The story of Romeo and Juliet is of two people who fall in love only to be torn apart by their feuding families. “ Romeo and Juliet” has been a popular story for over 400 years, either a play written by Shakespeare or a poem written earlier than that. In the 20th century, two directors created their own interpretations of the play. In 1968, Franco Zefferelli directed a version of the play where the performers played the part of people in 16th-century Verona, Italy. In 1996, Baz Luhrmann took a very creative approach when he directed a modern version of the play set in Verona Beach, California. The two were naturally very different, but there was also a theme of lightness and darkness running through both of them. Both plays start out with the original prologue; although the modern version uses a television newscast and the 1968 version uses the traditional narrator speaking the part. Both show different scenes of the cities used to portray the story. The 1996 version uses a lighter approach with Verona Beach, and the 1968 version is mainly dark and shadowy. It will be discussed later in this essay which film version of “Romeo and Juliet” is the better one; camera angles, costumes, sound, music, and location will be analyzed to determine which film is better. This will be done, by analyzing the first scene of the two films “The Opening Brawl”.
In the first scene of the movie, when the fight begins in the Zefferelli version the camera switches to a bird’s eye view angle that shows the bright white town square, which illuminates the brightly dressed fighters creating a lot of chaos. While in Luhrmann’s scene, the camera moves dramatically between the fighters, not showing all the fighting at once but close up on each character individually, their faces, guns, or reactions.
Zeffereli’s fight scene is more like an enormous brawl, lots of people join in as the scene develops, involving a longer build and the arena for the fight is vast. When the fight starts the camera stays as a long shot. The fighting is very fast with a small group of Capulets fighting a small group of Montegues spread across the town square. Only one person is killed in this version. There is less dramatic tension in Zeffereli’s version because the fight is a shorter traditional fight. The fight with the swords adds to the dramatic effect. There are twenty or more people involved in the close physical combat of a sword fight.
In contrast, Luhrmann’s account of the fighting is choreographed intensely to make it fast, which is emphasized by the operatic music and the quick editing. There are lots of almost dance-like movements; it imitates the swords in Zeffereli’s version, and the word “sword” is even written on the guns. The superficial shooting also imitates the sword fight, not every shot hits the target, just as not every stab made with the sword connects. In Luhrmann’s gunfight, only six people are involved and none are actually killed. The fight seems a lot more personal even though they are fighting from a greater distance. The helicopters add suspense to the fighting. The camera shots are much more vigorous in Luhrmann’s version, like a spaghetti western where the camera darts in between each pair of eyes.
Tybalt is a key character in both films but the way in which Luhrmann and Zeffereli interpret him is quite different; he is serious and macho in Luhrmann’s and playful and refined in Zefferli’s. Tybalt is a very influential character, even though he only speaks five lines, but these lines start the fight. In both, he incites his friends to fight by saying ‘I laugh in the face of fear’ and is shown to be very aggressive and violent. In Zeffereli’s version, he looks much younger and delivers his lines leisurely and with confidence. He has a bigger and grander entrance in Luhrmann’s opening scene – a caption says that he is ‘the prince of cats’ showing how important he is. When he delivers his lines
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