WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (1996) USA, 117 mins
THE CREDITS: Directed by Baz Luhrmann; Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino
THE VERDICT: Bizarre isn't the word, but it's still a reasonably successful re-working of an immortal classic.
THE RATING (Out of 5): * * * 1/2
Now here's an odd film! I almost still don't quite know what to make of it. You can almost hear the initial discussions of the studio on deciding to make this film --
Producer #1: "Hey, dude, I found like this waaay old play by some dude named Willy Shakespeare and it's far out!"
Producer #2: "Wow, dude! You've just given me the cooolest idea! Why don't we like do a film about it!"
Producer #1: "Yeah! That'd be bodacious! But it's set in these like prehistoric times with all this well-weird speech!"
Producer #2: "Well, I guess we could like...set it in modern times!"
Producer #1: "No, make it the future - that way it'll look most triumphant!"
Producer #2: "Yeah, and we could cast like two reeeeally good-looking actors in the title roles, and have lots of loud music and funky camera movements..."
Producer #1: "And lots of explosions and car chases and guns and drugs and more explosions! But what will we do about all this weird dialogue? Should we get some dude to translate it?"
Producer #2: "Nah! That'll take too much time, let's just leave it as it is! Oh, this film is going to be sooooo cool!"
Cynical - moi?! Seriously, I don't see a much higher line of thought than that going into this. Do they pull it off? Yes, I think they do.
First of all, it's just bizarre seeing Shakespeare done with drugs, guns, car chases and police helicopters! But the most striking thing about the film is Baz Luhrmann's off-beat directing. He's obviously going for fast 'n' furious, and that it most certainly is - never more so than the film's opening scenes. Frankly he goes far too over-the-top - the camera-work is dizzyingly frenetic going on incoherent. It's certainly visually stunning, and I mean that in quite a literal sense! He almost gives the impression of a director gone completely insane! Despite this, his approach is sometimes quite stylish, sometimes funny, sometimes annoying.
Thankfully Luhrmann calms down a bit once we get deeper into the film, though the whole thing remains more than a little excessive. From the costumes, to the sets, lighting - and even the performances - everything seems to be done deliberately over-the-top. Is this to make it feel "operatic"? And why hasn't the dialogue been updated along with the setting? Is there some special significance? And what's with the "apocalyptic look", anyway? Just a few of the questions that popped into mind while I watched this.
The first half of the film left me grappling with the questions and musings above. Despite the delightfully big, bold and flamboyant party scenes, where Romeo and Juliet first meet, I felt the first hour or so was a little choppy - Luhrmann seems to be concentrating so hard on making the film look funky that he seems to neglect the actual storyline itself - almost as if the whole Romeo and Juliet affair is an afterthought. However, once things start to go wrong - the chain of events that lead to the inevitable tragedy - that the film really starts to find its feet.
The film's second half kicks into gear with the violent, rather excessive scenes where the Capulet Tybalt murders Mercutio, and in a fit of rage Romeo kills Tybalt. Luhrmann's directing actually starts to prove quite effective; ranging from his adept handling of the build-up to Juliet's faked death, and the final tomb scene, which Luhrmann, to his credit, manages tenderly and poignantly. It's this closing scene that makes the film - it's moving, stirring and perfectly captures the tragedy of the story. The final pull-back shot is beautifully executed.
Haven't mentioned the performances yet! Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes make a gorgeous-looking Romeo and Juliet, and they handle their roles beautifully. DiCaprio gives one of his strongest performances - not only does he succeed in delivering the dialogue convincingly, but he propels emotion at the screen with real feeling - ranging from his pain at Mercutio's death to his rage toward Tybalt, and his innate pain and sorrow at Juliet's death. If anything he perhaps over-plays it a little, but that doesn't matter because everything else about the film is! Danes is equally fine as Juliet, though she doesn't really get much to sink her teeth into until near the end. I'm not actually too sure about the resonance of much of the scenes they had together - didn't seem to be that much spark, particularly considering that these are supposed to be literature's most infamous lovers. Still, as I said above, the final scene is every bit as tragic and heart-breaking as it ought to be.
Summing up; it took a while to get used to Luhrmann's rather crazy directing-style, and I still have some reservations about why he makes certain choices. You almost feel as if he spend too much time making the film look good while neglecting the actual thrust of the story - the romance. Still, it's hard to lose when you're using one of the greatest plays ever written, and the performances are good. All in all, I think this is a rather successful adaptation of Shakespeare's classic play, designed for a nineties' audience. Not perfect, but still quite good.
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Review written by and (c) Rory B Mackay, 1998
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