Modern Shakespeare and a kilt

[demobud]

Last night my wife "made" me sit through the William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet directed by Baz Luhrman. I have seen this film a couple of times before, but my daughter (who has aspirations of going to film/ art school) wanted to see it so we screened it again. Very close to the beginning of the film, there is a scene where the character of Mercutio is introduced (he is in drag, as the group is going to a costume ball at the Montague place) and one of Romeo's cousins, who is part of the character Benvolio's gang, appears wearing a kilt, a black tank tee and a viking helmet. My daughter saw it and piped up " Dad, you need to wear a hat like that!"

I don't think so.

[Panache]

I have often attended Shakespeare Santa Cruz and putting the Bard's plays in a modern setting is fine by me. I didn't think much of Romeo + Juliet because it seemed so dumbed down for a teenage audience. I like the old version that Zeffirelli did in the 60's.

Cheers

Jamie

[demobud]

I am not a huge fan of this version either, it is too MTV for me; and some of the dialogue is moved around in places so it comes from different characters than the play or at different times than the play. I assume it was done for effect, but still some things should be left as written.

Of course, the Reduced Shakespeare Company takes liberties with the Bard but it works for me.

[Warhoover]

I also like the Zeffirelli version. I watched it just the other night with my oldest daughter. She will be reading "Romeo and Juliet" in school this year. She got a leg up on it and read it over the summer but was wanting to see a film version and was about to go rent the latest version that came out on film not long ago that was so MTVized. I headed her off at the pass and whipped out the tape I have of the Zeffirelli production. She has seen some of films with Michael York and Olivia Hussey and was astonished at their youth . Then I told her it was from 1968, She really enjoyed it. I am not fond of many of the newer productions especially when they try to make them musicals, I can barely get through "Westside Story".

Another of my favorite Shakespeare adaptations is Kenneth Brannagh's "Much Ado About Nothing". Wonderfully done and Michael Keaton was such a hoot as the Constable. "Remember your worship, he did call me ***!".

[Mr. MacDougall]

I very much like the "Romeo + Juliet" version. First of all, because the "do you bite your thumb at me" scene was done with tension, which is something one rarely sees today -- normally, it's played for comedy.

Secondly, because it got many, many teenagers to not just watch Shakespeare, but to comprehend it. And, in my book, that's a wonderful thing. I've been backstage for Tucson Community Theater's Shakespeare in the Park many years, and heard amature actors mangling the bard's words into incomprehensibility. Kids and teens are often bored. (Remind me to tell you the story of "Bunga's Ego" sometime). Anything that gets those kids, that next generation of Shakespearian fans involved, is good.

[Panache]

What I loved most about the Zeffirelli version was the the scene in the square with John McHenry (who steals every scene he is in) and Michael York about halfway through the film. Wherein Romeo and Juliet turns sharply from a romantic comedy into a tragedy. The heat of the day, the feud, and youthful masculine bravado lead Tybalt and Mercurtio into a confrontation. One gets the very palpable sense that had Romeo not gone running into the situation no one would have been killed. Mercutio's death is not intentional, but the result of good intentions blundering into a very dangerous game.

I need to put this movie in my Netflix queue because for the life of me I can't remember if they keep the fight between Romeo and Paris.
The line Paris says as he dies was one of things that really got me when I first read the play:

"O, I am slain! - If thou be merciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet!"

Romeo's then hideous sudden understanding of who he has killed and why Paris was defending Juliet's tomb is one of the moments of real tragedy in the play.

But I digress...

Cheers

Jamie