jordan lagana flm105 final paper

8/3/2019 Jordan Lagana FLM105 Final Paper

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Jordan Lagana

FLM105

Dr. Croteau

27 Apr. 2011

A Pleasant Walk, A Pleasant Talk Along the Movie Theater:

How Baz Luhrmanns Romeo + Juliet Does Justice to the Bard

When sifting through the filmic, literary, and otherwise canon of Shakespeare-related

adaptations, revisions, and works, it becomes clear that todays market has become saturated

with plentiful inspiration from the Bard himself. Whether considering an explicit adaptation of

one of Shakespeares plays (Kenneth Branaghs unabridged Hamlet clocks in at nearly four

hours without any cuts to the original source material) or a story inspired by or reworked from

another (Shes the Man, more or less, retells Shakespeares Twelfth Night), one must understand

that the process of adaptation goes beyond turning written lines into spoken lines. Facing the

translation of page to screen poses a unique challenge to filmmakers, and even more so when the

source material comes from William Shakespeare. Originally scoffed at theatrically for its

inability to represent the written word from whence it comes, films are judged with even more

critical eyes (Hamilton 119). Although Baz Luhrmann and his film William Shakespeares

Romeo + Juliet(Luhrmann 1992)have fallen under critical fire in past years for an outrageous

deviation from the comfortable elitism of Shakespeare adaptation, the films ability to mold its

source materials conflicts and intentions to the context of its society coupled with the complex

use of clarifying mise-en-scene allows a timeless classic to breathe new life to a once culturally-

distanced audience.

Reportedly earning over ten times its initial budget of $14.5 million, Romeo + Juliet is

considered a box office success. This statistic, however, is not reflective of the critical reviews it


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would receive. Among the heat Luhrmann received for his roots as a music video director

leaking into his editing and artistic styles, he would also be criticized for blaspheming the poetry

of Shakespeare for the sake of a corrosive generation (Guenther 20). In a scathing journal

about Shakespeare film adaptation in recent years, Donald Lyons commented that Luhrmann has

whittled the original play down to the liking of a culture so corrosive that it dissolves anything

it comes into contact with (58). The question, then, strays away from the ability to adapt

Shakespeare and into the territory of whether or not art must be sacrificed for comprehension of

modern audiences. Along the same lines of this, the more strongly critically-received film

(ZeffirellisRomeo and Juliet) was looked negatively upon for omitting a full 60% of the script

in favor of pacing (Downing 125).

These critical views are taken entirely from the surface: reviewers saw the MTV music

video style of rapid cuts and breakneck editing as nothing more than a ploy to try to simplify

Shakespeare down to a comprehensible level for the youth of the time. While this argument

holds much sway in the critical market, other film critics who look beyond the sucker punch

visuals argue that Luhrmanns rendering captures subtleties of Shakespeares script in ways

that other modern renditions have left out altogether (Downing 126). A strong example of this is

the often hyperbolized notion that Romeo Montague is an over-the-top deviant lover. In

actuality, a study of Shakespeares text reveals that his love falls more along the lines of

convention as opposed to deviance, with Juliet Capulet playing his antithesis in stance and

rhetoric (Downing 127). Whereas most productions ignore this aspect (some have been known to

completely remove Rosaline altogether, taking away from Romeos intended conventionality),

Luhrmann bravely arms Romeo with love and speech that is more fitting of Shakespeares

intentions.


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To deepen these parallels with the original play, Luhrmann also contrasts Romeos world

with the world he builds with his love for Juliet. The film opens with the [third] civil brawl

from the top of the play, following a ragtag gang of Montague men who behave in the same wild

ways one would expect to witness on television: they disregard rules and decency, and ultimately

have their actions culminate in a full shoot-out (Luhrmann 1996). This same editing and

behavior is common among scenes with the Montague men and even with Romeo. However, just

like how Juliet plays the opposite to Romeo, her world remains starkly different: In fact, her first

appearance in the production is of her head submerged in a sink full of water, staring peacefully

at the camera. Following the intense, war-ridden scenes leading up to her introduction, this

places Juliet out of the context of the initial conflict. As it was structured in the play, Juliet

consistently cleanses herself of the normal throughout the film because she separates herself

from the conventionality of Romeos verse and the craziness of the world around her (Downing

128). Luhrmanns Juliet, then, follows precisely what Shakespeares Juliet would do, according

to the text. Despite what many reviewers may have thought, Luhrmanns vision was clearly

closer to the text he adapted than all the other productions of Romeo and Juliet who turn the two

lovers into conventional lyric-spouting lovers.

Within the spectrum of culture, the adaptation process has the advantage of providing

relevance to a work that may have had its meaning diluted to a societys growing indifference to

the original subject matter. Over the years, many attempts to film Romeo and Julietor try to

adapt its story to a work have been attempted. Including Zeffirellis attempt to provide a

cinematic rendition of the play, movies such as Alpha and Omega, West Side Story, Triston and

Isolde, or even Gnomeo and Juliethave aimed to capture what many believe to be the essential

element of Shakespeares original work: two people of very different, often feuding, cultures fall


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in love and, though they are criticized or forbidden from it initially, the love eventually wins out

and cures the schism between the groups. This idealized view of the romantic story steers away

from what truly makes the play relevant: its strife and conflict in this modern world. Many

lauded Zefirellis Romeo and Julietbecause of its supposed authenticity when dealing with the

Bards work, staying true to what is traditionally expected of Shakespeare time periods and

interpretation, but becoming subversive to its own culture in the process (Hamilton 119). The

film may have stayed true to the inherently Shakespeare atmosphere, but failed to consider the

culture of its audience. Luhrmann, on the other hand, knows the culture he writes for and retold

the tale in a location that possesses the same working logic as the play. It had to be modern and

yet unfamiliar to bridge the gap between young viewer and Shakespeare, especially by

capitalizing on the concept of a world where love can still be so thwarted and endangered

(Hamilton 120). What modern audiences fail to connect with is the danger of war-torn Verona as

the two families wage battles and crimes against one-another. With the new modern location of

Verona Beach and the two-dimensional leaders of the feuding families appearing to be either

businessmen or mobsters, the danger (and thus, the love) became all the more real for people

living in this age.

Finally, in relation to the techniques actually used on screen, Luhrmanns manipulation of

mise-en-scene adds a depth to the film that allows the audience to, regardless of foreknowledge

of the play, understand what is being said and what the entire play means. The film exudes a

sense of visual shorthand that pervades through the almost clichd setting choices: an overtly

girly room for Juliet, a chaotic dining hall for the party scene, contrastingly simple scenes for the

lovers, and plenty of others make the romance and anger easy to follow and manage (Hamilton

121). Another approach Luhrmann has applied to using mise-en-scene effectively would be his


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attention to detail in allowing various allusions to Shakespeares text to speak freely for

themselves in the film. Segments such as Montague reaching for his gun labeled LONGSWORD

whilst yelling Give me my longsword, ho! and the various gesticulations by the actors to

vividly depict the situations and ironies they speak of and joke about effectively render the

otherwise confusing language into simple English for those who pay attention to details. This

careful construction makes the use of quick edits, rapid cuts, and illustrative imagery to present

the ideas spoken of and to remind the viewer that there is indeed method to the madness of

Shakespearean language in a modern setting.

Baz Luhrmanns William Shakespeares Romeo + Juliet speaks worlds to the younger

generations, explaining why the amazing box office results do not always match up with the

sometimes scathing and detrimental reviews. The film, despite appearing as a dumbing down

of the original text, presents itself intentionally as a cultural and visual adaptation to the viewers

patient enough to understand what is being shown. What Luhrmann has done well has been to

avoid the clichs held dear by the Shakespeare elite and bring the Bard down to exactly what he

was originally: popular culture. Though there will always be room for interpretation and will

always be a disconnect between what to come and what has passed, Luhrmann bridges the gap

between two radically different times with a rendition of a cultural masterpiece that may very

well stand as a testament to the chaotic and passionate nuances of our time.


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Works Cited

Downing, Crystal. "Misshapen Chaos of Well-Seeming Form: Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet."

Literature Film Quarterly 28.2 (2000): 125.Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30

Apr. 2011.

Guenther, Leah. "Luhrmann's Top 40 Shakespeare and the Crisis of Shakespearean

Consumption."Journal of American Culture (01911813) 22.1 (1999): 17.Academic

Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30 Apr. 2011.

Hamilton, Lucy. "Baz vs. the Bardolaters, Or Why William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet

Deserves Another Look."Literature Film Quarterly 28.2 (2000): 118.Academic Search

Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30 Apr. 2011.

Lyons, Donald. "Lights, camera, Shakespeare." Commentary 103.2 (1997): 57.Academic Search

Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30 Apr. 2011.

William Shakespeares Romeo + Juliet. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire

Danes. 20th Century Fox, 1996. DVD.

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