William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
by Baz Luhrmann
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Claire Danes, Harold Perrineau, John Leguizamo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Pete PostlethwaiteDirector: Baz Luhrmann
Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
Producer: Baz Luhrmann
Writer: Baz Luhrmann
Producer: Catherine Martin
Producer: Gabriella Martinelli
Producer: Jill Bilcock
Writer: Craig Pearce
Writer: William Shakespeare
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-01-14
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
Movie Review: Kids Understand It.
Summary: 5 Stars
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008G7UJ/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_img
I have a doctorate in English and my husband has two master's degrees. So when our high school daughter wanted to go to home school, we agreed. For the most part things went smoothly except for mathematics, which none of us understand. But when we got to Romeo and Juliet and I showed the usual Olivia Hussey version, our daughter could not comprehend it. In total bafflement, she kept asking, "But they're nice, rich, upper-class people. Why didn't they just let their kids marry each other?"
One day our drama major grown daughter showed up at our house and announced that she was taking our youngest daughter to a movie. They got home three hours later and our dramatic daughter said, "Now come on, YOU'RE going to see this movie."
She took us to the gangsta version of Romeo and Juliet, and we were both extremely impressed. When we got home, we discussed the play with our teenager, and now she understood it perfectly. There are numerous gangs in our neighborhood, and not too long before two friends of hers had killed each other a block from our church while our meetings were in progress.
Get this, anybody who disapproves: There were gangs in Shakespeare's day. There were gangs in King Solomon's day; the Book of Proverbs specifically mentions gang signs made with the hands. There is nothing new about gangs. And the Montagues and Capulets were gangsters, even if they were rich, upper-class gangsters.
Our daughter, to our amusement, kept dragging her friends to see the movie, until we managed to get a copy of it at home, and then she brought her friends to watch it at home.
I do not claim that she became an instant drama addict. She did not. She'd rather watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She never did understand why we often bought several different film editions of some plays. She could see that they were different, but she didn't and apparently couldn't get the concept of dramaturgy. She never could understand why we didn't know that Ophelia was pregnant until Mel Gibson told us. I went back and reread the play, and by golly, he was right. She was pregnant, and it's perfectly clear in the text. But she couldn't see that, either.
But my point is that if Shakespeare were alive today, and knew what was gong on in the United States, he'd guffaw at the Olivia Hussey version, and he'd be delighted with the gangsta version, because it says what he wanted to say.
This is well dramaturged (if that's a word), well cast, well directed, well acted, and has wonderful special effects, such as the name of the automatic pistols the gangsters were using. (No, I'm not going to tell you. Go see for yourself.)
I recommend this play to anybody who wants to teach it to his or her own child. I would fast-forward through the transvestite stripper scene, which was totally extraneous to the plot and slowed the movie down, but with that one exception, I would show it. Of course I'd have to give parents the right to opt their children out, if I wanted to show it at high school, but remember that today Romeo and Juliet both would be in high school.
I'd give this nine points if the scale went up to ten. I'd cut one point for that stripper scene. But I don't feel it's worth cutting one whole star for one unnecessary and obnoxious scene.
Summary of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 12/26/2006Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom) takes a shot at reinventing Shakespeare's story of star-crossed lovers as a visual pastiche inspired by MTV imagery, Hong Kong action-picture clichés, and Luhrmann's own taste for deliberate, gaudy excess. The result is explosive chaos, both in terms of bullets and visual sensibility, which some may find impossible to stick with for more than a few minutes. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes play the leads, though not with much distinction, while Pete Postlethwaite makes a huge impression as this movie's version of Friar Laurence. The film is successful in spots, but overall its fever-dream game plan is difficult to ride out. --Tom Keogh
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