to the characters lives. Some examples of these religious images are: The ‘Sin’ Mouthguard in Abra’s mouth, the big statue of Jesus, Tybalt’s bullet-proof vest that has an image of Jesus on it and the Cross shaved into the Montague boy’s head. There are many more religious images that you have to pick up on.

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Just after the prologue ends we are introduced to a number of characters from the Montagues and the Capulets, but also people who have some parts later on in the film. These characters are picked out easily for the viewer by the use of freeze frames and sub-titles. When the picture freezes, we get a sub-title of who they are and how they are related to Romeo or Juliet and what family the belong to. This makes it extremely easy for the audience to recognise who a character is next time they see them on screen. You can also ...

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