Romeo + Juliet

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Romeo + Juliet
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Baz Luhrmann
Produced by	Baz Luhrmann Gabriella Martinelli
Written by	Play: William Shakespeare Screenplay: Craig Pearce Baz Luhrmann
Starring	Leonardo DiCaprio Claire Danes John Leguizamo Harold Perrineau Pete Postlethwaite Brian Dennehy Christina Pickles Paul Sorvino Diane Venora Paul Rudd Vondie Curtis-Hall Miriam Margolyes
Music by	Nellee Hooper (Composer) Craig Armstrong (Composer (Orchestrator) (Conductor) Marius De Vries (Composer)
Cinematography	Donald McAlpine
Editing by	Jill Bilcock
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	November 1, 1996
Running time	120 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$14.5 million (estimated)
Gross revenue	$147,554,998

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet is a 1996 American film adaptation of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the eponymous roles.

The film is a modernization of Shakespeare's play, designed to appeal to a younger modern audience. The warring families (the Montagues and the Capulets) are represented as warring business empires and swords are replaced by guns. The film retains Shakespeare's original dialogue, albeit edited down for brevity.

[edit] Overview

Most of the film's story takes place in the fictional city called "Verona Beach". As with the play, a brief part of the film takes place in a location known as Mantua, which is depicted here as a trailer park in a desert-like hinterland. Verona Beach is the center of a corporate war between two leaders of industry, "Montague" and "Capulet", rather than just a mere family feud. Prince Escalus is renamed "Captain Prince", and instead of being Prince of Verona, he is the Chief of the Verona Beach Police Department. His relationship to Paris (called "Dave Paris" in the movie) is removed from the film. Romeo's and Juliet's parents are given names here too, the names in this case being Ted and Caroline Montague and Fulgencio and Gloria Capulet. Dave Paris is stated as being the Governor's son rather than a nobleman, and throughout the film he speaks in a conceited and pompous manner around Juliet and her father. He only wants to marry her for wealth and ego rather than real love.

In addition to the characters being updated, many of the props were replaced with analogous contemporary props. In place of swords, the characters wield guns with fictional brand names like "Sword 9mm" (which was used in the beginning gas station shootout), "Dagger" (which Mercutio throws to the ground before using his fists), or "Rapier" (Which belonged to Tybalt, and Romeo uses it to shoot Tybalt); Lord Montague's "Longsword" is a South African MAG-7 shotgun. Instead of chasing Tybalt on foot, Romeo and Tybalt engage in a car chase. Romeo crashes out Tybalt's car by the central fountain of the city, during which Romeo presses the barrel of Tybalt's pistol to his head and asks him to end his life. Tybalt refuses and in a resurgence of anger Romeo kills Tybalt with his own custom handgun. Although most of the fights are done with guns (and fists) instead of swords, Mercutio's death comes at the hands of Tybalt wielding a large shard of glass found on the beach. Mercutio's "Queen Mab" is an ecstasy-like drug (taken as a pill) that he takes before attending the Capulet party. Friar Lawrence gives the letter for Romeo in Mantua to a postal service called "Post Haste".

[edit] Production

Most of the film was shot in Mexico City and Veracruz, but other parts were shot in Miami. The Capulet mansion was set at Chapultepec Castle while the ballroom was built on Stage One of Churubusco Studios; and the church is Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in the Del Valle neighborhood.^[1]

[edit] Cast

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo Montague
• Claire Danes as Juliet Capulet
• John Leguizamo as Tybalt Capulet
• Harold Perrineau as Mercutio
• Pete Postlethwaite as Father Laurence
• Brian Dennehy and Christina Pickles as Ted and Caroline Montague
• Paul Sorvino and Diane Venora as Fulgencio and Gloria Capulet
• Paul Rudd as Dave Paris
• Vondie Curtis-Hall as Chief Prince
• Miriam Margolyes as The Nurse
• Jesse Bradford as Balthasar
• Dash Mihok as Benvolio
• Zak Orth as Gregory
• Jamie Kennedy as Sampson
• M. Emmet Walsh as Apothecary
• Vincent Laresca as Abra

Leonardo DiCaprio was Luhrmann's first choice to play Romeo, while the casting of Juliet was a lengthy process. Sarah Michelle Gellar was originally offered the role of Juliet, but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts with daytime soap opera All My Children. Natalie Portman eventually landed the role, even traveling to Sydney for rehearsals. After rehearsing a few scenes, however, the producers began to feel that she was too young for the role. According to Portman, they felt that the footage looked like DiCaprio was "molesting" her.^[2] Eventually, Luhrmann agreed that the age difference between the two actors was too great. Filming was halted to find another actress for the part. Jennifer Love Hewitt was almost cast, but lost the part to Claire Danes because Luhrmann felt that she wasn't "modern" enough for the part.

[edit] Response

Financially, the film was very successful, grossing USD$147 million worldwide at the box office^[3] on a USD$14.5 million budget. The film premiered November 1, 1996 in the United States and Canada in 1,276 theaters and grossed $11.1 million its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office. It went on to gross $46.3 million in the United States and Canada.^[4]

Critics gave the film generally positive reviews. According to the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 74% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 38 reviews.^[5] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times disliked the film, giving it 2 stars and saying, "This production was a very bad idea ... I have never seen anything remotely approaching the mess that the new punk version of Romeo & Juliet makes of Shakespeare's tragedy." Ebert wrote that Pete Postlethwaite and Miriam Margolyes were "the only actors in the film who seem completely at home" and said, "In one grand but doomed gesture, writer-director Baz Luhrmann has made a film that (a) will dismay any lover of Shakespeare, and (b) bore anyone lured into the theater by promise of gang wars, MTV-style."^[6]

The film won several awards.^[7] At the Berlin International Film Festival in 1997, Leonardo DiCaprio won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor and director Baz Luhrmann won the Alfred Bauer Award. Luhrmann was also nominated for the Golden Bear Award for Best Picture.^[7]

Leonardo DiCaprio won Favorite Actor and Claire Danes won Favorite Actress in a Romance at the 1997 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.^[7] At the 1997 MTV Movie Awards, Danes won Best Female Performance. DiCaprio was nominated for Best Male Performance, and DiCaprio and Danes were both nominated for Best Kiss and Best On-Screen Duo.^[7] At the 51st BAFTA Film Awards, Baz Luhrmann won the award for Best Direction. Luhrmann and Craig Pearce won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Nellee Hooper won the award for Best Film Music. And Catherine Martin won the award for Best Production Design. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Sound.^[7]

At the 69th Academy Awards, Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch were nominated for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration.^[7]

[edit] Music

The film made use of modern alternative rock and pop music coupled with a dramatic symphonic score by Nellee Hooper, Craig Armstrong, and Marius De Vries. The film's soundtrack was also noted for featuring choral renditions of the songs "When Doves Cry" and "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" performed by Quindon Tarver.

The soundtrack album to the film was issued in two volumes, with the first release containing most of the songs from the film and Volume 2 containing the original score.

Although the film featured the Radiohead song "Exit Music (For a Film)" in the closing credits, the song did not appear on Volume 1; "Talk Show Host", a different Radiohead song, featured heavily in the film overall, the entire song playing during a montage and the main riff playing at several pensive moments throughout the film.

A number of hit singles resulted from the soundtrack, including "Lovefool" by The Cardigans, "Kissing You" by Des'ree, "Young Hearts Run Free" covered by Kym Mazelle, "#1 Crush" by Garbage and Quindon Tarver's remixed version of "When Doves Cry". Tarver's rendition of "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" was later used in Luhrmann's "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" single.

Choral arrangements were performed by Metro Voices.

The final scene in the film contains the final bars from Wagner's music-drama Tristan and Isolde.

The soundtrack was a popular and solid seller, and was especially successful in Luhrmann's native Australia, where it was the second highest selling album in Australia in 1997, going five times platinum in sales.^[8] A 10th anniversary release of the soundtrack with bonus tracks also eventuated.

[edit] Further reading

• Lehmann, Courtney. "Strictly Shakespeare? Dead Letters, Ghostly Fathers, and the Cultural Pathology of Authorship in Baz Luhrmann's 'William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet'." Shakespeare Quarterly. 52.2 (Summer 2001) pp. 189–221.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Romeo + Juliet at the Internet Movie Database
• Romeo + Juliet at Allmovie
• Romeo + Juliet at Box Office Mojo
• Romeo + Juliet at Rotten Tomatoes

v • d • e William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Characters Romeo • Juliet • Mercutio • Tybalt • Benvolio • Friar Lawrence • Nurse • Paris • Prince Escalus • Lord Capulet • Rosaline • Full Character List Sources The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet • Pyramus and Thisbe • Palace of Pleasure • Troilus and Criseyde • Ephisaica Musical adaptations West Side Story (musical) • Roméo et Juliette (musical) • Giulietta e Romeo (musical) • Roméo et Juliette (opera) • Romeo und Julie (singspiel) • I Capuleti e i Montecchi (opera) • Romeo and Juliet (ballet) • Roméo et Juliette (symphony) • Romeo and Juliet (overture) On screen Romeo and Juliet (1908) • Romeo and Juliet (1916) • Romeo and Juliet (1936) • Romeo and Juliet (1954) • Romeo i Dzhulyetta (1955) • Romeo and Juliet (1968) • Romeo and Juliet (1978) • The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1983) • China Girl (1987) • Romeo and Juliet (1988) • Romeo and Juliet (1992) • Romeo + Juliet (1996) Adaptions Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) • Romanoff and Juliet (1960) • West Side Story (1961) • Romie-0 and Julie-8 (1979) • The Sea Prince and the Fire Child (1981) • Tromeo and Juliet (1996) • Love Is All There Is (1996) • Shakespeare in Love (1998) • Romeo Must Die (2000) • حبك نار Hobak Nar (2004) • Pizza My Heart (2005) • West Bank Story (2005) • Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss (2006) • Romeo x Juliet (2007) • Saints & Sinners (2007 TV series)