Romeo and Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet
Question One
The filmmaker’s adaptation of the classic story of Romeo and Juliet is highly successful. The filmmaker is aware that the modern audience has high expectation on the quality of films produced and therefore decides to give it a modernized version of Romeo and Juliet. The adaptation starts at the onset of the film. The setting is modern and depicts the life of a contemporary city and a beach. Instead of Verona city that was featured by Shakespeare, the film refers to Verona Beach since using an ancient Roman city would not achieve the maximum effect on the audiences. Instead of a narrator, the filmmaker uses a newsreader who introduces the characters of the film as a news bulletin and also highlights the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. Further, the movie director uses the newspaper to report the war showing the rivalry through skyscrapers labeled Capulet and Montague lining opposite sides. The scenes unfold nicely, intriguing the audience in a more incredible way that the original Roman setting would not have achieved.
Moreover, the director uses colors in the film to emphasize the message of the songs. In most cases, the colors show the wealth and sophistication of the feuding families. Finally, the filmmaker makes a visible demarcation between violence and love. While the city is chaotic reminiscent to the current cities, the beach is calm and cool representing the love that Romeo and Juliet feel for each other.

By adapting the film to the contemporary audience, the director tells the same story but in a better and fascinating way.
Question Two
The juxtaposition of the classical language and the contemporary scenes in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ film is fascinating. The classical language is way complex for the 20th-century audience. However, when accompanied by visual images, the meaning of the words is clear. Shakespeare wrote ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as an aural play rather than a visual. In fact, most of the scenes were explained by the Narrator since constructing them on the stage was not possible. In the film, the director wants to retain the flow of the story. However, he has created the visual representation of the happenings which aids in understanding the film more than when reading or listening to it. Through the contemporary visual representation including the news anchor, skyscrapers, chaotic city environment, cool beach, Luxurious cars for the two feuding family members and attractive colors, the audience establishes the meaning of the words used.
Question Three
The prologue of the film enhances the telling of Romeo and Juliet’s story. The six lines that act as prologue in Shakespeare’s play are repeated as the relevant shots are shown and frozen on the screen to introduce them to the characters. It is narrated as a news bulletin where the anchor takes the roles of the narrator in the play. An aerial view shows the police choppers, cars, injured people on the ground demonstrating the chaos in Verona Beach which is reminiscent of Verona city in the play. The feud is explained explicitly using the original prologue words ‘Two houses, both alike in dignity’ and visual images and newspapers articles to magnify the rivalry. Some of the prologue lines are splashed on newspapers as headlines with visual images that point to the violence. Through the prologue, the audience gets a perfect start to the story, which serves as the hook to keep the people glued to the screen until the film ends.