It is not very often that Romeo and Juliet are portrayed as two people who are willing to disobey their parents for the sake of their love. The film Romeo + Juliet is a Shakespearean tragedy adapted by modern-day director Baz Luhrmann, Romeo + Juliet was released in 1996 starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Romeo) and Claire Danes (Juliet). The film follows Romeo, son of Montague and Juliet, daughter of Capulet as they fall helplessly in love despite the hatred between both houses. Romeo’s character begins with his first encounter of Juliet at a masquerade ball; something that would change Romeo’s life forever.
As the whole premise of the movie is based on Romeo/Juliet romance it is Romeo’s character that is portrayed most prominently. Romeo is the typical Romeo; he is in love with ‘Juliet’ at first sight, however his rebellious nature of not having enough courage to talk to her adds an element of comedy which lightens the film. Shakespeare on the other hand portrays Romeo as a man who falls in love after hearing Juliet’s beauty and speech through a window and wrote Romeo as constantly comparing Juliet to other women constantly throughout Romeo and Juliet.
Although Romeo and Juliet meet again later that night we find that Romeo has gone back home already without seeing or talking to “Juliet” – this scene is crucial because it shows up the shallow nature of Romeo’s love, also you can argue whether this was simply another Romeo joke, however, Romeo is usually shown as a very serious character. Romeo’s standoffish and nonchalant tone of singing “I’m Romeo, yeah I’m Romeo” was an attempt to lighten the mood of the film and the Romeo and Juliet plot but it had no purpose and didn’t fit Romeo’s character at all.
Luhrmann had added this scene in for comedic relief, but ultimately it wasn’t needed. Furthermore, Shakespeare shows Romeo anxious to be with Juliet once he has heard about her through Benvolio who tells him of her beauty, making Romeo’s love more meaningful as there is a sense that he has fallen in love because he heard of Juliet’s beauty , rather than meeting her then going back home – twice – without really giving the “Juliet” character a thought.
Romeo doesn’t even know what she looks like so his love for her is purely physical and lustful – this makes Romeo’s betrayal of Rosaline much more understandable as Romeo was fulfilling a basic human need – to reproduce – rather than Romeo betraying Juliet simply just because they were from different houses, that Romeo didn’t care about.
However, Luhrmann adds several scenes into Romeo + Juliet that do not appear in Romeo and Juliet such as Romeo’s first encounter with Mercutio who soon becomes one of Romeo’s closest companions; this friendship between Romeo and Mercutio strengthens throughout the film as it portrays them as inseparable best friends. This with Shakespeare as he shows Romeo and Mercutio as good friends but Romeo’s character is not built up through Mercutio – Romeo and Mercutio do however share a love of poetry.
Romeo also has a sexual encounter with Lady Montague that does not appear in Romeo and Juliet, this scene could be seen as Romeo fulfilling his physical need, however it simply cannot be justified because Romeo is under the impression that Lady Montague is his mother – if Romeo had been older then maybe this scene would have made sense as he would have been old enough to reproduce and fulfill basic human needs such as having sex, but at fourteen years old? This scene should never have even happened.
Romeo and Juliet is a 1996 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet . Directed by Baz Luhrmann, it takes place in 13th Century Verona , when Guilietta Capuleti dances on the beach with her cousin Romeo Montecchi [1]. Romeo [DiCaprio] sees this dance from a distance and instantly falls in love with her. Romeo hides behind the mask of being a Capulet, but everyone knows Romeo’s family is not on good terms with the Montecchi name. This Romeo and Juliet story is told through the eyes of both Romeo and Juliet .
However, Romeo always seems to have more lines than Juliet. This can be seen as Romeo has more lines, Romeo is always the center of attention, Romeo gets almost all of the focus in each scene. This movie’s Romeo seems to have a few characteristics that are not usually associated with the Romeo character. Romeo was probably one of Shakespeare’s most popular characters, yet this film seemed to change Romeo into someone entirely different—a “cooler” Romeo . Even though Juliet did get her own voice , it still seemed like Romeo was just overshadowing her.
The audience actually sees what happens through Romeo ‘s eyes at certain parts. For example, right before Mercutio dies , Romeo imagines himself stabbing Tybalt over and over again [2]. That scene only shows Romeo focuses on him and his reactions rather than Romeo being with either Tybalt or Mercutio. Romeo ‘s personality is also very different from the Romeo in the original play. Shakespeare’s Romeo was always dreamy, innocent, and willing to make sacrifices for love; however, Luhrmann’s Romeo seemed like he wanted to get what he needed to do done as soon as possible [3].
He even ruined his relationship with Juliet because of selfishness by lying to her about Rosaline not returning his love anymore [4]. This Romeo did sleep around on many occasions—probably even more than Juliet . Another change that Baz Luhrmann made was that this film gave Romeo and Juliet a prince (Prince Escalus). Prince Escalus plays an important role in this Romeo and Juliet film; he is Romeo ‘s judge of the fight against Tybalt, Romeo ‘s executioner, and Romeo ‘s best friend (Sebastian). Prince Escalus seems like a good character to have in this film.
He knows how Romeo acts throughout most of the play , so Prince Escalus can be used as support for Romeo . Prince Escalus also does not make Romeo feel bad about his feelings for Juliet [5]. If Romeo was going through something difficult or if Romeo needed help, Prince Escalus would always be there. The costumes in Romeo and Juliet were very colorful. In fact, each costume had its own color scheme: green for the Montecchi family, red for the Capuleti family, and blue for Romeo . Luhrmann did not make all of the Montecchi characters wear green, but Romeo always did.
Romeo wore a bright orange cloak in some scenes; it was probably supposed to be red, but it came out looking like an odd color of orange instead. Romeo ‘s clothes were also very modern; Romeo had on low-rise pants that looked like they were made out of leather, Romeo had baggy pants on underneath his dress shirt with an “S” printed on it (it might have been the logo for some company), Romeo had two bracelets around one wrist , and Romeo wore many different kinds of sunglasses [6]. The only reason why Romeo would wear those sunglasses is if he wanted to look cool; Romeo did not need sunglasses, but Romeo seemed to have many of them.
Romeo ‘s sunglasses were also different colors throughout the film—red, green , yellow , blue, etc. Romeo looked good with those sunglasses on, but Romeo still looked better without them. Juliet was actually not as bad as Romeo . Juliet wore a red dress when she first met Romeo at the party [8]. That might have been her best costume in the whole movie because it matched her eye color and went well with her skin tone. The one problem with this part of the movie is that Romeo keeps on staring at Juliet for so long even though he does not know who she is.