Franco Zeffirelli And Baz Luhrmann's Romeo And Juliet

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illustrating
the violence occurring between the two wealthy families, the Montagues and the
Capulets. In Zeffirelli's film of "Romeo and Juliet," the prologue takes the
form of a dry narrator relating the story of the Montagues and Capulets over a
backdrop of an Italian city. For most modern viewers (especially teenagers),
the Luhrmann picture is fast-paced, keeping the spectator intrigued, while the
Zeffirelli picture is dreary and dull, an endless maze of long and boring
conversations, foreshadowed by the prologue. In Luhrmann's film, the actors,
instead of carrying swords with them, hide guns in their shirts and wield them
expertly. The death of Romeo and Juliet is (as always) blamed on the post
office, for not delivering the letter properly. And, to be politically correct,
Mercutio appears at the Capulets' ball dressed as a large woman. The actors in
Zeffirelli's version of Shakespeare wear colored tights and bulging blouses;
thus they appear more comical because they are ...

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