Romeo & Juliet
by Franco Zeffirelli
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: John McEnery, Leonard Whiting, Milo O'Shea, Olivia Hussey, Pat Heywood (II)Director: Franco Zeffirelli
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 138 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-05-23
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Paramount Home Video
Movie Reviews of Romeo & Juliet
Movie Review: Zeffirelli's adaptation is still the definitive film.
Summary: 5 Stars
Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli, 1968)
Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet has long been considered the definitive film adaptation of Shakespeare's play, and is considered by a number of critics one of the thousand best films ever made. It took two Oscars, for cinematography and costume design (both well deserved), and was also nominated for both Best Picture and Best Director. Despite cutting the play to less than two and a half hours (and making some risky decisions therein, most famously cutting a great deal of the "...it is the east, and Juliet is the sun..." monologue), Zeffirelli captured, at least in my opinion, most of what Shakespeare was on about here. Another risky move was casting two young, untried actors in the lead roles, Leonard Whiting (whose career in film was surprisingly brief, after which he went back to live theater) and Olivia Hussey (who is, of course, still in the midst of a long and busy film career). They're backed up by a number of other young and equally talented actors who have since gone on to remarkable film careers, most notably Michael York (Tybalt) and John McEnery (Mercutio). The acting here is sublime; there's nothing else to be said about it. The passion and the pageantry are exquisitely depicted, albeit in a more subdued manner than in Baz Luhrmann's more recent film version (which, unlike most admirers of this film, I am also quite fond of).
As an introduction to Shakespearean drama, I'm not sure there's anything to rival this. Wonderful. ****
Summary of Romeo & Juliet
Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was unique in its day for casting kids in the play's pivotal roles of, well, kids. Seventeen-year-old Leonard Whiting and 15-year-old Olivia Hussey play the titular pair, the Bard's star-crossed lovers who defy a running feud between their families in order to be together in love. Typically played on stage and in previous film productions by adult actors, the innocent look and rawness of Whiting and Hussey resonated at the time with a burgeoning youth movement from San Francisco to Prague. The tragic romance at the center of the story also clicked with anti-authority sentiments, but even without that, Zeffirelli scores points by validating the ideals and passions of strong-willed adolescents. Less successful are scenes requiring the actors to have a fuller grasp of the text, though the best thing going remains the unambiguous duel between Romeo and Tybalt (Michael York). Lavishly photographed by Pasquale de Santis on location in Italy, this Romeo and Juliet brought a different tone and dimension to a story that had become tiresome in reverential presentations. --Tom KeoghArt House & International DVD Video
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