A Film Review of the Opening Sequences of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet

A Film Review of the Opening Sequences of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet

Baz Luhrmann's film "Romeo and Juliet" is a modern version of William

Shakespeare's famous play. The whole film is fascinating and

entertaining. It really attracts the audiences' attention by the fast

moving of cameras angles and thrilling actions of the actors. I

particularly like the opening sequence of the film.

The director Baz Luhrmann sets the scene in a modern city "fair

Verona", which suits the romantic love story of Romeo and Juliet well.

The reason why Luhrmann did not cast this film in Italy Verona but

cast in a modern city of America is because the old town Verona does

not seem appeal to the up-to-date people of the contemporary love

story.

The film starts with a television slowly zooms in and a woman

newscaster in the television is announcing the news that Romeo and

Juliet both died because their families are "two households both alike

in dignity". Television is used in here because television media is an

important modern technology in the world today. It has the effect of

drawing the audiences' attention. Luhrmann uses the prologue cleverly

in here to introduce the general story line to the audience, so the

audience will have an idea of what is this film about. While the woman

is still speaking, the camera zooms in gradually. The television

screen then fades in, and there are cuts of the modern city "Verona".

It is a very fast opening with dramatic music and lightning. There are

several jump cuts of the modern buildings, fires, people firing the

guns and police cars. The phrases from the prologue keep flashing on

the screen, on newspaper headlines and on magazines as captions: "two

households"; "civil blood makes civil hands unclean"; "a pair of

star-crossed lovers"; "take their life." Newspapers and magazines are

modern media technologies as well. They appeal suggest the matter of

the two family's rivalry is really serious.

There are quite lot violence actions in the very short opening

sequence.