To compare and contrast to film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo+Juliet’ and to focus on the following scenes;
-the opening scenes
-the party scenes
-the fight scene where Tybalt and Mercutio die.
-the final scene
Conditions
Started in school, finished at home.
Opening Scene (Zefferlis version)
Zefferelis directed this version of Romeo and Juliet. Zefferelis version was set in the 16th Century so as you can imagine the style of clothes the people wore drastically different compared to what we wear nowadays. The opening scene takes place in a market place. In this version, the Capulets begin the fight by walking in front of the Montague’s and tripping up the friar. The mood becomes very tense and still, people around the market place are at a stand still to watch this bust up between the Capulets and the Montague’s. The Montague’s question the Capulets ‘Did you bite your thumb at me?’ the Capulets reply ‘We do bite our thumb at you!’. The Montague’s walk away. The Capulets hit the friar with a stick. ‘DRAW!’ the Montague’s shout. So now Montague’s and Capulets start to have a brawl in the middle of the market place. Then the Prince stops the fight telling the Montague’s to come and see him now, and the Capulets to see him later.
Opening Scene (Baz Luhrmann version)
The Baz Luhrmann version was set in the 20th Century, so as you can imagine the clothes that they are wearing are pretty much the same as we wear nowadays. This version starts with a news reporter telling us what has just happened in fair Verona, and what is about to happen. As you may know this news reporter is reporting on what is going on between the Montague’s and the Capulets. The Montague’s are in the petrol station filling their ‘stylish’ car when the Capulets roll up in their even more ‘stylish’ car with the number plate reading ‘cap005’. It’s the Montague’s who notice that the Capulets have rolled up besides them in their car. When the Capulets notice the Montague’s the start shouting an each other. They still use Shakespeare’s text but they have styled it up a bit. Their guns were called ‘Swords’ instead of actually using swords. One member of the Capulets had a silver mouth guard in his mouth. Engraved in the silver it said ‘Sin’. They make Tybalt look very stylish by having a ‘devil like’ goatee. The Montague start to annoy the nuns who were in the garage with them, the nuns get very annoyed an drive off. The Capulets jumped to conclusions thinking the
Montagues were annoying them. The Montagues then muscle up a plan in which one of them bites his thumb. The Capulets spin around and say ‘Do you bite your thumb at us sir?’. The Montagues reply, ‘yes sir I do bite my thumb at you!’ The Capulets get very angry and start a gun battle with the Montagues. Benvolio tries to stop the gun battle until Tybalt returns out of the garage. A little boy runs out of the garage with a toy gun and shouts ‘bang bang’, Tybalt reacts spins around to face the little boy, holds the gun to his head and shouts ‘BANG!’ The Motagues run off, Tybalt manages to catch up with Benvolio. They are both staring down at each other’s guns when the prince comes in,..in a helicopter.
Caplets Party (Baz Luhrmann version)
There are lots of people dressed in fancy dress. There are fireworks and loud music in the background. Mercutio is dressed as a women, he gets hold of tickets for the Capulets party for him and some friends. He gives Romeo a drug so he could enjoy the party. At the party Romeo becomes all-flush, so he goes to the toilets to wash his face to cool down. As Romeo walks back into the party he looks through the aquarium at the fish, as he’s looking at the fish he casts eyes of Juliet. Juliet walks off back to the party, Romeo follows. When their in the party they always kept looking at each other. Romeo walks over to Juliet, grabs her hand and takes her into the lift. Romeo kisses Juliet in the lift, the made shouts for Juliet, but Juliet closes the door on the lift and presses the button for the lift to go up a floor. The lift moves up a level, when the doors open on the top floor the made is there to take Juliet away from Romeo.
Capulets Party (Zefferlis version)
The party kicks off of Romeo outside of the Capulets mansion. Romeo is all dressed up ready for the party. Romeo’s standard of dress was very poor, even for those days, he wore rugged old clothes. After a while Romeo plucks up the courage to walk into the Capulets party. When Romeo is inside the Capulets large and impressive house he scans the room to see if her knew anyone. Whilst scanning the room he casts his eyes on a beautifully dressed Juliet. Juliet stares at Romeo as well as Romeo stares at Juliet. Juliet carries on dancing with her friends. Later that night Juliet stands by a pillar talking to people by a pillar, Romeo walks over behind that pillar and starts to speak to her. After a long conversation Juliet goes off to dance with her friends, Romeo follows. During this dance Romeo loses eyesight of Juliet, this is because Juliet has left the party. Romeo couldn’t find Juliet, so Romeo leaves the party not long after.
Fight Scene (Baz Luhrmann)
In this version the fight scene is more violent and has more gore than the fight scene in the Zefferlis version. The tension that has built up between Mercutio and Tybalt is shown by the music in the background, the music seems to have a sharp edge to it. The fight scene is set an old theatrical stage on the beach. Romeo has secretly married Juliet, which made Tybalt mad. Tybalt fights Romeo on the old stage, there are punches flying in everywhere. Mercutio steps in to stop the fight, but ends up getting punched by Tybalt; the fight turns into a massive brawl between Romeo, Tybalt and Mercutio. Romeo backs out of the fight, which leaves Mercutio to fight on his own. Mercutio is fighting Tybalt on the stage when Tybalt punches Mercutio of the stage. Mercutio lands on a pane of glass, which lay beneath the stage, Mercutio has pieces of glass injected into his back when he lands on it. Mercutio slowly dies because of this.
Fight Scene (Zefferlis version)
In this version the fight kicks off with Mercutio. Mercutio is over at the water fountain washing himself. Romeo walks over and shakes Mercutio’s hand and starts to talk to him. Tybalt comes into the scene. Tybalt starts to shout at Romeo, but Mercutio steps in to stop the argument. Tybalt plucks out a fight with Mercutio, they start to fight with each other with swords. After a long sword fight Tybalt stabs Mercutio in the stomach. Mercutio slowly dies. Romeo doesn’t like this, so Romeo grabs another sword and starts another sword fight with Tybalt. This sword fight seems to last forever, it is very slow and boring. This boring sword fight finally comes to an end, with Romeo stabbing Tybalt in the chest. Romeo falls on the floor through tiredness, injured Tybalt falls on top of Romeo and dies.
The Ending (Baz Luhrmann version)
In this version Balthazar found out that Juliet was dead, so he drives off in his car to find Romeo and tells him the bad news. Romeo finds out, so he drives frantically to get to the apothecary where Juliet lies. When Romeo is on his way, the police are casing him. Finally Romeo gets to the apothecary before the police catch him. Romeo bursts through the doors of the apothecary to see a line of lit candles and at the end of the line lays Juliet. Romeo runs down the isle towards Juliet. Romeo thinks that Juliet is dead but she is not. Romeo gets out a poison that he had purchased of a dealer and drinks some of the contents of the bottle, by drinking all of this Romeo begins to die. As Romeo is living his last few seconds, Juliet wakes up to find Romeo dieing next to her. Juliet holds Romeos hand and starts to cry, Romeo slowly dies in the fingertips of Juliet. Juliet is very upset, so she decides to join Romeo by drinking the remaining contents of the poison. The police find out where Romeo is, so they burst through the doors of the apothecary only to find Romeo and Juliet dead next to each other.
The Ending (Zefferlis version)
Balthazar find Juliets body in the temple thinking she is dead, so her ride off on horseback to find Romeo. Once Balthazar finds Romeo he tells him about Juliet, but tells Romeo he cant go and see her. Romeo takes no notice to this and rides off by horseback to the temple where Juliet lies. Romeo arrives at the temple and breaks down the door to get in. Romeo runs down the steps to find Juliet lying there. Romeo has a bit of a break down and cries. Romeo reaches for the poison out of his pocket and drinks some, Romeo dies. Balthazar turns up at the temple and finds that the doors have been broken down, so he runs inside to find Juliet waking up. Balthazar sees Romeo dead next to Juliet, Balthazar grabs Juliets hand and takes her out of the temple before she sees Romeo on the floor next to her.
