Romeo + Juliet

For the ballet Romeo + Juliet, see Romeo + Juliet (ballet).

Romeo + Juliet
Theatrical poster for William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
Directed by	Baz Luhrmann
Written by	William Shakespeare (Play) Craig Pearce (Screenplay) Baz Luhrmann (Screenplay)
Produced by	Baz Luhrmann Gabriella Martinelli
Starring	Leonardo DiCaprio Claire Danes John Leguizamo Harold Perrineau Pete Postlethwaite Paul Sorvino Brian Dennehy Paul Rudd Vondie Curtis-Hall Miriam Margolyes Jesse Bradford Dash Mihok
Cinematography	Donald McAlpine
Edited by	Jill Bilcock
Music by	Nellee Hooper (Composer) Craig Armstrong (Composer) (Orchestrator) (Conductor) Marius De Vries (Composer)
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	November 1, 1996
Running time	120 mins.
Language	English
Budget	$14,500,000 (estimated)

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet is an Academy Award nominated 1996 American film adaptation of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. It was directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the eponymous roles.

The film is a very drastic modernisation of Shakespeare's play designed to appeal to a younger modern audience. The warring families (the Montagues and the Capulets) are represented as warring business empires, swords are replaced by guns etc. Despite the adaptation, the film retains Shakespeare's original dialogue, albeit edited down for modern cinema audiences. Keeping the original dialogue in has proven to be a great educational tool for classes that study the play at schools, with modern children connecting with it more than perhaps the play's other film adaptations.

Overview

The plot has some minor changes from the original script:

• Certain lines are omitted. For example, Juliet's soliloquy is recycled, and she wordlessly commits suicide with Romeo's gun.
• Certain lines are moved from their original context. For example, in the death scene of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet's lines are moved so that Juliet wakes as Romeo is drinking the poison, and he dies in her arms.
• Certain lines of dialogue are moved from one speaker to another. For example, in the initial scene, the lines of the Montague and Capulet servants are swapped, until Tybalt enters the scene. Some (but very few) lines were added to the movie.
• At times whole scenes are omitted, such as Romeo's killing of Paris, but this scene is often cut from stage productions as well.

Much of the film's story takes place in the fictional Los Angeles area town or suburb called "Verona Beach", which is based on the real life Venice Beach (a play on the fact that both are cities in Italy). As with the play, a brief part of the film takes place in a location known as Mantua, which is depicted as a desert-like hinterland.

Verona Beach is the center of a corporate war between two leaders of industry, "Montague" and "Capulet". Prince Escalus is renamed "Captain Prince", and instead of being Prince of Verona, he is the Chief of the Verona Beach Police Department. His relationship to Paris (called "Dave Paris" in the movie) is removed from the film.

In addition to the characters being updated, many of the props were replaced with analogous contemporary props. In place of swords, the characters wield guns with fictional brand names like "Sword 9mm" or "Dagger"; Lord Montague's "Longsword" is a South African MAG-7 shotgun. Instead of chasing Tybalt on foot, Romeo and Tybalt engage in a car chase. Romeo crashes out Tybalt's car by the central fountain of the city, during which Romeo presses the barrel of Tybalt's pistol to his head and asks him to end his life. Tybalt refuses and in a resurgence of anger Romeo kills Tybalt with his own custom handgun. Although most of the fights are done with guns instead of swords, Mercutio's death comes at the hands of Tybalt wielding a large shard of glass found on the beach. Mercutio's "Queen Mab" is an ecstasy-like drug in the form of a pill that Romeo takes before attending the Capulet party. Friar Lawrence gives the letter for Romeo in Mantua to a postal service called "Post Haste".

Production

Most of the film was shot in Mexico City, Mexico, but other parts were shot in parts of Miami. A section of the film was filmed during a real hurricane, causing the stage producers to rebuild the set.

Casting

Leonardo DiCaprio was Luhrmann's first choice for the part of Romeo; the casting of Juliet however was a lengthy process. Originally Baz Luhrmann had chosen Natalie Portman to play the part of Juliet. Portman went as far as to fly down to Sydney to shoot some footage, after shooting a few scenes the producers felt she was too young to play the part. According to Portman, she stated that the producers thought that the footage looked like DiCaprio was "molesting" her. Eventually Luhrmann agreed that the age difference between the two actors wouldn't work with the film. Portman withdrew from the film and filming was halted to find another actress for the part. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt were the two front-runners to replace Portman. Gellar couldn't take the part because of her commitments to the soap series All My Children. Hewitt was then cast in the role, but during rehearsals the director started to feel that the movie wouldn't work with her in the movie. He then began to feel that she didn't look "modern" enough for the part. Reese Witherspoon was then offered the part, but she couldn't take it as well because of prior commitments. Jodie Foster, who worked with Claire Danes in the film Home For The Holidays, suggested her to audition for the part, Danes did one audition and she was hired later that day.

Cast

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo Montague
• Claire Danes as Juliet Capulet
• John Leguizamo as Tybalt Capulet
• Harold Perrineau as Mercutio
• Brian Dennehy as Ted Montague
• Dash Mihok as Benvolio Montague
• Christina Pickles as Caroline Montague
• Paul Sorvino as Fulgencio Capulet
• Diane Venora as Gloria Capulet
• Miriam Margolyes as Nurse Angelica
• Paul Rudd as Dave Paris
• Pete Postlethwaite as Friar Lawrence
• Vondie Curtis-Hall as Captain Escalus Prince
• Jesse Bradford as Balthasar
• M. Emmet Walsh as Apothecary
• Zak Orth as Gregory
• Jamie Kennedy as Sampson

Response

Financially, the film was very successful, grossing USD$147 million worldwide at the box office on a USD$14.5 million budget. The film premiered November 1, 1996 in the United States and Canada in 1,276 theaters and grossed $11.1 million its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office. It went on to gross $46.3 million in the United States and Canada.

Critics gave the film generally positive reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 74% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 38 reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times disliked the film, giving it 2 stars and said "This production was a very bad idea", writing "I have never seen anything remotely approaching the mess that the new punk version of Romeo & Juliet makes of Shakespeare's tragedy." Ebert wrote that Pete Postlethwaite and Miriam Margolyes were "the only actors in the film who seem completely at home" and said "In one grand but doomed gesture, writer-director Baz Luhrmann has made a film that (a) will dismay any lover of Shakespeare, and (b) bore anyone lured into the theater by promise of gang wars, MTV-style."

The film won several awards. At the Berlin International Film Festival in 1997, Leonardo DiCaprio won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor and director Baz Luhrmann won the Alfred Bauer Award. Luhrmann was also nominated for the Golden Bear Award for Best Picture.

Leonardo DiCaprio won Favorite Actor and Claire Danes won Favorite Actress in a Romance at the 1997 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. At the 1997 MTV Movie Awards, Danes won Best Female Performance. DiCaprio was nominated for Best Male Performance, and DiCaprio and Danes were both nominated for Best Kiss and Best On-Screen Duo. At the 51st BAFTA Film Awards, Baz Luhrmann won the award for Best Direction. Luhrmann and Craig Pearce won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Nellee Hooper won the award for Best Film Music. And Catherine Martin won the award for Best Production Design. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Sound.

At the 69th Academy Awards, Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch were nominated for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration.

Music

The film made use of modern alternative rock and pop music coupled with a dramatic symphonic score by Nellee Hooper, Craig Armstrong, and Marius De Vries. The film's soundtrack was also noted for featuring choral renditions of the songs "When Doves Cry" and "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" performed by Quindon Tarver.

The demo version of Evanescence's song Tourniquet feautures a clip from the movie in the bridge, with Juliet screaming "I long to die!"

The soundtrack album to the film was issued in two volumes, with the first release containing most of the songs from the film and Volume 2 containing the original score.

Although the film featured the Radiohead song "Exit Music (For a Film)" in the closing credits, the song did not appear on Volume 1; "Talk Show Host", a different Radiohead song appeared instead.

A number of hit singles resulted from the soundtrack, including "Lovefool" by The Cardigans, "Kissing You" by Des'ree, "Young Hearts Run Free" covered by Kym Mazelle and Quindon Tarver's remixed version of "When Doves Cry". Tarver's rendition of "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" was later used in Luhrmann's "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" single.

The soundtrack was a popular and solid seller, and was especially successful in Luhrmann's native Australia, where it was the second highest selling album in Australia in 1997, going five times Platinum in sales. A 10th Anniversary release of the soundtrack with bonus tracks also eventuated.

References

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Further reading

• Lehmann, Courtney. "Strictly Shakespeare? Dead Letters, Ghostly Fathers, and the Cultural Pathology of Authorship in Baz Luhrmann's 'William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet'." Shakespeare Quarterly. 52.2 (Summer 2001) pp. 189-221.

External links

• Official website
• Romeo + Juliet at IMDb
• Romeo + Juliet at Rotten Tomatoes
• Romeo + Juliet at Box Office Mojo
• Romeo + Juliet at AllMovie