All my life I have absolutely hated Romeo and Juliet. I
thought it was overrated and the characters irrational. (To be fair, they are
irrational. They are teenagers who got married within a week of meeting and
caused how many deaths?)
But as I reread it for this class, I decided to put aside my
cynical side and try to enjoy it. I did find that this worked somewhat. I
definitely had more of an appreciation for the writing, though I still found
Romeo and Juliet to be irrational and silly.
But when it came to the movie? I’M ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE. It’s
over the top, overdramatic, but it doesn’t make the scenes with Romeo and
Juliet over the top, which I thought balanced out the drama and saved it from
being cheesy. I LOVED Mercutio (perhaps with a little bias: Harold Perrineau was
in Lost, which is my favorite show ever.) I thought he was just brilliant and
by far the best part of the movie. I enjoyed seeing Paul Rudd (eye candy is
always nice) and I thought Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes were amazing.
Like I said, their scenes balanced out the overdramatic scenes with the family
war. I thought that they brought youthfulness to the story that made it easier
to enjoy. Instead of spending the whole time thinking about how irrational
Romeo and Juliet were, I got drawn into the story and found myself responding
emotionally to it (this is code for: I cried like a baby at the end.)
Luhrmanns’ decisions throughout the movie regarding the
screenplay, the directing, and the staging of each scene were phenomenal. I felt
like this story translated very well to a modern day setting. The only thing I
had a hard time believing were the political aspects (if it was modern day, so
many of these characters would have been arrested multiple times) but I was
willing to let those things slide.
I’m feeling pressure to end this with a picture, so here’s a
picture of my man, ultra-babe Mercutio.
Mercutio was definitely the highlight of the movie! Every and all props to the Lurhmann for his casting decision. I myself had a difficult time taking the movie itself seriously. At times, it sounded like there were voice overs where there shouldn't have been and other times when there were voice overs they sounded great.
ReplyDeleteI did not like DiCaprio as Romeo at all. I felt that he played the character very teen tough and rumble but his more reserved/sad/contemplative moments did not translate to any really pathos in me at all. Claire Dane was alright. I did not recognize her but felt the witty, lovey dovey way she played it out worked.
It's interesting that we have such different opinions of Leonardo in this role. I thought he was absolutely amazing. Possibly one of the best performances from him I thought. I'm not sure why I liked him so much. I just connected to him on an emotional level. It's weird how people can have such different opinions on things like this!
DeleteI was also surprised at how something that started like a Monty Python movie was able to bring itself to such an excellent close. It seems Lurhmann is trying to remove a lot of the serious implications of a bloody feud until they come head on with Mercutio’s death after which every proceeds rapidly downhill. In the original there is a lot of tension even from the opening. Here some of that is dispelled so that Romeo and Juliet get more focus.
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice until you pointed it out but Luhrmann definitely keeps the feud light and almost humorous until Mercutio dies. I disagree why this might have been done though. I think it's because to the people on both sides of the feud it wasn't serious until Mercutio died. No one had died until then and though the feud caused trouble, the participants obviously didn't care until then.
DeleteI have never been a huge fan of Romeo and Juliet either, and I also tried to give it a fair chance for the purpose of class. Surprisingly for me, I also found that Leonardo Dicaprio was much better in his role then what I remembered. I was impressed with how he showed different emotions in the role. My favorite scene of his was his reaction after Mercutio's death and him killing Tybalt. I found him to be really powerful in portraying helplessness, desperation, and rage.
ReplyDeleteI just couldn't get over my cynicism, but on rereading and watching the movie, I was able to at least open up to some of the bigger things that seemed to be tackled by the source. Family and duty, love and happiness. Ah well. Stupid teenagers.
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