Romeo + Juliet


William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet is a 1996 romantic crime film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. It is a modernized adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, albeit still using Shakespearean English. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles of two teenagers who fall in love, despite their being members of feuding families. Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Miriam Margolyes, Harold Perrineau, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino and Diane Venora also star in supporting roles. It is the third major film version of the play, following adaptations by George Cukor in 1936 and by Franco Zeffirelli in 1968.
The film was released on November 1, 1996, by 20th Century Fox. It was met with generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $147 million against its $14.5 million budget. At the 47th Berlin International Film Festival in 1997, DiCaprio won the Silver Bear for Best Actor and Luhrmann won the Alfred Bauer Prize. At the 69th Academy Awards, Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch were nominated for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration. In 2005, the film was included on the BFI list of the "50 films you should watch by the age of 14".
The film was also re-released in Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy DVD box set in 2002 together with Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge!.

Plot

In Verona Beach, the Capulets and Montagues are two rival business empires. The animosity of the older generation—Fulgencio and Gloria Capulet and Ted and Caroline Montague—is felt by their younger relatives. A shootout occurs between Montague Benvolio, Romeo's cousin, and Capulet Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, creating chaos in the city. The Chief of Police, Captain Prince, arrests Benvolio and Tybalt before reprimanding the families, warning them that if such an event occurs again, their lives "shall pay the forfeit of the peace".
Benvolio and Romeo learn of a Capulet party that evening, which they decide to gate-crash. Romeo agrees on hearing that Rosaline, with whom he is madly in love, is attending. They meet their friend, Mercutio, who has tickets to the party, and Romeo takes ecstasy as they proceed to the Capulet mansion.
The effects of the drug and the party overwhelm Romeo, who goes to the restroom. There he sees and meets Juliet, and the two instantly fall in love, both unaware of who the other is. Tybalt spots Romeo and vows to kill him for trespassing into his family's home.
After Romeo leaves the party, he and Juliet each learn that they belong to the feuding families, but he returns to propose to her. She tells him that if he sends word by the following day, they will be betrothed. The next day, Romeo asks Father Laurence to marry them, and he agrees. Romeo passes the word on via Juliet's nurse, and they soon get married.
Tybalt encounters Mercutio and Romeo at the beach. Romeo attempts to make peace, but Tybalt assaults him. Mercutio intervenes and batters Tybalt, and is about to kill him when Romeo stops him. Tybalt takes the opportunity to fatally wound Mercutio, who curses both houses before dying. Enraged, Romeo chases after the fleeing Tybalt and shoots him dead, avenging Mercutio's death.
Captain Prince banishes Romeo from the city, so he goes into hiding with Father Laurence. The nurse arrives and tells him that Juliet is waiting for him. Romeo climbs Juliet's balcony and they consummate their marriage, with him departing the next morning. Meanwhile, Fulgencio decides Juliet will marry Dave Paris, the governor's son.
The next morning, Gloria informs Juliet that she is to marry Paris at St. Peter's Church. When Juliet refuses, Fulgencio physically assaults her and threatens to disown her if she doesn't accept it. She runs away and seeks out Father Laurence, imploring him to help her, while threatening to commit suicide. He gives her a potion that will let her fake her own death, after which she will be placed within the Capulet vault to awaken 24 hours later.
Father Laurence vows to inform Romeo of the plot via overnight letter, whereupon the latter will sneak into the vault. Once reunited with Juliet, the two will escape to Mantua, the remote trailer park in the desert where Romeo has been hiding out. However, Romeo does not see the delivered letter so, believing Juliet to be dead, buys a vial of poison from an apothecary.
Romeo enters the church where Juliet lies and consumes the poison just as Juliet wakes up. Distraught over his death, she shoots herself in the head with his gun, falling down beside his lifeless body. As the bodies of both Romeo and Juliet are being loaded onto ambulances, the parents of both houses arrive at the scene. Captain Prince approaches their fathers, berating them both for the deaths of their children that their foolish feud has caused.

Cast

;The House of Montague
;The House of Capulet
  • Claire Danes as Juliet Capulet
  • Paul Sorvino as Fulgencio Capulet, Juliet's father
  • Diane Venora as Gloria Capulet, Juliet's mother
  • John Leguizamo as Tybalt, Juliet's cousin
  • Vincent Laresca as Abra, Juliet's cousin
  • Carlos Martín Manzo Otálora as Petruchio, Juliet's cousin
  • Miriam Margolyes as Nurse, Juliet's nanny
;Others
  • Harold Perrineau as Mercutio, Romeo's best friend
  • Pete Postlethwaite as Father Laurence, the priest who marries Romeo and Juliet
  • Paul Rudd as Dave Paris, the governor's son and Juliet's fiancé
  • Vondie Curtis-Hall as Captain Prince, the chief of police
  • M. Emmet Walsh as Apothecary
  • Quindon Tarver as Choir Boy, the singer at Romeo and Juliet's wedding
  • Edwina Moore as the anchorwoman / newsreader, who opens the movie, reading the prologue, and later assumes the role of the Chorus.
Natalie Portman had been cast as Juliet but, during rehearsals, it was thought that she looked too young for the part, and the footage looked as though DiCaprio was "molesting" her. Luhrmann stated that Portman was too young at the time, and made DiCaprio look older than intended. He was 21 at the time of filming and Portman was only 14.
After Sarah Michelle Gellar turned down the role due to scheduling conflicts, DiCaprio proclaimed that Danes should be cast, as he felt she was genuine in her line delivery and did not try to impress him by acting flirtatious.
Christian Bale read for the role of Mercutio, but Harold Perrineau was cast in the role.

Differences between the film and the original play

While it retains the original Shakespearean dialogue, the film represents the Montagues and the Capulets as warring mafia empires and the Capulets were "a Latin family, sort of", played by Latin-American and Italian actors. It is set in contemporary United States, where swords are replaced by guns, and with a FedEx-style overnight delivery service called "Post Haste".
Some characters' names are also changed: Paris, Lord and Lady Montague, and Lord and Lady Capulet are given first names ; Friar Laurence becomes Father Laurence; and Prince Escalus is rewritten as the police chief of Verona Beach, being renamed Captain Prince.
The adaptation eliminates the character of Friar John, and some characters change families: in the original, Gregory and Sampson are Capulets, but in the film, they are Montagues; conversely, Abram, as Abra, is shifted from the Montague to the Capulet family.

Production

The film was an international co-production involving principals from the United States, Mexico, Australia, and Canada. After the success of his earlier film Strictly Ballroom, Baz Luhrmann took some time deciding on his next project:
Luhrmann obtained some funds from Fox to do a workshop and shoot some teaser footage in Sydney. Leonardo DiCaprio agreed to pay his own expenses to fly to Sydney and be part of it. Once Fox saw footage of the fight scene, they agreed to support it.
All of the development was done in Australia, with pre-production in Australia and Canada and post-production in Australia. While some parts of the film were shot in Miami, most of the film was shot in Mexico City and Boca del Rio, Veracruz. For instance, the Capulet mansion was set at Chapultepec Castle, while the ballroom was built on Stage One of Churubusco Studios; the church exterior was the Templo del Purísimo Corazón de María in the Del Valle neighborhood.

Reception

Box office

The film premiered on November 1, 1996, in the United States and Canada, in 1,276 theaters, and grossed $11.1 million its opening weekend, ranking number one at the US box office. It went on to gross $46.3 million in the United States and Canada.
In Australia, the film opened on Boxing Day and was number one at the Australian box office with a gross of A$3.3 million for the week. It remained number one for a second week and returned to the top in its fourth week. It was the ninth highest-grossing film in Australia for 1997 with a calendar year gross of A$12.9 million. Overall, it has grossed US$12.6 million in Australia and US$147,554,998 worldwide.

Critical response

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported 74% of 70 critics gave a positive review, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Baz Luhrmann's visual aesthetic is as divisive as it is fresh and inventive." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 60 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
James Berardinelli gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Ultimately, no matter how many innovative and unconventional flourishes it applies, the success of any adaptation of a Shakespeare play is determined by two factors: the competence of the director and the ability of the main cast members. Luhrmann, Danes, and DiCaprio place this Romeo and Juliet in capable hands."
Conversely, Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review of only two stars out of four, saying, "I've seen King Lear as a samurai drama and Macbeth as a Mafia story, and two different Romeo and Juliets about ethnic difficulties in Manhattan, but I have never seen anything remotely approaching the mess that the new punk version of Romeo & Juliet makes of Shakespeare's tragedy."
Some reviewers significantly revised their opinions of the film as time passed. For example, Stephanie Zacharek went from describing it as "destined for the trash heap of Shakespeare adaptations" in her original review in Salon, to writing "I Panned Romeo + Juliet in 1996. Now I Think It’s One of the Best Shakespeare Adaptations" when revisiting the movie in her 25-year retrospective review for Time magazine.