Romeo and Juliet

Love, hate ,  family issues,  forbidden love,  death battles, costume parties, secret weddings, love till the end,   certainly when we hear those words we can imagine one of William Shakespiere’s work, Romeo and Juliet.  Of course, Romeo and Juliet is a masterpiece not only because it’s a famous and ancient work but it has been represented so many times in so many ways and in different languages.  For example in Baz Luhrmann’s movie “Romeo + Juliet” this masterpiece is represented in a modern style in a city called “Verona” which is a mix between Mexico city and California.  We can say that Luhrmann is a real genius because he kept in the real story, the same dialogues of the book and also took them to a modern world.

Firstly, Romeo is an interesting character and Luhrmann knew the perfect way to represent him in a modern era; Leonardo di Caprio got that image and interpreted his character wonderfully because when you watch the movie, you really think that Romeo has travelled in time. Leonardo is a versatile actor and in this movie he really kept the script perfectly and catches the attention of the viewer  in every move he makes, in everything he says and the way he talks. I think it is important that an actor feels like his character, and the director made a great job with Leonardo because he shows us a Romeo come out directly from the Shakespeare´s play. He also achieves a good desenvolment and relation with the other characters because this make him see natural and doesn´t take us away from the story even if the characters doesn´t look like the characters we imagined on the book.

I really like Romeo because it is really interesting the way he lives and stays in his own world of love, the way he pulled out his depression with just a simple meeting, the way he fights against his family oppression, the way he looks for Tybald’s acceptation   And the way he changed of view when Teobald killed his best friend Mercutio, he didn´t care and decided to kill him. The way Romeo uses his emotions, for example, he wasn´t decided to go to the party in Capulet’s house and when he knew Juliet he didn´t wanted to go, so he come back to look for her. Is a character dominated for passion. Also is interesting how his passions for Juliette grows exponentially that he get married with her and he die for her. Another interesting thing is the feeling Juliet has to him, even that Romeo is instable and that he had killed his cousin, she still being faithful to him.

I think it is really impressive the way Luhrmann’s adapted Romeo to this modern background and how he keeps with the original Romeo essence because he keeps all the romantic properties that makes him one of the most wanted characters for women. Although the film is set in the 90's, Romeo's character remains the same; it retains the same essence as the original character does, he doesn´t changes at all. Dialogs, accions, emotions, the way they get relationated with others, attitudes, aptitudes, values, crazy actions, trickeries, conduct. Luhrmann implements all the magic in  Romeo so we don´t lose the interest and we could believe that we are really watching the original play.

 

It´s a fact that the director refreshes all characters giving them a comic and different touch to Shakespeare’s play, for example, Mercutio is shown like a funnier character than in the original work, his appearance is like a non-white person, Theoblad, like the typical bad guy fashionably dressed, unlike the other characters who were wearing Hawaiin shirts. But Romeo mantains his original essence although when he is wearing modern clothing, that is why Romeo is my favorite character, because it doesn´t matter if he is in the modern world he will keep his essence.