Romeo + Juliet
In this essay I will answering the question How does Baz Luhrmann keep the spirit of Elizabethan theater alive in his Film Interpretation, Romeo + Juliet and i’m going to go about this in four stages (not including the conclusion). The main points of Elizabethan play that I will be talking about is how Luhrmann brings from the play into the film is the Original Script, the Set, the Faith and the use of subtitles. You might be like “what is this guy on about” but all will be explained in this essay.
The most obvious pass over from the original play to the film is the Original Script, this were the actors say there lines in old English even though it’s set in modern times. One of the reasons I think Luhrmann does this because it adds a tempo to the film what is called the Iambic pentameter and really helps the viewer to understand the language better even though it is in old English. The second thing I like about putting the original script is how the mix of the old English but the modern day setting works together that makes the film really unique than any other films I’ve seen. Now I’m going to write about the Exaggeration they use in the film which they also use in the play. This just adds to the effect that the language has on the film by making the film fell more psychotic, mad and it make it easier for the viewers to understand the old English.
This paragraph I will be look at the set and how it represents buildings and structures from the Elizabethan era. There are many references to structures in the adaption, there’s one that’s quite hard to spot at first but if you look again you will see when Romeo and Benvolio go into the bar to play pool, it’s called the Globe theater which I thought was a nice touch. The second building that Luhrmann put into the set where romeo is depressed writing a poem or a diary on how much he loves Rosaline but she doesn’t love him and he is doing this on a open air stage on the beach which is similar to the Globe theater. In the beginning of the movie there are some establishing shots of the city which show poor and dilapidated areas and than showing the Capulet mansion being rich and vibrant and this all states to social class and the whole of Elizabethan culture and society was based on social class.
Baz Luhrmann keeps the side of faith in Romeo + Juliet in many interesting ways. In the film Romeo does lots of little things that are not respecting the way of god like the way he pretty much says that he hates god in anger of his fate even though that Romeo asked god to choose his fate. When he leaves the church he trips up and knocks the cross over which is a sign of disrespect and carelessness of the religion. Between the two families the only thing that links together is their faith even in the title “Romeo + Juliet” there’s a cross in between the to teenagers from the two families and when he enters the party which he meets Juliet there is a cross above the entrance so what i’m trying to say is whenever there is a symbol of Christianity connected to the two star crossed lovers it means their a step closer to reaching their fate which results in them dying to stop the fighting between the two families but the thing that amazed me most was how Baz Luhrmann does it in a way which you know Christianity is a massive factor in the film but not even noticing the little hints along the way and that is a real hard skill to have but he did it so well.
To replace soliloquy with subtitles was a interesting move by the director was probably the only way he could of transferred soliloquy into a movie without it looking unnatural ( which the film didn’t look really anyway) and weird. You couldn’t really have the actor looking into the camera as if he was talking to the audience so when the wanted to display his thoughts they used subtitles which was unusual because they could of used a voice of the character over the top talking about what they are thinking. The subtitles add a different effect though because your not just listening to his thoughts your them so you can interpret them how you want not just listen on how the directer wants you to think of them and that is different to most films so I think he was success in putting subtitles in the film.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Baz Luhrmann interpreted the play Romeo & Juliet in his own but very smart way by using little hints along the way about their fate as William Shakespeare did in his play. The director was very successful in capturing the idea of fate because he new what Shakespeare goal he was trying to achieve so Luhrmann tried to achieve the same goal and he reached it so my conclusion is that he kept the spirit of Elizabethan era so well that if William Shakespeare was alive today and he watched the film Shakespeare would think he interpreted it to the highest standard possible.
React!