While The Taming of The Shrew played in theaters in the spring of 1967, the Summer of Love was about to explode in San Francisco and London, signifying the height of the hippie, counter-culture movement. This was a young generation that rebelled against the war in Vietnam and demanded relevance in higher education (Tatspaugh 140). In addition to anti-war protests, sexual exploration was another hallmark of this young generation, to which Romeo and Juliet was the perfect metaphor. This is confirmed by Sarah Munson Deats as cited by film critic Patricia Tatspaugh in her essay, “The Tragedies of Love on Film,” in which Deats is quoted, “This (Zeffirelli's) film was intended for the counter-culture youth, a generation of young people, like Romeo and Juliet, estranged from their parents, torn by the conflict between their youthful cult of passion and the military traditions of their elders” (Tatspaugh 140). Zeffirelli once again set precedent in the presentation of a Shakespeare play, in his casting of young actors for the main roles; most importantly, the director did not shy away from the issue of Juliet's young age of fourteen. Zeffirelli himself once commented on his own decision, “In every scene I said, 'Don't forget she is fourteen. She's fourteen, and that holds the structure of the play together”(Hapgood 2). This would prove to be a bold choice, pushing the boundaries for what was acceptable at the time, it also attracted the younger audience that Zeffirelli had targeted. More importantly, however, it allowed the film to become an experimental film about the exploration of passionate, physical love between teenagers. Moreover, Zeffirelli detailed the sexual maturation of Juliet.
Despite the fact that Juliet “hath not se...
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Cartmell, Deborah. “Franco Zeffirelli and Shakespeare.” The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Ed. Russell Jackson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 212-221. Print.
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Hapgood, Robert. Popularizing Shakespeare, The Artistry of Franco Zeffirelli. Brentshakespeare Weekly, 2014. Web. May 10 2014.
Scott, Lindsey. “Closed in a Dead Man's Tomb: Juliet, Space, and the Body in Franco Zeffirelli's and Baz Luhrmann's Films of Romeo and Juliet.” Literature Film Quarterly 36.2 (2008): p137-146.
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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.
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.
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... About You_.” Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism and Scholarship 22.2 (2004): 45-66. Expanded Academic ASAP. Westfield State College Library, MA. 15 April 2005. 15 April 2005.
The environment surrounding the star-crossed lovers in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet can influence audiences who may interpret the scenes in different ways. The audience can be greatly affected in their interpretation of the story by the mise-en-scene, costuming, and the hidden symbolic meaning. This great piece of literature was edited in two unique and intriguing forms, one Zeferelli directed which was filmed in 1968, and the modern version produced in 1996. The different scenes throughout the length of the party were the most influential to me in that I saw how different these movies were directed, and the different meaning I experienced from watching these movies. Focusing on the environment of the scenes and the costuming helped me in my interpretation, because I found hidden symbolism in these two qualities.
Cohen, Walter, J.E. Howard, K. Eisaman Maus. The Norton Shakespeare. Vol. 2 Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor. New York, London. 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-92991-1
Cartmell, Deborah. “Franco Zeffirelli and Shakespeare.” The Cambridge Campanion to Shakespeare on Film. Ed. Russell Jackson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 212-221. Print.
Dutton, R., & Howard, J.E. (2003). A Companion to Shakespeare’s Works.(p. 9) Maiden, MA: Blackwell Pub.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Romeo and Juliet is a play about two adolescents—Romeo and Juliet from two hostile families fall in love with each other. This prohibited love ultimately turns into a romantic tragedy, in which they commit suicide for each other. Both Franco Zeffirelli’s (1968) and Baz Lurhmann’s (1996) versions retained the dialogues written by William Shakespeare in their movies. However, these two movies are directed in their own unique ways, which have several distinctive differences.
Knight,G.Wilson. “The Shakespearean Superman: An essay on The Tempest.” The Crown of life: Essays in Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Final Plays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947. 203-255
Crowl writes this chapter to inform readers with an unbiased and fair review of directors who have successfully and profoundly constructed reproductions of Shakespeare’s plays. All three directors are considered artistic geniuses, because, as Crowl describes, each brings a new component on how to interpret Shakespeare’s work,
William Shakespeare and the new millennium seem to be diametrically opposed, yet his works are having a renaissance of their own after 400 years in the public domain. Why have some major film producers revisited his works when their language and staging would seem to be hopelessly outdated in our society?Perhaps because unlike modern writers, who struggle with political correctness, Shakespeare speaks his mind with an uncompromising directness that has kept its relevance in this otherwise jaded world.
Tim Blake Nelson’s O takes Shakespeare’s Othello and shifts the action from 16th-century Venice and Cyprus to a very current day Charleston, South Carolina. The issue with updating a film adaptation of Shakespeare to present-day is that often, the essence of Shakespeare is lost. Some modernized film versions of his works utilize the original text, like Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. But O chooses to update everything about the play, leading viewers to wonder whether or not it fully captures Shakespeare’s mastery of character, dialogue and intense thematic elements. Tim Blake Nelson’s O is, to some extent, a successful film adaptation in that the nature and spirit of Othello are still the basis of the film.