Baz Luhrmann's Success of Making Romeo & Juliet Accessible to a Modern Audience
In this essay I am going to write about how successfully Baz Luhrmann
has made his film Romeo and Juliet accessible to a modern audience.
Baz Luhrmann uses Shakespeare's authentic text combining it with a
modern setting. This combination attracts the off spring of the modern
age. That is the reason why Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet has been
successful. It has made a profit of 11.133 million dollars, reached
the top of box-office and has been awarded quite a lot of Oscars.
The opening scene of the film shows a newsreader reading Shakespeare's
original prologue. At this point the camera zooms in as the newsreader
reads the prologue in a news form. This is effective because the
screen then seems to focus on the newsreader more and so the audience
pays more attention to it. This creates a concentration without any
distraction for the audience to focus on the picture and make them
listen or see the prologue. It is presented as news to make the
audience think it is factual and important. It is also shown as
breaking news, which shows the impact of the two feuding families.
This is a very good film technique used by Baz Luhrmann because it
makes it more dramatic.
There is also a picture behind a newsreader which shows a broken ring.
This ring symbolizes Romeo and Juliet's broken relationship. Pulling
apart a metal by force is very hard, likewise, the broken rings tells
us that the lovers have been violently pulled apart. I think that it
was a good idea to do this because it grabs the audience's attention
effectively and it seems important. This is a good use of symbolism to
relate that the violence is so severe that even love cannot calm it
down.
A bit later on the camera shows a statue of Jesus starting off with a
medium close-up shot and rapidly zooming out to show two skyscrapers
on either side. One of the skyscrapers is Capulet and the other one is
Context has greatly influenced how Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare in the 1500’s to how Williams Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet was produced in 1996 by Baz Luhrmann with a more modern intention.
Romeo and Juliet is a play about two lovers who have to risk their lives in order to demonstrate their love and will to stay together, regardless the feud between their families. By the end, the death of Romeo and Juliet finally bring the reconciliation to these two families. It is fate that the two most shall-not meet people fall in love and it love that eventually won against hatred. Since then, there have been many different versions of Romeo and Juliet, whether it was for film, stage, musicals. These different recontextualised adaptions change the original play by many ways, some modernise the language, environment, props as well as changing the original characteristics of some characters. Out of all the different adaptions of Romeo and Juliet, two stood out the most. One was the Romeo and Juliet (1996) and directed by Baz Luhrmann and the other one was Romeo and Juliet Broadway (2013) play version,
gesture a “mysterious” smile crosses her lips. These closing lines signify the Christian belief that Jesus gave holy communion, his own flesh and blood, like Rosa of Sharon gave her milk.
costumes, the actors and the way he has cut the script all add up to
William Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," set in 16th century Verona, Italy shares differences with Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet," set in modern day Verona Beach. These stories contain the same characters and conflict, however major and minor discrepancies are galore in the story lines of both formats of William Shakespeare's creation. Some major inconsistencies occur, such as Mercutio dying at a beach, portrayed as a hero, instead of being at a bar, looking like a fool, Friar Lawrence's letter is successfully sent to Romeo by mail carriers, however he does not have the opportunity to read it, unlike in the play version, where Romeo does not get the letter from Friar John, and is told the news by Balthazar, and nobody being at Juliet's tomb to stop Romeo from reaching Juliet, unlike in the play, Paris was there to pay his respects to Juliet. In addition to the major inconsistencies, minor ones are included throughout, such as Romeo and Juliet first seeing each other through a fish tank, then kissing in the elevator, not the dance, the famous balcony scene occurring in a pool, not on an actual balcony, and Juliet pointing a gun at Friar after she points it to herself, threatening to commit suicide. These inconsistencies probably occurred in the play to add a modern and entertaining twist to the Shakespearean classic, leading to the same denouement in both versions of "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet."
They also had an argument on how long ago they both went to a masked
Magazine Review of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet Imagine that you are writing a review of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and
Imagine you are going to direct this scene for a class performance. Explain how you want the parts of Juliet and Lady Capulet or Lord Capulet to bring out the tension of the scene, including comments to show how you want the audience to respond to the argument. This play Romeo and Juliet is set in the Elizabethan times, when Shakespeare was writing and producing plays. This particular play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, is set in Verona, Italy. It is here; we meet the wealthy families of Capulet and Montague families.
As I walked into the first gallery, I saw a wood sculpture that stood in the center of the room. This carving depicted “the crucified Christ, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist with Angels holding instruments of the Passion”. It was painted oak and very appealing to the eye. It stood approximately 15 feet in the air. The origin of this sculpture is unknown, but it was found in a Belgium church. This kind of sculpture usually stood at the entrance or at the center of the alter in the church facing the congregation. This image of the suffering Christ relates to the Christian ideas of suffering and Christ’s salvation of all mankind.
The Lamentation, or Pietà, is a common Christian narrative that depicts Jesus Christ’s family mourning over his body after he has been crucified. Many artists choose to interpret it and paint it in their own way, which is why I decided to use it for this paper. The Pietà, I found, is more of a detailed version of the Lamentation that is mainly only Mary mourning over her son. In general, the Lamentation includes Mary and other religious figures—“full” Lamentations include The Three Marys, John the Apostle, Joseph, and various other people such as angels and donor portraits. As time went on, some scenes became continuous narratives, showing other subjects adjacent to the Lamentation in the Passion of Christ. Meanwhile, others expanded in terms of their scenery and other specific details.
Romeo and Juliet presents an ongoing feud between the Montague and Capulet families whose children meet and fall in love. Markedly, the meeting scene depicting love at first sight continues to be praised by today’s critics. Romeo and Juliet then receive the label of star-crossed lovers whose tragic demise is written in the stars. In fact, Shakespeare 's work is well received and its numerous adaptations have made it one of his most enduring and notorious stories. The cinematic world brings to the screens a disastrous approach by Baz Luhrmann to do the play justice. A glance at Baz Luhrmann’s productions allows audiences to assume he delivers movies which are unlike those of any other filmmaker today, or perhaps ever. Therefore, blending a delicate
...e tragic celebration of young, forbidden love told by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, has been tailored for many motion picture adaptations. The most famous of these adaptations are Franco Zeffirelli’s version and Baz Lurhmann’s film produced in 1996. These two films applied Shakespeare’s most well-known work as a basis for their motion pictures. Both films had similarities, but the differences were much more apparent. Ever since William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been debuted, it has and forever will be an artistic influence for playwrights, directors, and other artists.
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic love story about two young lovers who are forced to be estranged as a result of their feuding families. The play is about their struggle to contravene fate and create a future together. As such, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would try and emulate Shakespeare’s masterpiece. This had been done before in many films. Prominent among them were, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.” Both films stay true to the themes of Shakespeare’s original play. However, the modernised Luhrmann film not only maintains the essence of Shakespeare’s writings, Luhrmann makes it relevant to a teenage audience. This is done through the renewal of props and costumes, the reconstruction of the prologue and the upgrading of the setting, whilst preserving the original Shakespearean language. Out of the two, it is Luhrmann who targets Romeo & Juliet to a younger audience to a much larger extent than Zeffirelli.
The positions of the stories in the apse show the importance of the figures represented in the images. Christ's placement the center of the apse holding a book with his left hand provides a direct relationship to the Bible. His right hand held up in blessing illustrates his divine power towards the people, who receive the sacrament on the altar below him. Christ is also surrounded by stars, wh...
Baz Lurhmann’s creation of the film Romeo and Juliet has shown that today’s audience can still understand and appreciate William Shakespeare. Typically, when a modern audience think of Shakespeare, they immediately think it will be boring, yet Lurhmann successfully rejuvenates Romeo and Juliet. In his film production he uses a number of different cinematic techniques, costumes and a formidably enjoyable soundtrack; yet changes not one word from Shakespeare’s original play, thus making it appeal to a modern audience.