Integration of Past and Future

Integration of Past and Future

   “Wow!” This is my first thought when I watch the 1996 version of Romeo + Juliet. It is directed by Baz Luhrmann, and Leonardo DiCaprio acts as Romeo, Claire Danes acts as Juliet in the movie. Comparing to other versions, Romeo + Juliet is one of the kind because it sets up in modern time, but still keeping the original Shakespeare languages to tell the tragedy story. In Romeo + Juliet, the adaptations of props, Shakespeare's languages, and the character’s images combine the modern elements with the hundreds of years old’s script of Romeo And Juliet and bring a whole kind of tragedy for all the audiences.

   One of the biggest changes of Baz Luhrmann’s movie is the time, Instead of setting up the play in Elizabethan era, the play is setting up in the 20th century. Verona is a modern city where has cars, skyscrapers, and guns. But none of those things were in the original script, so Baz Luhrmann brilliantly changes props in the play and successfully fit into the time. At the last scene, Juliet despairs and wants to die with Romeo. In the original script, Juliet takes Romeo’s dagger and says “O happy dagger”. In the movie, Juliet uses Romeo’s gun to kill herself because Baz Luhrmann names all the guns in the play as swords. As a result of this, audiences will not feel there is something wrong in the play. Whenever the lines say “sword” or relate to the swords, the movie shows the swords in forms of guns. Also, the clothes play another important role in the play. The clothes of Montague boys are colorful Hawaiian shirts, which perfectly match with their uncontrollable nature. When the Montague boys wear those Hawaiian shirts and play their guns on the beach, the Capulets dress in formal suits with simple black color. As a result, the differences of the families are clearly shown to the audiences.

   The adaptation of props in the movie cancel many disharmonies in the movie, but it is still hard to bring the audience into the 20th century’ Romeo and Juliet. So Baz Luhrmann makes some adaptations and keeps the Shakespeare’ languages in the movie. Shakespeare’s language is the soul of the play, it not only tells the information like weather, time, and places but also expresses character’s emotions. When Romeo wants to buy poison from the apothecary, apothecary replies that the law does not allow him to sell the poison. In the script, Romeo says a lot of lines to persuade apothecary. The movie adapts this by only keeping the most important line, which Romeo says “The world is not thy friend, nor the world’s law!” At this point, Romeo feels betrayed by the world, disappear by the “dead” of Juliet, and has no faith in the world. This line shows Romeo’s emotion and makes him as a lively person to the audience. By cutting the other lines, Baz highlights Romeo’s emotion and makes the plot of the movie never bores the audiences.

In the movie, the most brilliant adaptations in the movie are the ways Baz Luhrmann shapes the characters. For example, the Prince becomes the police captain of the city. The image of Prince is a justice man who keeps the Verona city in order. Both of the prince in Elizabethan era and the policeman in our days fit with the character well. Moreover, Friar Lawrence’s image of the movie is very easy to understand. As a monk, he has a huge crucifix tattoo on his back and he is wearing the same kind of Hawaiian shirt inside his outer monk cloth. The image of Paris is the young man on the Time magazine, which fits in with the time of 20th century well and shows Paris is the good husband in Capulet’s mind.

The adaptations of the props, lines and characters set up the base for the movie to tell a party of revelry in the 20th century. Audiences will feel sadness by not only the tragedy story but also the “coincidences” at the end of the movie. Instead of sending Friar John to send the message to Romeo, Friar Lawrence sends the letter by a post office in the movie. Romeo does not get the letter is not because the disease like the script says, but because he and Balthazar leave too early. When Romeo and Balthazar fastly drive away in the car, the postman with the letter has just arrived in Romeo's house. When Romeo misses the letter, the movie implies the tragedy ending is going to happen. As an audience, it is harder to take this sadness that can be prevented. Also, when Romeo is drinking the poison, Juliet wakes up. It is so tragedy that the same moment Juliet has her life again, Romeo loses his life. Both of these “coincidences” express the sadness more because they give the possibility that the tragedy could be prevented. This kind of feeling is the hardest to take because it makes us think about “If the postman get there earlier?” or “If Juliet wakes up earlier”, how would the story end? Because of this kind of hope that movie gives to the audience, the desperation at the end appears more.

There are hundreds of versions of Romeo And Juliet in the world, Baz Luhrmann’s movie might not be the best one, but it is one of the kind. None of the other versions can fit the story into modern time and do not change the main theme of the story. More importantly, the movie Romeo + Juliet’s integrations of the future and the past make itself new to every audience, and it tells the same tragedy of Shakespeare. After all, the movie is like a party of the interactions of past and future, as an audience, I indeed enjoy the movie. Enjoy the young Leonardo DiCaprio~.