Baz Luhrmann is a Australian director who modernized the film Romeo and Juliet- written by the famous writer William Shakespeare in 1597 for a 21st century audience. Luhrmann uses techniques to help make the Shakespearian play understandable to a modern audience. This feature article will show why Baz Luhrmann made this Shakespearian play understandable for a modern audience through his use of different techniques.
A very well-known and discussed theme in Romeo and Juliet was love. Shakespeare presents love in many ways, he was trying to teach the Elizabethan audiences that parental approval isn’t everything and neither is money. Capulet wanted Juliet to marry Paris because he is wealthy and from a stable family.
“Lady Capulets view “of love is very …show more content…
Luhrmann opens this scene with a setting in Verona’s dark streets with music set to the pace of the fight between Romeo and Tybalt. As the camera zooms in both Tybalt and Romeos faces to give more understanding of the anger being felt by both characters. Noises of loud bangs, car engines and thunder emphasize the scene. Before Tybalt is shot, the cameras zoom straight onto the gun to highlight its importance and danger in the fight. The gun fire is extremely loud to show us the crucial moment when Tybalt Capulet dies.
In the 21st century death wasn’t talked about as openly as it was in the Elizabethan times, so in the movie Baz Luhrmann had to be very careful. Shakespeare wrote about death a lot in his plays and it was a main occurrence in Romeo and Juliet but he didn’t have to make it seem so peaceful and harmless like Luhrmann did because the Elizabethan audience accepted it a lot more and it wasn’t a touchy subject back then as it is in the 21st century.
Luhrmann used key themes in the play and incorporated it into the movie but he did this changing a few elements to make it more modern and relatable to this
A very well-known and discussed theme in Romeo and Juliet was love. Shakespeare presents love in many ways, he was trying to teach the Elizabethan audiences that parental approval isn’t everything and neither is money. Capulet wanted Juliet to marry Paris because he is wealthy and from a stable family.
“Lady Capulets view “of love is very …show more content…
Luhrmann opens this scene with a setting in Verona’s dark streets with music set to the pace of the fight between Romeo and Tybalt. As the camera zooms in both Tybalt and Romeos faces to give more understanding of the anger being felt by both characters. Noises of loud bangs, car engines and thunder emphasize the scene. Before Tybalt is shot, the cameras zoom straight onto the gun to highlight its importance and danger in the fight. The gun fire is extremely loud to show us the crucial moment when Tybalt Capulet dies.
In the 21st century death wasn’t talked about as openly as it was in the Elizabethan times, so in the movie Baz Luhrmann had to be very careful. Shakespeare wrote about death a lot in his plays and it was a main occurrence in Romeo and Juliet but he didn’t have to make it seem so peaceful and harmless like Luhrmann did because the Elizabethan audience accepted it a lot more and it wasn’t a touchy subject back then as it is in the 21st century.
Luhrmann used key themes in the play and incorporated it into the movie but he did this changing a few elements to make it more modern and relatable to this