Baz Luhrmann Romeo+Juliet (1996).The Best Film Adaptation of Shakespeare - Essay Example

? Romeo+Juliet the best film adaptation of Shakespeare Introduction Shakespeare is one of the most known playwrights in the world. It is very interesting to penetrate into the depths of his critical reflections of the Middle Age reality and refer to his innovative English language, which is known as the modern classic English language. In order to raise the interest of the young generation in the creative heritage of Shakespeare, it is necessary to adapt his plays in different sources of the mass media. Filmic adaptations are the most important and interesting sources of Shakespearean plays’ transformations in the modern context. Shakespeare raises the most crucial themes of all times in the play, such as love and a conflict of generations. The most popular and famous adaptation of the play for the modern generation is the film by Baz Luhrmann Romeo+Juliet (1996). There is a great difference between the director’s and playwright’s vision of his main characters, but it is very important and cannot be denied that the director managed to transfer the “spirit” of the play. A feeling of love, kindness and devotedness of two beloved young people are evident in the film. Luhrmann’s filmic adaptation of Shakespearean play “Romeo and Juliet” On the one hand, there is a clear audience of the filmic adaptations of Shakespeare, which is "teen-Shakespeare." In the critical reviews of this film, the character of Juliet often does not comply much with the “Petrarchan mistress” (Worthen 2003, p. 34). In the first scene Juliet was costumed as a Botticelli angel at the Capulet ball. In the original lines from the Shakespearean play, tenderness of Juliet’s beauty is underlined as well: If I profane with my unworthiest hand    This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this,­- My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand    To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. (Act I, Scene 5) With these words it is evident that Romeo shivers, when he sees Juliet. There is a great and unbelievable unity of tenderness and beauty of youth and womanhood in this little woman. We can claim that the director embodies the most relevant characteristics of Juliet, developed by Shakespeare. Moreover, Luhrmann’s film is full of postmodernist and the Christian symbols are transformed into designer ornaments. The director positions Shakespeare’s as the author of the millennium. The greatness of Shakespeare is preserved in the language of the play and the playwright becomes widely popularized and there is a young and “relentless, in-your-face MTV visual style and soundtrack” in the film (Downing 2000, p. 126). This fact is often criticized, but in such a way the director brings closer different aspects of classical play to the modern audience by means of tendencies, which are the most appropriate for them. Claire Danes's Juliet is the ideal Victorian Juliet. Juliet in the film is the golden mean between Shakespearean Juliet and the modern teenager. Therefore, the director smoothes sharp corners between the ironic representations of the modern Juliet and an unshakeable Shakespearean Juliet. Shakespeare put an emphasis on the emotional contents of Juliet, but in the recent film adaptation of the Shakespearean play, Juliet is less emotionally loaded for sure (Starks & Lehmann, 2002). There is a clear intention of the director to remove Juliet from the screen, when she is expected to show her inner emotional charge. There is the same dramatic load of Juliet mother’s role, when she enters the room in the first scene both in the film and in the play. Her mother makes Juliet to speak briefly and the rest of the film Juliet behaves in such a way. There is a clear tolerance, stability, motionless and silence in Juliet. In such a way, the director of the film intentionally shifted accents from her mobility and activity to calmness and tenderness. Romeo is on the foreground in the film, and camera intentionally is looking for the boy (Scott 2008, p. 138). These intentional transformations of the director can be explained in the different manner: on the one hand, it is clearly seen that it is necessary to promote male dominance in the modern world. On the other hand, the film director shows that modern men should be more open and emotional in their feelings, because these features are considered to be natural of women, as a rule. Shakespearean play was targeted on the audience of the middle ages and the Luhrmann’s play is focused on the modern audience. The references to the relevant historical events of time periods of the play’s adaptation were mediated by the appropriate jokes at Shakespearean times and allusions for historical events and in the Luhrmann’s adaptation of the play, where he provides references of the modern popular culture. There are different representations of different events of the play. For example, if to compare the introductory scene of the Act I, there is a dialogue between Samson and Gregory. Samson says: “A dog of the house of Montague moves me” (Act I, Scene 1, lines 5-7). They argue, whose master is better and then they start to fight. Benvolio stops their arguing. In the film adaptation Benvolio yells: “A dog of the house of Capulet moves me”. One of Montague boys bites his thumb. In further stages of the film, the boys are fighting not with swords, but with pistols, in the streets with a lot of watchers. When Benvolio entreats the Capulets and Montague boys to lower their weapons, they have swords instead of guns. There is a clear modernization of background, costumes, and the Montague boys are parading in the Hawaiian shirts, of course, these clothes is not the traditional Elizabethan wear. The agency is assigned to Romeo in the film by Luhrmann. Juliet’s words are removed from the scene of Romeo’s death. The director of the film asks himself: “Do you accept the revelation of the human condition that Shakespeare achieved 400 years ago can be relevant and be freed again today?” (Hamilton 2000, p. 120). There is an evident intention of the director to draw the events and the main characters of the play closer to the contemporaries. This tendency cannot be criticized too strictly. On the one hand, the director of the film intends to transfer the most crucial themes in the filmic adaptation, such as love, devotion, courage and peace. That is why it is too difficult for the youth of 90s and current young generation to grasp these themes without a certain degree of modernization. Shakespeare pushed forward ideas of love of Juliet, but the intensity of her feelings is set on the background of the film. Shakespearean Juliet is a more devoted and suffering girl, but Luhrmann’s Juliet is positioned as an ideal Victorian Juliet. Her character in the film embodies time speed and her emotional condition is constantly changing. It is evident that this girl is so strong, that she can bear her suffering in her heart. In such a way, Luhrmann promotes the image of a strong and a courageous modern teenage girl. Before Romeo’s death, Juliet wakes up and in case he saw her before drinking a poison, there will be no fatal outcome. There is a strong interrelation between the issues of the bad luck and humans’ activity. Shakespeare underlined fatality of bad luck, but Luhrmann underlined sluggishness of the human nature (Lichtenfels & Hunter 2004, p. 7). Such a conception cannot be underestimated in the modern context, because very much in the modern world depends on the individual and the personal development of every individual in the society depends on the personal ability to “master one’s fate”. Shakespearean beliefs of fatality are appropriate for the middle ages and his writings reflect this specific characteristic very well. Nevertheless, this issue is not of a great interest and importance for the contemporaries, who are believed to be the masters of their destinies and lives. In accordance with the critics, who discussed Juliet’s death in the Shakespearean play: “To bring the curtain down on Juliet’s death, an ending dear to the Victorians, borders on the melodramatic and sacrifices Shakespeare's finely held balance between the personal tragedy of the lovers and the larger social implications of the feud" (). It can be said that Luhrmann adds something more into the context of the social integration. He positions the main characters as the victims of the social and cultural environment. There is more emphasis made on retribution in the film. Romeo and Juliet are also the victims of their parents, who taught them to hate other people in the world and in the result of such teachings, they died. Therefore, the director adapted the Shakespearean ideas in the modern context in order to teach the modern generation the most crucial issues and themes of the modern society. Shakespeare did the same when he wrote the play. There are many differences and different accents can be experienced in the play and the filmic adaptation. For example, Shakespeare underlined the overprotective nature of the Montague and Capulet parents. Capulet parents are more objective and it can be seen in when the father of the family describes Rome in the following way: “Verona brags of him/To be a virtuous and well-governed youth" (Act I, Scene 5, lines 66-7). Thus, Romeo and Juliet want to escape from the cruel and over-protective world of their parents and create their own reality of love. The modern generation is too independent as well. The issues of children rights’ protection are high on the agenda in the modern world. Moreover, the issue of suicide among the young generation is another crucial theme for discussion. The film’s director underlined the challenging emotional worlds of both Romeo and Juliet and made an emphasis on the importance of in-time understanding and support of the teenagers. The conflict of generations is also underlined by Shakespeare and he talks about the relevance of parents’ attention to the feelings of teenagers. Many centuries have passed since the time of Shakespeare, but the issue of generations’ conflict is relevant today as well. The fact that the film’s director drew parallels between Lady Capulet, Madonna and Vivien Leigh, underlines that this heroine is a victim of the modern culture. She cares more about appearance than about her children. Mercutio in the sequined dress of a drag queen on the ball in the Capulet house signifies his outcast nature. Actually, the costumes on the ball in the Capulet party signify the main characteristic of every character. Lady Capulet looks like Cleopatra, the old Capulet looks like Caesar et cetera. Luhrmann discusses the Shakespearean themes in his film as well, but he is much more focused on allusions, mixture of genres et cetera. For example, we are reminded of Beverly Hills 90210 instead of events happening in Verona. He chose this background, because the director was aware of the fact that the generation of 90s associates the problems of youth with the events happening in soap operas, such as in Beverly Hills, for example. There is a great emphasis made on the background by the director of the film, but when Romeo and Juliet are in the foreground, all those allusive billboards and many other external imaginative factors are omitted. When the lovers are in the pool, Luhrmann underlines the purity of their feelings and discards the external chaos, noise and many other disturbing factors. The strength and bravery of these two young individuals is positioned on the foreground and a freedom of choice of the young generation is underlined in such a way. Shakespeare shows the neat epilogue, but in Lurmann’s film the purity of feelings and emotions of two young lovers is wrapped in the white sheets together with their dead bodies and broadcasted on TV ()Walker 2000, p. 134). Therefore, the director shows the speed and pace of the modern society and shows that very often modern people have not time for pure feelings and emotions and the power of the everlasting love may disappear in the daily turmoil of the modernity. Conclusion Luhrmann has mixed many contexts in his film and this post modernistic creation reflects his own understanding of Shakespeare, but he tries to transfer a theatrical reflection of the Shakespearean play. Therefore, the modern audience has a chance not only to get acquainted with the literary masterpiece of Shakespeare, who is shown in the modern context, but also develop creative imagination of the modern generation and to embody Shakespearean images in the modern popular culture contexts. Shakespearean verse is transformed in the filmic adaptation of Luhrmann and the audience has a chance to adapt the senses of the great classical playwright and the modern audience has an opportunity to get acquainted with the modern interpretations of themes of love and generations’ gap. References Downing, Crystal, 2000, "Misshapen Chaos of Well-seeming Form: Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet," Literature/Film Quarterly, 28, p. 125+. Hamilton, Lucy, 2000, "Baz Vs. the Bardolaters, or Why William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet Deserves Another Look," Literature/Film Quarterly, 28, p. 118+. Lichtenfels, Peter, and Lynette Hunter, 2004, "Negotiations between Text and Stage in Romeo and Juliet", Shakespeare Bulletin, 22, p. 5+. Scott, Lindsey, 2008, ""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, p. 137+. Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. [online] Available from: [Accessed May 03, 2012] Starks, Lisa S. and Courtney Lehmann, eds. 2002, The Reel Shakespeare: Alternative Cinema and Theory, Madison, NJ, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Walker, Elsie, 2000, "Pop Goes the Shakespeare: Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet," Literature/Film Quarterly, 28, p. 132+. Worthen, W. B, 2003, Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance, New York, Cambridge University Press. Read More