English I and English I Honors
Miss Gonzalez
Archimedean Upper Conservatory
Assignments for Romeo and Juliet films
Romeo and Juliet Assignment # 1: Film Study
Overview and Analytical Questions
Films for Analysis: Franco Zeffireli’s 1968 Romeo and Juliet and
Baz Luhrman’s 1996 William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
Having been exposed to more than one film version of Romeo and
Juliet, you will gain some insight into the filmmaker's art and
you will have the opportunity to study different interpretations
of the play and of major roles. The following questions refer to
the Zeffirelli and Luhrmann film versions; however, these
questions can be applied to other versions as well.
Zeffirelli and Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet
Zeffirelli's setting of Romeo and Juliet in Verona accepts the
historical and geographic locations provided by the play text.
As a result, we expect Shakespearean language and, where it is
not made redundant by visual access to costume, properties and
scenery, Elizabethan manners and conventions. In stark contrast,
Luhrmann has reinterpreted both time and place while maintaining
the language of the play text. The resulting film provides us
with access to modern day characters speaking in a rather
strange dialect of English. For some viewers this tends to
create a tension between audience and production that forces a
concentration on listening for meaning rather than watching for
action. The effect is similar to viewing an Australian film in
Canada or vice versa.
• What do you think? Which version do you prefer and why?
Film as a Product of its Historical Setting
In the late 1960s, major media concerns revolved around the
continuing battles between teenage gangs in Britain and the
increase in draft dodging and anti Vietnam involvement in
America. The musical impact of the Beatles on teen culture
equalled the impact of the protest songs of Bob Dylan; the
American National Guard had shot students protesting on campuses
at Kent State in Ohio and at Berkeley in California. The
President of the United States, John Kennedy, had been
assassinated and so had the African American civil rights
leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. Parental guidance of children
and challenges to traditional family values of obedience and
subservience had come into question following widespread
acceptance of a book on parenting by Dr Benjamin Spock.
When Zeffirelli directed Romeo and Juliet, the rights of Church
and State were in question from the generation born after the
Second World War. The age when childhood became adulthood was in
serious dispute from young people likely to be conscripted to
fight a war they did not understand on behalf of leaders they
were unwilling to trust. The issues and themes which underlie
the core of Romeo and Juliet were the focus of the generation.
Two generations later, and shortly after the Gulf War, which is
widely accepted as the first war ever completely stage managed
for the media, Luhrmann directed a media-focused version of the
same play. Again, many of the major concerns of the media had
been focused around family values and authority appearing to
have been rejected by the younger generation. Historically
responsive to the times, Luhrmann's interpretation is set within
a decaying social structure where appearance is more important
than substance, drug dependent teenage gangs apparently hold the
streets to ransom, sexuality is at least ambiguous in the face
of the AIDS epidemic and the simple values of love and
forgiveness seem, again, to have been lost forever.
• Why do you think Luhrmann has chosen to set the play in modern
America?
• How do the images of modern society at its worst (guns,
security guards, etc) affect your view of the story?
• Is your understanding of Romeo and Juliet altered
significantly?
The earlier part of Luhrmann's film contains some witty
references to others of Shakespeare's plays, for example,
Rosencranzky's beach shack, billboards with advertising slogans
taken from the plays (e.g. Prospero's Whisky "Such stuff as
dreams are made on"; Bullet Magazine — "Shoot forth Thunder").
These flash by so quickly that it is difficult to take them in.
• Why do you think Luhrmann has piled on the visual imagery in
this way?
There is a great deal of visual imagery relating to religion,
particularly the huge statue of Jesus which looms at various
points in the film.
• What is the effect of these visual references?
Opening the Film
Despite their vastly different approaches to film making and to
their interpretation of the play script, both Zeffirelli and
Luhrmann open their films with the prologue from the original
play as a voice over.
1. The Luhrmann title sequence introduces the characters in a
mixture of media 'hype' and more subtle information giving. The
characters are named in identifiable and contemporary terms as
their roles are established. How does Zeffirelli open his film?
2. Discuss the effectiveness of Luhrmann's title sequence in
providing an understanding of the setting, the plot and the key
players.
3. Compare the effectiveness of Luhrmann's title sequence with
that of Zeffirelli. What has Zeffirelli gained and what has he
lost from using a more conventional film opening?
4. The Shakespearean audience was used to listening rather than
viewing. In fact, before the audience settled, many may not have
been able to see the chorus delivering the prologue. What
information is provided by Zeffirelli's title sequence which is
not available in the prologue of the play?
5. By comparison of the opening sequences of Luhrmann and
Zeffirelli, discuss the differences between the worlds the two
Romeos are about to enter.
The huge statue of the Christ is first seen in the title
sequence of Luhrmann's film. Its representation of the power of
the Church over the lives of the people below is overshadowed by
the way the police and media helicopters move above and around
it. Zeffirelli's more traditional Church is across the square
from the entry through which the Prince's guard move to stop the
riot begun by the thumb biting insult.
1. Discuss the effectiveness of the two approaches in separating
and then highlighting the relative powers of Church and State in
the film versions.
2. In what ways are the two versions different from any
portrayal that might have been permitted in Shakespeare's times?
3. Design an alternative approach to establishing the difference
between Church and State powers taking advantage of the
interpretations of current events influencing world leaders and
their families for a film version to be released in 2007.
Cuts
1. Note the major cuts that Zeffirelli has made (e.g. much of
the remainder of Act IV after Juliet drinks the potion is cut;
the death of Paris in Act V is omitted). What cuts has Luhrmann
made? What is gained by such cuts? What is lost?
2. Examine the cuts to major speeches of both Romeo and Juliet.
Compare them with the complete speeches in the play.
Actors
1. Compare the actors playing Romeo and Juliet. Evaluate the
relative success of the actors in the roles.
2. Compare the interpretations of the difficult role of
Mercutio. Which actor's interpretation do you prefer? Why?
3. In Luhrmann's version, Tybalt appears much earlier in the
film than he does in the play. How is he portrayed? What does he
do and say? How is his presence important to the early action of
the film?
4. How does Luhrmann's Tybalt compare with Zeffirelli's?
5. In both films, the fight scene resulting in the death of
Mercutio is particularly well handled. Which version do you
prefer? Why?
6. Compare the ways in which the Friar Laurence is portrayed in
both films. Do you find Luhrmann's Friar Laurence credible?
Explain.
Scene analysis
Look closely at key scenes in the play and compare how they have
been treated by the film versions. Here is an example relating
to Act I, Scene V:
1. Do you agree with the way Zeffirelli and Luhrmann stages the
scene where Romeo and Juliet meet? Why or why not?
2. What do you think of the costuming? Does this give you a
better idea of the characters?
3. Why does Zeffirelli include the long love-song segment? Does
this work for you? Explain. What does Luhrmann include?
4. Look at how Zeffirelli and Luhrmann uses the camera in the
'kissing scene'. Describe shot by shot what they do.
5. Do you find Zeffirelli and Luhrmann's film version convincing
in terms of Romeo and Juliet's attraction to one another?
Explain.
6. How does Zeffirelli's treatment of this scene compare with
Luhrmann's? Which do you find the most effective?
The fatal last meeting
In the last fifteen minutes of the film, Luhrmann departs quite
strongly from the original play.
1. How did you feel at the end of the Luhrmann film?
2. Were you as affected by the play version?
3. How did Zeffirelli's final scene affect you? Is it as
effective as Luhrmann's?
4. Where does the final meeting of Juliet and Romeo take place
in the play? Where does it occur in the films?
5. Luhrmann dramatically reshapes the final death speech scene.
Describe this final meeting of the lovers in Luhrmann's film.
6. Is Luhrmann's version effective? How does it compare to
Zeffirelli's? Give reasons for you responses.
Updated, up tempo
In Luhrmann's film the language remains Shakespearean. How does
he resolve some of the difficulties involved in translating a
play set in the thirteenth century into the here and now? For
example, consider just these few points:
• Swords are not the weapon of choice for the modern gang
warrior. And, without swords, how is Romeo going to 'come
between Tybalt and Mercutio'?
• Apothecaries do not exist in modern times yet Romeo must
procure poison.
• A rigid class structure based on aristocracy and other classes
does not seem as relevant today. What's more, is it likely that
a young woman of the late twentieth century would feel the same
family pressures as the original Juliet in a time when women had
little freedom and no power? Can we believe that a modern Juliet
will feel the same pressure to conform as did Juliet in the
original play?
How did the director and screenplay writer resolve the dilemma
of setting Romeo and Juliet — complete with Shakespearean
language — in the late twentieth century? You might consider
these questions:
1. In the film, what is a sword?
2. Does Romeo visit an apothecary to procure his poison?
3. How has the apothecary been changed to make him believable in
modern times?
4. Do you believe in Juliet's response to her father's
insistence that she marry Paris?
5. Who is Paris? What is his position in the film?
6. Who is Prince of Verona? What is his position in the film?
Which version?
“Great truths need to be interpreted through the eyes of
successive generations if they are to retain their relevance”.
• Does this statement explain the popularity of the Luhrmann
version of Romeo and Juliet with the current generation of
younger teenagers? Does it mean that the Zeffirelli version is
no longer worth viewing?
Extension Tasks
Music
Music is used cleverly and constantly by both Zeffirelli and
Luhrmann to extend the mood of the play and to develop
relationships without the need for additional dialogue. The
theme from Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet won an Oscar for Nino
Rota. The central entertainment at Zeffirelli's masque is the
song that foreshadows the ending, “So dies the youth/So dies the
fairest maid”. Luhrmann portrays Mercutio as a nightclub
entertainer and several of the sequences depend on his talent as
an entertainer.
West Side Story presents an extreme example of the use of music
by interpreting the play as a stage musical. The filmed version
of the musical is readily available on videotape and provides a
challenging extension of the concept of translation from one
entertainment form to another.
• Consider the use of music by each film maker at critical
points in the story. How does the different interpretation of
each director provide him with options unavailable from the play
text?
Courtship and marriage
Although several of the issues associated with the marriage of
Romeo and Juliet can be equally discussed by reference to the
play text alone, reference to the filmed interpretations helps
us towards a powerful understanding of:
— the role of the nurse in Juliet's upbringing and in her death;
— the place of the arranged marriage in Elizabethan society and,
in some modern societies at differing social levels.
• Consider how the changing times during which the film
translations of Romeo and Juliet have been completed have
allowed their directors to extend the meaning of parenting
available from the play text.
The family feud
Romeo and Juliet contains some of the best Elizabethan insults
available from Shakespeare's play texts.
• Identify the insults, discuss how they are supposed to work
and consider whether the nature of the insult has been changed
by each of the filmmakers.
Gang warfare is presented quite differently by Zeffirelli and
Luhrmann: the musical West Side Story provides a further
alternative.
• Consider whether the social commentary on gang warfare is as
important as the expression of tragedy for the lovers and
suggest an alternative translation in which Romeo and Juliet
become minor characters in the production. Suggest a name for
your new film and identify the lead characters.