Film Study:
Adapted by Mr. Conn from a document created by the University of Wisconsin-Madison English department
If you have the opportunity to see more than one film version of Romeo and Juliet, you will gain some insight into the filmmaker's art, as well as being able to study different interpretations of the play and 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.
1. 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 equaled 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.
2. Why do you think Luhrmann has chosen to set the play in modern America?
3. How do the images of modern society at its worst (guns, security guards, etc) affect your view of the story?
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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?
8. Discuss the effectiveness of Luhrmann's title sequence in providing an understanding of the setting, the plot and the key players.
9. 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?
10. 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?
11. 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.
12. Discuss the effectiveness of the two approaches in separating and then highlighting the relative powers of Church and State in the film versions.
13. In what ways are the two versions different from any portrayal that might have been permitted in Shakespeare's times?
Actors
14. Compare the actors playing Romeo and Juliet. Evaluate the relative success of the actors in the roles.
15. Compare the interpretations of the difficult role of Mercutio. Which actor's interpretation do you prefer? Why?
16. 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?
17. How does Luhrmann's Tybalt compare with Zeffirelli's?
18. In both films, the fight scene resulting in the death of Mercutio is particularly well handled. Which version do you prefer? Why?
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:
19. Do you agree with the way Zeffirelli and Luhrmann stage the scene where Romeo and Juliet meet? Why or why not?
20. What do you think of the costuming? Does this give you a better idea of the characters?
21. Why does Zeffirelli include the long love-song segment (the woman singing on stage)? Does this work for you? Explain. What does Luhrmann include?
22. Do you find Zeffirelli and Luhrmann's film version convincing in terms of Romeo and Juliet's attraction to one another? Explain.
Which version?
“Great truths need to be interpreted through the eyes of successive generations if they are to retain their relevance”.
23. 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?