Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet Sex, drugs, and violence are usually a potent combination, and only William Shakespeare could develop them into a masterful, poetic, and elegant In the play, "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," all these aspects ofteenage life absorb the reader or watcher. It is understood that Hollywoodwould try to imitate this masterpiece on screen, and it has done so in twofilms: Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 "Romeo and Juliet" and Baz Luhrmann's 1996"William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." The updated Luhrmann picture bestcaptures the essence of Shakespeare for the present-day viewer. Through theingenious use of modernization and location, while preserving Shakespeareanlanguage, the spirit of Shakespeare emerges to captivate a large audience.Shakespeare's plays were designed to adapt to any audience: with this inmind, Baz Luhrmann created a film that applies to the modern audience throughthis updating. Luhrmann modernizes "Romeo and Juliet," through constantalterations of the props, which entice the audience into genuinely feeling thespirit of Shakespeare. First, the movie starts with an prologue masked as anews broadcast on television. This sets the scene of the play by illustratingthe violence occurring between the two wealthy families, the Montagues and theCapulets. In Zeffirelli's film of "Romeo and Juliet," the prologue takes theform of a dry narrator relating the story of the Montagues and Capulets over abackdrop of an Italian city. For most modern viewers (especially teenagers),the Luhrmann picture is fast-paced, keeping the spectator intrigued, while theZeffirelli picture is dreary and dull, an endless maze of long and boringconversations, foreshadowed by the prologue. In Luhrmann's film, the actors,instead of carrying swords with them, hide guns in their shirts and wield themexpertly. The death of Romeo and Juliet is (as always) blamed on the postoffice, for not delivering the le...
