For those of you who don’t know Shakespeare, this beginning scene is one in which groups from the two rival families meet and start fighting. This was originally set in the Market Square, but Baz Luhrmann decided to set it in a petrol station, with the two families meeting while getting gas. The Montagues are portrayed as screaming idiots which, while funny to begin with, soon gets old. Baz Luhrmann’s use of ‘rapid motion’ is quite effective though. The constant speeding up and slowing down makes them seem quite surreal, and does add to their strange image well.
The Capulets (Juliet's family) on the other hand are given a much more menacing image. They have been portrayed like cowboys in old Western films. Baz Luhrmann uses old western music to do this, and slows things down when they arrive to give a feeling of tension, or apprehension. There are shots of a sign swinging slowly, and you can hear the wind whistling. This all makes them seem very much like the villains in this scene, like the baddies in a Clint Eastwood film. When they get out of the car they are wearing cowboy style boots too, and they act menacing, crushing the end of a cigarette with a metal heel. They wear spurs on their boots to enhance their cowboy image. The very exaggerated difference between the two groups, while making the scene seem a little cartoonish or cheesy, makes it much more interesting.
This is once again ruined when they begin speaking. The Shakespearean English mixed with the western Capulets and the modern Montagues is just too many genres at once, and the whole film could be greatly improved by changing to modern language. Once the fighting starts, it changes genre again, this time to a slapstick comedy or badly choreographed action film. While this may be some peoples idea of humour, it simply does-not work and by the time the petrol station has exploded and the police helicopters are overhead, this film has slipped from badly modernised drama to just plain ridiculous.
Having spent this time explaining just how poor Luhrmann’s version is, it is unfortunate that the alternative is even worse. Zaffirelli’s version of Romeo and Juliet lacks even the few good points that Baz Luhrmann managed to squeeze into his. This film begins with the camera panning over the city of Verona, while old 16th century music plays quietly. This version of Romeo and Juliet is actually set in the 1500s, in period costume with original language. Unfortunately, this is not well done and instead of improving the film, it makes it seem scarily like one of the documentaries they make you watch in school. The quality of the film is poor, as is the acting. Nothing has been changed from the original play at all, giving the film nothing of its own, or anything original.
While the language used fits the film, Shakespearean English is just incredibly dull and viewers will find themselves falling asleep. This scene is set in the Market Square, as Shakespeare intended but it seems a little unbelievable. The fight starts because one family member ‘bites his thumb’ at another and in no time at all the whole market place is filled with flying fruit and screaming women. I think that, while this is how it goes in the play, the point of making a film is to interpret things your own way and it seems as though very little imagination has been used here, adding nothing to Shakespeare's own obvious lack of imagination (something that at least Baz Luhrmann's version had plenty of). The touches that Zafferelli does add are so subtle/boring that you would have to know the play very well to notice them. The scene proceeds in the same half-ridiculous, half screamingly boring manner until it comes to its remarkably uninteresting end. The rest of the film keeps up the standard set. Overall, very mediocre.
There is not much to choose between these two interpretations of Romeo and Juliet, but at least Baz Luhrmann thought to use well-known actors.
Florence C-S
