A Modern Shakespeare Baz Lurhmann?

  Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare is one of the most adapted pieces of literature ever. The version that Baz Lurhmann made into a movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio was an interesting adaptation of the classic. It was an modernized take that had the original Shakespearean language. We watched this adaptation in class over the course of a few weeks. Baz Lurhmann followed the path of the original play, but had some interesting staging, and plot twists at the end.


  Baz Lurhmann directed a modern adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. The setting took place in a city called "Verona Beach." Much like the original play the Capulet's and Montague's have a long feud between their two houses. In the opening scene their clothing shows that the two houses are extremely different. The Montague's had bright clothing and a yellow convertbale car.  The Capulets were dressed in dark formal clothing, and had a black sedan. At the costume party thrown by Lord Capulet, Romeo and Juliet meet. They fall madly in love after only meeting each other that one night. The tragedy in this adaptation is that Romeo & Juliet are never able to satisfy their love for one another.


  The story line in this adaptation was pretty similar to the original version, until the end. The movie skipped over the scene where Juliet makes a false impression on her parents by telling them she would marry Paris, only to drink the potion later that night. The movie also never killed off Paris. Paris had a very small role, and only appeared in a few scenes. The main issues that conflicted with their love came from scenes where Juliet's cousin Tybalt and her parents were present. Paris was referred to but was not as important as he was in the original play.

 In the death scene, the movie shows Juliet waking up from her sleep at the very moment that Romeo started drinking the poison. I felt this was dramatic and a little corny. Many of my fellow classmates even said this was comedic, and stupid that Romeo didn't feel Juliet's hand moving. I get what the director was doing by showing that this was Romeo's tragic flaw. Romeo was always to quick to jump to conclusions, and never gave situations time to develop. This scene showed that they were extremely close to carrying out their love, compared to the play where the death scene never gave any indications of hope. In play made it seem as if they could never live happily ever after.

Another interesting change that Baz Lurhmann made was that the two houses Capulet, and Montague never made amends at this end of the movie. I thought this was an interesting concept. I believe this makes it more realistic in modern sense. The setting was in the 20th century, and by not resolving the family feud made it more suspenseful and realistic. Making the two families live with the guilt is more understandable, than saying now that our two children are dead, I can forgive you now in the original version. I feel Shakespeare only resolved the conflict at the end of the play to make it more unrealistic than it already was.


Lurhmann uses water as a reoccurring theme to represent love. Water is present in every scene where Romeo and Juliet are with each other. When they first meet, in the pool, in the bed room, and even in the death scene water is present. This was interesting but it was easy to pick up because the directer added love music. Lighting also played a huge part in selling the theme of love in the movie.  Vibrate colors and lights were present in the scene were they first found each other through the fish tank.  The illuminating effect of lights gave to important scenes was easily picked up, and added to the overall mood of the movie. The death scene is a great example of how lights represent everlasting love. The lights keep glowing even after Romeo and Juliet killed themselves.


Romeo and Juliet is one of the most adapted pieces of literature ever. Baz Lurhmann made a modern adaptation of the play that had some interesting plot twists. The way the original Shakespearean language was kept in the movie made me understand the dialogue better than the play. I thought the ending with the death scene was a little corny, but all and all this was a professionally done adaptation of one of the most entertains plays ever.