William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet

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Romeo + Juliet

Theatrical poster for William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Produced by Baz Luhrmann
Gabriella Martinelli
Written by William Shakespeare (Play)
Craig Pearce (Screenplay)
Baz Luhrmann (Screenplay)
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio
Claire Danes
John Leguizamo
Harold Perrineau
Pete Postlethwaite
Paul Sorvino
Brian Dennehy
Paul Rudd
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Miriam Margolyes
Jesse Bradford
Dash Mihok
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 mins.
Language English
Budget $14,500,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet is a 1996 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

This film is a transposition of Shakespeare's play into the present day, with swords replaced by guns and castles with skyscrapers, and was directed to a younger, modern audience. However, the film retains Shakespeare's original dialogue for each of the characters. Many lines in the play refer to weapons, so to save changing the script away from the original, the cast wield guns with fictional brand names like "Sword 9mm" or "Dagger"; Lord Montague's "Longsword" is a South African MAG-7 shotgun.

The plot of the film stays true to the play for the most part. The film differs from the play in that the character Paris (or Dave Paris, the modern renaming) is not killed, and that the Montagues provoke the initial fight instead of the Capulets. The film also removes the scene in the play where Friar Lawrence speaks to Juliet after she awakes to find Romeo dead, before she kills herself. The movie goes directly from Romeo's death to Juliet's. In addition, Juliet awakes just as Romeo takes the poison, and they see each other alive one last time before Romeo dies. Much of the film's story takes place in the fictional Verona Beach. At the beginning, Sampson and Gregory are displayed as Montagues, and friends of Benvolio, and Abraham as a Capulet, while in the play it is the other way around. In another scene, Romeo is seen taking an unnamed drug, and in another he is smoking.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Response

According to film ranking site Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently has a 74% "fresh" rating. [1]

Financially, the film was very successful, making USD$147 million worldwide at the box office [2] on a USD$14.5 million budget.

[edit] Awards and nominations

  • At the Berlin International Film Festival in 1997, it won:
    • Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) ** Alfred Bauer Prize
    • Second best actor (Claire Danes)
  • 1996 Academy Awards nominations:
  • 1996 BAFTA Award wins:
    • Best Director (Baz Luhrmann)
    • Best Screenplay - Adapted (Craig Pearce and Baz Luhrmann)
    • Best Film Music (Nellee Hooper)
    • Best Production Design (Catherine Martin)

[edit] Music

See: Romeo + Juliet (soundtrack).

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, featuring artists such as Everclear, Garbage and Des'ree, with Volume 2 containing the original score along with dialogue clips from the film. The film also featured the Radiohead song "Exit Music (For a Film)" in the closing credits, however the song did not appear on the soundtrack album but was later included on the album OK Computer. "Talk Show Host", a second Radiohead song appeared instead.

A number of hit singles resulted from the soundtrack, including "Lovefool" by The Cardigans, the love theme "Kissing You" by Des'ree, a cover of "Young Hearts Run Free" by Kym Mazelle 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.

The soundtrack was a popular and solid seller, and was especially successful in Luhrmann's Australia, where it was the 2nd highest selling album in Australia in 1997, going five times Platinum in sales.[3] A 10th Anniversary release of the soundtrack with bonus tracks also eventuated.

[edit] Trivia

  • Several actresses auditioned and were considered for the role of Juliet. Both Natalie Portman and Christina Ricci were considered for the part but were turned down due to the age difference between them and Leonardo DiCaprio. Reese Witherspoon, Kate Winslet, and Sarah Michelle Gellar all auditioned for the role and were seriously considered. Claire Danes and Jennifer Love Hewitt were the final two candidates for the role of Juliet. However, Jennifer Love Hewitt lost out last minute to Claire Danes because the director felt Hewitt wasn't modern enough for the part and Danes ended up winning the role.
  • Christian Bale auditioned for the roles of Romeo and Mercutio, but was rejected because Luhrmann didn't feel he was right for either of the parts.
  • The Sword and Dagger handguns that were used in the film were standard Beretta 92FS (Abra & Petruchio), Para Ordnance P14 45. caliber (Romeo, Sampson & Gergory) and Taurus PT92 9mm Parabellum (Benvolio, Mercutio & Tybalt) handguns that were fitted with customized slides and accessories by Charles Taylor of Movie Armaments Group. Pistols and revolvers that were made by firearms companies like Para Ordnance and Taurus International were also used by the main characters in the film. The Verona Beach Police were armed with standard military and law-enforcement firearms with the police SWAT teams using firearms like the FN FAL automatic rifle, the M4 Carbine, the M16 rifle, the Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine gun, the Heckler & Koch G3 automatic rifle etc
  • Kipland Kinkel, the school shooter, was a fan of the movie and had the soundtrack on repeat when police entered his house after the shooting.
  • For the role of Juliet Capulet, Claire Danes had to wear a wig. An aquatic wig was even worn by her while filming the water scenes.
  • The scenes that depict the outside of Capulet mansion are actually of a Mexican museum. It was used as the outside representation of the Capulet's home. Tourists toured the museum as the studio decorated it.
  • The song "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge was originally written for this film.
  • Shakespearian quotes are seen in the graffiti in the background. It was often created by the cast during breaks from filming.
  • In the background in the scene after Benvolio is in the phone booth, you can clearly see a movie theater behind Benvolio and Mercutio. The name of this theater is the Globe Theatre, the setting for many of William Shakespeare's works, including Romeo and Juliet.

[edit] References

  1. ^ William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1996). Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on February 10, 2007.
  2. ^ Romeo + Juliet. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on February 10, 2007.
  3. ^ Top 100 Albums 1997. Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved on February 10, 2007.

[edit] External links

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