Compare and Contrast of Two Film Versions of Romeo and Juliet Analysis

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William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the classic story of two families, the Montague’s and Capulet’s who have an age old feud. Two children of the families, Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague, meet and fall in love. The feud of their families encourages them to keep their relationship secret. They get married without telling anyone, but their family feud gets in the way. Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, and Romeo’s friend, Mercutio, get into a sword fight and Mercutio is killed. Romeo kills Tybalt for revenge and is banished from Verona. Juliet and Friar Laurence come up with a plan to fake her death and get her out of Verona to be with Romeo, but Romeo does not receive the message of the plan and sneaks into Juliet’s tomb and kills himself. Upon waking, Juliet sees dead Romeo and kills herself also. This tragic ending is displayed in two very different ways by Baz Luhrmann (1996) and Franco Zeffirelli (1968). The death scene in Luhrmann’s version better portrays the intensity and emotion of the moment using script changes, setting, and music/sound.
Luhrmann’s script better focuses on the emotion and intensity by only keeping or changing things that contribute to how Romeo and Juliet feel. Contrary to Shakespeare’s original play, Luhrmann did not include minor characters like Paris or Friar Laurence, which allows us to give all our attention to Romeo and Juliet’s final moment. This way we are not distracted by other things happening in the scene and can instead appreciate the emotional scene. Luhrmann kept the line, “Tempt not a desperate man,” which coupled with the scene around Romeo and great acting the simple line showcases the desperation Romeo feels in his need to be with Juliet as he dies. Luhrmann’s biggest edit was having Ju...

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...d. The lack of sound eliminates all potential for intensity in the moment. As Romeo sees Juliet we hear the theme “What Is a Youth” once again and by this time it’s been very overused. The lyrics of the song would fit, but because there are no vocals and the song is starting to just bore us. Zeffirelli’s quiet approach lacks any intensity or suspense for what’s to come. Final there is noise, warning horns and hounds, but as Juliet is about to kill herself it is a mere interruption. To some it may add to the intensity as they are about to be discovered, but to focus on the emotion it would have been better to center on Romeo and Juliet’s final moment.
Both movies have their merits and downfalls overall, but Luhrmann clearly has the better death scene. Using great script edits, setting, and sound effects, Luhrmann created an intense moment filled with emotion.

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