Baz Lurhmann’s film Romeo + Juliet takes Shakespeare’s classic tragedy and drastically modernizes the tale. Although there have been numerous reenactments, on and off the stage, Lurhmann creates one of the most drastic versions seen. With this drastic take the fidelity of the film takes into account. Although the look of the film is not exactly what Shakespeare imagined the themes and characters are mostly true to the play. For instance, Act 3 Scene 1 (the death scene for Mercutio and Tybalt) has all the correct lines, but some actions are different. I believe that this scene is strong mixture of faithful and unfaithful elements.
The beginning of the scene is accurate towards the source material. The characters act as the text describes, especially Mercutio and Tybalt. And the characters actions are extremely emphasized by the soundtrack. At the …show more content…
In Shakespeare’s play all the action in this act happen back to back. Mercutio gets killed by Tybalt and Romeo kills Tybalt. The swiftness of Romeo’s actions shows impulsiveness in him due to the sudden death of his friend. He doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions, he just acts upon his emotions. However, in Luhrmann’s film there is a considerable time gap between Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s deaths. This time gap can be implied due to the transition from afternoon to late evening. This extended amount of time between deaths takes away the impulsiveness of Romeo’s actions. When the deaths were in the same area and day time Romeo had no time to think, but in the film he does have time to think things out. His actions are no longer mindless, but calculated and thought out. This alteration of the order of events between play and film changes the reasoning behind why Romeo killed Tybalt. In the play it was pure impulsiveness, while in the movie it was pure
The beginning of the scene is accurate towards the source material. The characters act as the text describes, especially Mercutio and Tybalt. And the characters actions are extremely emphasized by the soundtrack. At the …show more content…
In Shakespeare’s play all the action in this act happen back to back. Mercutio gets killed by Tybalt and Romeo kills Tybalt. The swiftness of Romeo’s actions shows impulsiveness in him due to the sudden death of his friend. He doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions, he just acts upon his emotions. However, in Luhrmann’s film there is a considerable time gap between Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s deaths. This time gap can be implied due to the transition from afternoon to late evening. This extended amount of time between deaths takes away the impulsiveness of Romeo’s actions. When the deaths were in the same area and day time Romeo had no time to think, but in the film he does have time to think things out. His actions are no longer mindless, but calculated and thought out. This alteration of the order of events between play and film changes the reasoning behind why Romeo killed Tybalt. In the play it was pure impulsiveness, while in the movie it was pure