Romeo And Juliet [1996]

From the off, his take on Romeo & Juliet explodes unpredictably onto the screen, bubbling with vision and originality, accompanied throughout by an excellent score and soundtrack that rightly spawned two spin-off CDs. There are sacrifices made along the way to support Luhrmann's vision though, with the text being stripped down to leave the core of the story in tact, and that's just one of a number of complaints that Shakespeare purists may have.

And yet, perhaps more than any other attempt to bring the work of the Bard to the screen of late, this is an extremely accessible entry-point to Shakepeare's work. That it's also by turns breathtaking, dazzling and a sheer joy to watch doesn't harm its cause either. The two leads are charming, the support cast backs them up superbly, and the end result is one of the most interesting visual treats that Hollywood mustered up throughout the 1990s.--Simon Brew

Having always found Shakespeare's language hard to grasp, the thought of a modern day film with Elizabethan dialect was rather off putting. However, the way the characters and the world around them is presented to you enables you to understand everything that is going on.

The setting of the play has been moved from it's Elizabethan origins to the 'futuristic urban backdrop of Verona Beach'. The swords have become guns, the horses have become cars and the story has become more believable.

There are elements of William Shakespeare's original play cleverly slotted in throughout the film. The gun fights stick to the rules of Elizabethan sword fighting (as is explained in an interview with John Leguizamo on the DVD) and the bill boards and posters contain lines from other Shakespeare plays.

As well as being the best version of Romeo & Juliet I have seen, it is also one of the best films I have seen!

The film is also backed up by an excellent soundtrack and the DVD is packed with interesting extras.


The good isn't Shakespeare; the Shakespeare isn't good   September 11, 2005
DocMartin (Somerset,UK)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful

Bringing Shakespeare into the current day is always a risky business, at its best it can lend new and modern insights and reach out to a generation that might otherwise remain estranged; at worst it grates and jars. This film manages to do both in equal measure. The film is certainly not for the purist, the original script seems largely optional both in terms of which bits are used and the order in which the lines appear. It is ironic that the films most captivating scenes - the drug trip and the electrifying ending particularly spring to mind - are the ones with which greatest liberties have been taken. Baz Luhrmann seems to have come up with a Shakespearean film in which the bits that are Shakespeare's aren't good and the bits that are good aren't Shakespeare's, which must be something of a first.

The direction generally does not match that of Zefirelli's 1968 classic, and nor does the casting. DiCaprio may guarantee bums on seats but he looks at sea in several scenes and Claire Danes, though competent throughout, seems to lack the sexual chemistry needed to ignite the play in whatever format it appears. The other cast members vary between competent (Brian Dennehy as Papa Montague; Dash Mihok as Benvolio) and cringingly bad - Harold Perrineau taking the homosexual undertones of Mercutio's psyche to levels more camp than the Rocky Horror Picture Show; Mirian Margoyles Spanish accent requiring protective waterproof clothing for her fellow cast members. The one exception is Pete Postlethwaite who, despite having half his part chopped out to facilitate the all-new ending, is a riveting Friar Lawrence; take away all his lines and he would still steal every scene.

This film will never escape its tag of "dumbed-down" Shaespeare, nor does it deserve to: it is. The subtlety and slow burn of the inevitable slide into passion-fuelled tragedy is sacrificed for the wham-bam of the gangster movie and the assumption of the 40-second attention span. This is Hollywood -Shakespeare, done by Americans for Americans, it still is a rollicking good story but, if you really want transatlantic Shakespeare at its best, go see West Side Story.

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Romeo + Juliet   May 8, 2003
Charles Daguerrotype (London)
13 out of 16 found this review helpful

A visually stunning and thought provoking portrayal of Shakespeare's most famous play that will leave you in awe. I have just been studying this film for my GCSE coursework in microscopic detail - so I should know!

Lurhmann adapts the Shakepearian text to make it appealing and easier for modern audiences to grasp. Complete with high octane gun fights, passionate love scenes and plenty for you to think about afterwards, this is a film you can not afford to pass over, even if you think reading Shakespeare is like reading Arabic!

Leonardo di Caprio and Claire Danes are perfectly cast as the lead roles and with Baz Luhrmann in the director's seat and an expert production team behind him, Romeo + Juliet will, if nothing else, leave you thinking a lot more about the world, and at the very most, desparate to read more Shakeperian plays or more Luhrmann films.


Fantastic!   January 10, 2006
brazen (London)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

In my experience, a lot of people have a very blinkered view of Shakespeare as being outdated and incomprehensible, but this film single-handedly dispels all of these modern preconceptions. It combines the timeless romance of Romeo and Juliet with some very edgy, in places borderline chaotic, direction from Luhrmann.

It is at some points reminiscent of Requiem For A Dream when it cuts to and from a scene, speeding up certain elements within a scene to draw attention to others, and has all the vibrancy of Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge with bold colours and fast-paced action.

This film is, in my opinion, the better kind of Shakespearean modernisation. Luhrmann's interpretation of the characters and the backdrop bring the play bang up to date; the opening scene comes to pass at a petrol station where rival gangs meet and subsequently enter into a gun-fight, and the fancy-dress party involving (amongst others) an astronaut; while at the same time the language is firmly rooted in the original text, losing none of the dramatic impact which was originally intended for audiences in the 16th century.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get (re)acquainted with Shakespeare, but without any of the boredom that may have been inflicted when first meeting with the Bard in school, and get to grips with one of his best known, and loved, plays.