DING DING DING DING! FIGHT! Two competitors are ready to fight over which film better represents Shakespeare’s main intensions. The two step into the battle box. What were Shakespeare’s main themes and intentions? Shakespeare’s main intentions of Romeo and Juliet was to show his world famous tragedies, romance, grievance and struggles. Zefferelli’s film of Romeo and Juliet (1968) and Luhrmann’s film of Romeo and Juliet (1996) represents those intensions but in different fashion and in different mediums. Zefferelli’s movie is aimed to be an interpretation of what happened in the late 16th century. Evidently, Luhrmann’s is to be a modern version of Romeo and Juliet. It is aimed for our generation. Which movie is a going to prevail and be crowned …show more content…
as the better movie to represent Shakespeare’s intensions? Luhrmann shows these themes and intensions better because the setting is modern. The actors are well trained and professional creating a more emotional tone. Finally, we as students and teenagers can relate to these events shown in the movie. This movie’s intended audience was our generation. Both movies ultimately show Shakespeare’s intentions but with different concepts and elements. Firstly, let’s look at Luhrmat century. This will allows the audience to understand the true meaning of what Shakespeare is trying to teach us. Mercutio in Luhrmann’s film is shown as an emotionally unstable and prideful character. This leads to him showing his loyalty to his gang when in the end, it was not about which side you were on. Unlike Zefferlli’s film, it stays true to the original version of Romeo and Juliet. It has the same setting and timeline. This is a bad way to represent Shakespeare’s intentions because no one personally understands the culture back in those days. For example, no one can imagine a feud between two royal families, we cannot imagine nn’s setting for his movie. Luhrmann’s film takes place in Verona Beach, California which is not the original setting for the version of Romeo and Juliet written by Shakespeare, neither is it in the same era. Already, lots of audience members can get a mental image of what California can be like unlike, Verona Italy shown in Zeffereli’s movie. Since California is a more common and known place rather than Italy, Luhrmann’s movie has already been engaged with the audience. In addition, the props, clothing and scenery is different from the initial version of Romeo and Juliet. With all these changes, we as the reader or viewer can make this applicable and tangible in our lives because we can relate to these things due to the fact that the movie is during the 20swhat it feels like to be involved in the bitter feud because we have never experienced it before. With Luhrmann’s movie, we can understand two gangs having a feud because we see on the news shootouts breaking out between two rival gangs. Montagues and Capulets can be represented by two rival gangs that has a disgust for each other. Luhrmann changes the script of the movie and translates the setting and relevancy so the audience can understand and relate to what is happening in the movie. The Shakespearean language is present in both movies, they speak like the original text. Is it odd to have a modern setting like California but to speak like Shakespeare? It is not because accommodate each other. For audience members that do not recognize Shakespearean language the setting allows the audience to still understand the plot and what is going on. This allows the movie to be appealing to lots of other audience members. On the other hand, Zefferelli’s adaption of the film does not suit all audience members. Audience members that don’t understand the true meaning of Shakespearean language and is not familiar with Verona, Italy they will not understand what Shakespeare’s true intentions were. Luhrmann intensifies the dramatic events such as characters dying so this impacts the audience more.
A fine example of where Luhrmann enhanced the scene and made it more dramatic is the death scene of Romeo and Juliet. While Juliet was asleep and Romeo believed that Juliet was dead, Luhrmann plotted the story where Juliet will witness the death of Romeo. This makes the devastating accident into a more tragic and depressing incident. This adds a bigger effect on the audience. In Zefferelli’s movie, the actors do not seem to be feeling the true emotions they are supposed to feel. This does not create an emotional connection with the audience, so the audience wouldn’t feel the same emotions the actor would. In Zefferelli’s movie the actors did not seem to be in tune with their character and their personality. For example, when Mercutio was dying from the stab he has gotten from Tybalt, it seemed very fake and unbelievable. This caused audience members not to feel sad for Mercutio and not feel the emotions Shakespeare intended the audience to feel. The main reason why this is important is that the audience members will not be attached to the movie and not pay attention to what the main intentions of the movie is for. On the other hand, Luhrmann’s actors were in tune with their character and their personality. An example is when Romeo cried when Mercutio died in front of Romeo, it made most viewers feel sorry for Romeo and Mercutio himself. This created an emotional …show more content…
connection between the actors and viewers. This will lead the audience to not stray away from the movie and pay attention to the message that’s being sent across, just like Shakespeare intended to. Luhrmann also enhances the dramatic scenes because he adds clever music to tell us what the scene is going to be like. For every death scene, the music was quiet and suspenseful. Also, it gives a hint to the audience on how they should feel about the scene. Additional, the music draws the viewers into important keys and symbols that are crucial to the movie. Zefferelli on the other hand made his movie more straight forward and showed plain fight scenes and rushed to the deaths. This made Zefferelli’s movie more focused on the romance of the movie and not the tragedies. Although this is one of Shakespeare’s main intentions, it is still not as well executed like it was in Luhrmann’s film. Luhrmann specially made the movie so that viewers in the 20th century can relate to all events that occur in the movie.
Like stated before Montagues and Capulets can be perceived as two rival gangs. To go in more depth, we can look at the Montagues and Capulets like Bloods and Crips. They are two polar opposite gangs that fuel each other’s hatred. In the streets of South Central Los Angeles, the two rival gangs called Bloods and Crips are on a long term mission to kill each other. It is a coincidence is that no one truly knows why the two are in a feud. It has just been like this for a long time and it has turned into a lifestyle. They kill each other as a sport and a way of life. We can understand the feud because of Luhrmann making the movie modern and making the two royal families as gangs. Since Luhrmann has changed the characters of Capulet and Montague, we can understand the feud between the two families. How does this teach Shakespeare’s intentions? Shakespeare talks about struggles and grievances against each other. He also tells us the possible outcomes that could occur if a conflict is not resolved. Like Luhrmann’s example, these two gangs have struggles and grievances against each other and we can only relate to this because they are gangs. With the rise of gang violence going up each and every year, it is more common to know the affects and death rates gang violence has rather than a feud between two royal
families. DING DING DING! Knock out. Game over. The clear winner is Luhrmann’s film. It is the better film compared to Zefferelli’s film. To sum everything up, it has the same modern setting that we can relate to and understand. It has great actors that are expert at their parts so we can truly have an emotional connection with them. Finally, it is aimed at us students and modern teenagers so we can relate to the references that are made in the movie. These reasons truly show Shakespeare’s intentions to show tragedies, romance, grievances and struggles. Although, Zefferelli’s movie is a true and copy of the original play, Luhrmann’s movie is widely accepted and understood by people in our generation today because of its changes to adapt to our understanding. Luhrmann does not stray away from Shakespeare’s intended meaning yet he makes them more firm for us teenagers to understand what Shakespeare was trying to teach us.
Comparison Between Act 3 Scene 1 in Franco Zeferelli's Romeo and Juliet and in Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet
using a logical pattern or sequence the film simply flows and does not jump from scene to scene. The objective of Zefferelli I believe was to bring Shakespeare's script to life, to help people. understand the moral and storyline better. On the other hand I believe Luhrmans objectives were far different to Zefferellis, I feel Luhrman was somewhat touched by the storyline. inspired or found it worthwhile, therefore decided to make a blockbuster, entertaining film from it.
The Effectiveness of Zeffirelli's Interpretation of the Death Scene in Romeo and Juliet I think Zeffirelli’s interpretation of “Romeo and Juliet” is quite successful at expressing how he feels the play should be shown. He uses lots of techniques to make the play enjoyable, appealing and imaginative. To do this he uses different camera angles, realistic scenery, costumes, sounds and music. He cut some scenes that he didn’t think were particularly relevant to the storyline, and added some lines for effect. He has a love theme playing throughout the film that is played in minor and major keys depending how he wants the audience to feel.
A Comparison of the Interpretations of Two Film Versions of Romeo and Juliet Having studied the openings of two film versions, the two directors Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann, show they interpret the play differently because of the way they see different meanings in them. By interpreting the play differently, it also means the audience pick up a different meaning. Every image seen in the beginning decides whether the audience should continue with watching the film. But what makes a film so engaging?
The feud between the Montagues and Capulets- The loss of Lord Capulet and Lord Montague’s children bring the two households together. Romeo and Juliet’s death helped their parents realize how wrong their feud was and bond over the commemoration of their children. For example, Lord Montague want to build a statue of Juliet, so everyone can remember her, and Lord Capulet wants to build a statue of Rome beside Juliet. This project helps bring the families together, and set aside their
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.
To begin, in the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare makes a point in emphasizing the feud between the Montagues and Capulets. The feud shows how they are all just living in the moment and not thinking about how this feud could affect others living presently and also in the future. They are not thinking rationally but instead are stuck on the fact that they both think they are better than one another. This makes them think they can not talk to one another or be nice but instead just pretend they don't exist. In the future, they may actually
said by the chorus. This means it is an idea of a group of people
Zeffirelli’s ultimate goal for his version of Romeo and Juliet was to capture Shakespeare’s original intentions for the play while targeting the teenage audience of his generation. Luhrmann’s intentions were different however; he changed the way an audience looks at Shakespeare’s masterpiece by modernising the props, costumes, and sets. Obviously, to match film time quotas Zefirelli and Luhrmann has both cut many lines out of the play.
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.
...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.
Different interpretations of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The Beatles wrote this in the 1960’s but they certainly were not the. first to think about it.
Firstly, the Capulets and Montagues are at odds with each other. Members of each house and servants break into a sword fight, clashing with each other. Sampson says "Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow." (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 60). The feuding between the two families motivates Sampson to challenge the Capulets. Another example of how the two houses despise each other is what Romeo and his friends have to do to get into the Capulet feast. So they will not be recognized, Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio wear comic masks to hide their faces. Mercutio says, "Give me a case to put my visage in" (Act 1, Scene 4, Line 29). They do not want to be recognized because of the hatred between the two houses. Also, Romeo and Juliet are not supposed to be in love: "My only love sprung from my only hate! / Too early seen unknown, and known too late! / Prodigious birth of love it is to me, / That I must love a loathed enemy." says Juliet (Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 137-140). They are not supposed to love each other because it just so happens that each of their houses despise each other. It is unfortunate for Romeo and Juliet that their two families are against each other, because this means that they are not supposed to be married.
Paramount aspect of the movie and the play, the theme, were the same, and the overall messages in both were the same. For example, one main message in the stories was that love conquers all. This was demonstrated in both the play and the film when Romeo and Juliet kept secretly meeting each other even though they knew it was against their families’ wishes. In one scene of both the movie and the play Romeo and Juliet even got married and died together so that even if they could not be together on earth they would be together in death. Another message you learn from watching the movie and the play was that fighting solves nothing. In the play, when the two feuding families, the Montague’s and the Caplets, find their children dead they resolve their differences and agree to build a gold statue of Romeo and Juliet made out of gold after they state that their fighting only brought suffering. In the movie, although the families didn’t make up, you can infer that it was if the families and not been fighting that Romeo and Juliet would not have killed themselves, because they would not have to meet in secret and have Friar Lawrence devise a complicated plan so they could be together without their parents knowledge .
	A major dispute is going on between the Capulets and the Montagues. These two households, "both alike in dignity," (1.Prologue.1) have been feuding for so long that they even forget the reason they are feuding. Romeo and Juliet, "a pair of star-crossed lovers who take their life," (1.Prologue.6) are results of how tragedy can be caused when the rage of past generations carries over to a younger generation. Tybalt is also an example of the theme. At Capulet's party, he walks up to Lord Capulet and says "Tis he, that villain Romeo" (1.5.67). Tybalt learns this rage toward Romeo and all the other Montagues through past generations.