Romeo And Juliet Comparison Research Paper

“Two households, both alike in dignity” a quote from the prologue of Romeo and Juliet, I would like to compare this essay to this because it says “Two households, both alike” and figuratively that is what this essay is going to be about. Two movies that are much alike, but also have their differences. I will be sharing my view of some of these likenesses and some of these differences, essentially comparing and contrasting the two. These movies are called Clash of the Titans, one is from 1980 and the other is from 2010. In this essay you will read and be informed all about the opposites and the identicals in these two movies on these three narrative elements: the setting(s), characters, and theme.

First I’ll talk about the settings in these two

movies. In both the version from 1980, and the version from 2010 they have main settings (as does every narrative), some examples are the city of Argos, Mount olympus, and a forest. These settings are crucial in the myth of Perseus because this is where lots of main events happen or are focused on like the kraken destroying Argos, that is a key part of the myth it ties in the rising action and the climax so, it makes sense for both films to have those settings. Continuing on that thought, yes myths have key settings and when being told should include these settings but, sometimes you can change, add or remove a setting depending on the circumstances. In this example the 2010 movie has a boat where Perseus grew up but in the second one (1980) there is no boat, that could be for many reasons like the producer/director did not think the boat scenes were necessary or they didn’t think it was realistic, so instead in the 1980’s version they put in a island called Seriphos where Perseus grew up. Notice how the boat scene in the first movie is not important at all, nothing significant happens there and no major storyline is tied with it so you can simply change or remove it like they did here. More examples of different settings would be, Joppa, Seriphos, the amphitheater and the swamp. The 1980 film had these settings and the 2010 film did not. In the end settings are tricky, sometimes you need to keep the same settings even if you don't want to because it is crucial to the myths storyline and sometimes you do not, that is why these two films have some of the same settings and some different settings.

As a second point I’d like to discuss the characters from the above mentioned movies and how they differ or stay the same. As I mentioned in my paragraph about settings characters are also a mandatory narrative element to every narrative including myths, but sometimes you can add, remove, or change them depending on the necessity of their role. Tying that idea into the stories, both movies have the character Perseus because the necessity of his role is very high. Perseus is the main character so you cannot change or remove him or else it would not be the same myth. That is why both films kept that character but they also kept other important characters such as Acrisius, the kraken, Zeus etc. Some characters they added or emphasized in the more recent films are IO, Bubo,Djinn, Hades etc. These character were added, emphasized or removed to give a different feel or theme to the myth.

Which brings me to my next point, themes.

Themes are changed between narratives even of the same storyline to appeal to different people or audiences. For example you wouldn’t have a children's book about murder and death so you would change it to be less harsh and more happy like Cinderella for example (the original story involves gore and death but has been modified over the ages to appeal to younger audiences). This is relative to these movies because in the 1980’s version the theme was about love and the main character's goal was to marry the princess, but over time people have changed and tastes have changed so instead in the 2010 movie it is about war and revenge which appeals more to today's society because, to us war seems more relatable or likely than marrying a princess. Although the major overall themes are different that doesn’t mean they don’t incorporate both it just means the emphasis is different or changed. These two films both still have some theme similarities like, adventure and bravery. In both of these films Perseus is a brave adventurer just in one he is a vengous, brave adventurer and in the other he is a romantic, brave adventurer. That is how these movies have the same but also different

themes.

Overall their choices as filmmakers tell us some about their skills in filmmaking and their opinion/personality. I think it tells us that because they chose to change the theme which is a good move on a filmmaker's part, also they got to change the movie to the way they liked it which is how we can see their personality in their choices. I think their decisions made the movie more enjoyable to watch over the other, which is why I liked the 1980 movie better, to me I just enjoyed their choices such as the choice of Seriphos instead of the boat and I also prefered the theme of love, that's just my preference. In the end I think their choices in changing the myth based on settings, characters, and theme were effective and well thought out.