Beauty in a Blink

Beauty in a Blink

Review of the film: “William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet”

By Baz Luhrmann

In class

The story begins with media, such as radio or TV, talking about the hatred between houses Montague and Capulet. After the media announce the setting, a fight between the servants of the two households is presented. The city is influenced, and a police officer called Prince determines Benvolio and Tybalt are responsible for the chaos. Meanwhile, Romeo from the Montague is confused about his feeling of Rosaline. However, after he and his friends sneak into the Capulet’s party, Romeo falls in love with Juliet from the Capulet. They confuse about their heritage at first but later decide to be married by Friar Lawrence. A Day after, Tybalt comes to Romeo for a gunfight. Mercutio tries to stop Tybalt but is killed. Under an outrage, Romeo kills Tybalt and be banished by Prince. Romeo and Juliet spend a night and parts in the next morning. In the same day, Juliet is told that she will be married to Paris. Being helpless in front of her father, her mother, and the nurse, Juliet seeks help from Friar Lawrence. Friar Lawrence gives her a sleeping potion so she can fake dead on the day of the marriage. On Juliet’s funeral, Romeo comes back, being told Juliet is dead. He drinks the poison he bought from an apothecary. Juliet sees Romeo dying in her arm and then kill herself by using Romeo’s gun. The movie ends at the media announcing two households’ tragedy.

The theme of the movie is “fast”. Everyone in the movie is moving fast; Romeo and Juliet fall in love so fast; their lives end so fast. The fast creates “almost”: Mercutio almost live; message from the Friar almost gets to Romeo; Romeo and Juliet almost do not have to die. The love and the good memory only last seconds yet disappear so fast. Like fireworks, seconds before is the beautiful world and seconds after reminds nothing.

The movie uses contrasts to emphasize certain emotions. Color, mood, and music contradictions are used to stimulate emotions. The difference between characters can be categorized into the mood contrast. Throughout the film, almost every character has some amount of craziness in their setting except Romeo and Juliet. The servants are shouting and over exaggerating their actions. Lady Capulet is overconfident on her beauty. The Friar Lawrence is also wearing a beach shirt under a holy robe. The craziness of others justifies Romeo and Juliet’s love. The love between them is fast but stable, which seems fake to today’s life. However, because everyone around Romeo and Juliet is somewhat crazy, their love appears more natural and reasonable.

On the other hand, the contrast of the atmosphere emphasizes a particular emotion that is appealing to the audience. The movie uses many contrasts of chaos and stillness. For example, at the end of the movie, Romeo escapes from the police’s hunting and enters the church where Juliet lies and fakes dead. Outside the church, the police cars and shifting lights make the scene chaotic. However, inside the church, the dim candles build a sacred and tranquil scene. The stillness not only provides circumstance for Romeo to calm down but also gives the audience a preset for the emptiness of the death scene. There are many contrasts in the play including the music and the color. They are constantly showed like a hammer so constantly hitting your head that you cannot be ignored. They also strengthen one of the themes: love and death.

The movie uses many modern elements as well. They are used for creating a connection between the great ancient play and the modern world. Swords in the play are replaced by guns with families statues. The modern weapon helps people today to associate the power and the death better. Because the uses of modern elements help people to understand better on subtle themes better, the modern elements actually help the audience to have a better understanding of the love and death themes.

It is also ingenious to use modern elements to transfer a play into a movie. In the beginning and the ending of the film, the media play as a storyteller. In the play, the chorus does the similar job. By considering the popularity and the widespreadness of the media today, the film uses it as news delivery, which makes more connection between the city and the two families. By making the families’ issue a big piece of news to the city, the influence of the tragedy is maximized. Along with the explosion during fights, the adaptation indicates how the conflict can also influence the city, which is absent in the original play. As well as other adaptation, the use of media makes more sense than chorus because it is where today’s people get most of the information from.

The modern elements are also more visually appealing to show a character. In the play, the costumes are limited to a certain style that is unfamiliar to the audience. The limitation also restricts the costumes on showing a complicated character. The character Friar Lawrence is a sophisticated character. In the play, his contradicted character is mostly shown in his monologue, and his costume stays same throughout the whole show. Controdictly, in the film, Friar Lawrence has entirely different costumes when he is playing different roles among the society. Personally, he wears his casual beach style T-shirt; in the church, he wears a robe. The costume changes allow the film to show Friar Lawrence as a complicated character visually. To show a character by designing costume also allow the film to cut off redundant lines. It is reasonable and thoughtful because the audience today are more accustomed to images rather than scripts.

No doubt Leonardo’s Romeo is my favorite character, but Paul Sorvino’s Capulet satisfied me the most. The Capulet in the movie seems natural and make the story smoother. I personally think Capulet is unreasonable in the play. In the party, he stops Tybalt from killing Romeo without a concrete reason. His outrage on Juliet’s disobedience is also unpredictable. However, in the film, Capulet is drunk while stopping Tybalt, which makes sense for forgetting the family hatred easily. Additionally, he is always presented in a thoughtful silence, which provides a dark sense to the character. The preset of the character enables the outburst in front of Juliet. Paul Sorvino’s Capulet not only covers the gap of the original play but his acting of silence also create an oppression that is sensible to the audience. The pressure or the darkness intensifies the relationship between two households and the Capulet’s family members.

The movie is covered by a lousy superficial layer. It progresses fastly and ends suddenly. It seems crazy for some people, but it makes perfect sense for me. Romeo and Juliet’s love forms and ends in five days. The story itself is fast-paced. The love is also full of craziness. The modern adaptation also helps to succeed the fast progression. The whole thing of the movie: beauty in a blink. First blink, real and beautiful. Second blink, emptiness.