| William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Baz Luhrmann |
| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | Romeo and Juliet 1597 play byWilliam Shakespeare |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Donald M. McAlpine |
| Edited by | Jill Bilcock |
| Music by | |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates |
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Running time | 120 minutes[1] |
| Countries | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $14.5 million |
| Box office | $147.6 million[5] |
William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (stylized asWilliam Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet) is a 1996romanticcrime film directed, produced, and co-written byBaz Luhrmann. It is a modernized adaptation ofWilliam Shakespeare's tragedyof the same name, albeit still usingShakespearean English. The film starsLeonardo DiCaprio andClaire Danes in the title roles of two teenagers who fall in love, despite their being members of feuding families.Brian Dennehy,John Leguizamo,Miriam Margolyes,Harold Perrineau,Pete Postlethwaite,Paul Sorvino andDiane Venora also star in supporting roles. It is the third major film version of the play, following adaptations byGeorge Cukor in1936 and byFranco Zeffirelli in1968.
The film was released on November 1, 1996, by20th Century Fox. It was met with generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $147 million against its $14.5 million budget. At the47th Berlin International Film Festival in 1997, DiCaprio won theSilver Bear for Best Actor and Luhrmann won theAlfred Bauer Prize.[6] At the69th Academy Awards,Catherine Martin andBrigitte Broch were nominated forBest Art Direction/Set Decoration.[7] In 2005, the film was included on theBFI list of the "50 films you should watch by the age of 14".[8]
The film was also re-released in Luhrmann'sRed Curtain Trilogy DVD box set in 2002 together withStrictly Ballroom (1992) andMoulin Rouge! (2001).
In Verona Beach, the Capulets and Montagues are two rival business empires. The animosity of the older generation—Fulgencio and Gloria Capulet and Ted and Caroline Montague—is felt by their younger relatives. A shootout occurs between MontagueBenvolio,Romeo's cousin, and CapuletTybalt,Juliet's cousin, creating chaos in the city. TheChief of Police, Captain Prince, arrests Benvolio and Tybalt before reprimanding the families, warning them that if such an event occurs again, their lives "shall pay the forfeit of the peace".
Benvolio and Romeo learn of a Capulet party that evening, which they decide to gate-crash. Romeo agrees on hearing that Rosaline, with whom he is madly in love, is attending. They meet their friend,Mercutio, who has tickets to the party, and Romeo takesecstasy as they proceed to the Capulet mansion.
The effects of the drug and the party overwhelm Romeo, who goes to the restroom. There he sees and meets Juliet, and the two instantly fall in love, both unaware of who the other is. Tybalt spots Romeo and vows to kill him for trespassing into his family's home.
After Romeo leaves the party, he and Juliet each learn that they belong to the feuding families, but he returns to propose to her. She tells him that if he sends word by the following day, they will be betrothed. The next day, Romeo asksFather Laurence to marry them, and he agrees. Romeo passes the word on viaJuliet's nurse, and they soon get married.
Tybalt encounters Mercutio and Romeo at the beach. Romeo attempts to make peace, but Tybalt assaults him. Mercutio intervenes and batters Tybalt, and is about to kill him when Romeo stops him. Tybalt takes the opportunity to fatally wound Mercutio, whocurses both houses before dying. Enraged, Romeo chases after the fleeing Tybalt and shoots him dead, avenging Mercutio's death.
Captain Prince banishes Romeo from the city, so he goes into hiding with Father Laurence. The nurse arrives and tells him that Juliet is waiting for him. Romeo climbs Juliet's balcony and they consummate their marriage, with him departing the next morning. Meanwhile, Fulgencio decides Juliet will marryDave Paris, the governor's son.
The next morning, Gloria informs Juliet that she is to marry Paris. When Juliet refuses, Fulgencio physically assaults her and threatens to disown her. She runs away and seeks out Father Laurence, imploring him to help her, while threatening to commit suicide. He gives her a potion that will let her fake her own death, after which she will be placed within the Capulet vault to awaken 24 hours later.
Father Laurence vows to inform Romeo of the plot via overnight letter, whereupon the latter will sneak into the vault. Once reunited with Juliet, the two will escape toMantua, the remote trailer park in the desert where Romeo has been hiding out. However, Romeo does not see the delivered letter so, believing Juliet to be dead, buys a vial of poison from an apothecary.
Romeo enters the church where Juliet lies and consumes the poison just as Juliet wakes up. Distraught over his death, she shoots herself in the head with his gun, falling down beside his lifeless body. As Romeo's body is being loaded onto an ambulance, the parents of both Romeo and Juliet arrive on the scene. Captain Prince approaches their fathers, berating them both for the deaths of their children that their foolish feud has caused.
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Natalie Portman had been cast as Juliet but, during rehearsals, it was thought that she looked too young for the part, and the footage looked as though DiCaprio was "molesting" her.[10] Luhrmann stated that Portman was too young at the time, and made DiCaprio look older than intended. He was 21 at the time of filming and Portman was only 14.[11][12]
AfterSarah Michelle Gellar turned down the role due to scheduling conflicts, DiCaprio proclaimed that Danes should be cast, as he felt she was genuine in her line delivery and did not try to impress him by acting flirtatious.[13]
Christian Bale read for the role of Mercutio, but the production crew decided to go with an African-American actor for the role instead.[14]
While it retains the original Shakespearean dialogue, the film represents theMontagues and theCapulets as warringmafia empires (with legitimate business fronts) and the Capulets were "a Latin family, sort of,"[15] played by Latin-American and Italian actors.[16] It is set in contemporary United States, where swords are replaced by guns[17] (with model names such as "Dagger", "Sword", and "Rapier"), and with aFedEx-style overnight delivery service called "Post Haste".[18]
Some characters' names are also changed: Paris, Lord and Lady Montague, and Lord and Lady Capulet are given first names (in the original, their first names are never mentioned);Friar Laurence becomes Father Laurence; and Prince Escalus is rewritten as thepolice chief of Verona Beach, being renamed Captain Prince.[19]
The adaptation eliminates the character of Friar John, and some characters change families: in the original, Gregory and Sampson are Capulets, but in the film, they are Montagues; conversely, Abram, as Abra, is shifted from the Montague to the Capulet family.[19]
The film was an international co-production involving principals from the United States, Mexico, Australia, and Canada. After the success of his earlier filmStrictly Ballroom (1992), Baz Luhrmann took some time deciding on his next project:
"Our philosophy has always been that we think up what we need in our life, choose something creative that will make that life fulfilling, and then follow that road. WithRomeo and Juliet what I wanted to do was to look at the way in which Shakespeare might make a movie of one of his plays if he was a director. How would he make it? We don't know a lot about Shakespeare, but we do know he would make a 'movie' movie. He was a player. We know about the Elizabethan stage and that he was playing for 3000 drunken punters, from the street sweeper to the Queen of England – and his competition was bear-baiting and prostitution. So he was a relentless entertainer and a user of incredible devices and theatrical tricks to ultimately create something of meaning and convey a story. That was what we wanted to do."[20]
Luhrmann obtained some funds fromFox to do a workshop and shoot some teaser footage inSydney. Leonardo DiCaprio agreed to pay his own expenses to fly to Sydney and be part of it. Once Fox sawfootage of thefight scene, they agreed to support it.[20]
All of the development was done in Australia, with pre-production in Australia and Canada and post-production in Australia. While some parts of the film were shot inMiami, most of the film was shot inMexico City andBoca del Rio, Veracruz. For instance, the Capulet mansion was set atChapultepec Castle, while the ballroom was built on Stage One ofChurubusco Studios; the church exterior was the Templo del Purísimo Corazón de María ("Immaculate Heart of Mary") in theDel Valle neighborhood.[21]
The filmpremiered on November 1, 1996, in the United States and Canada, in 1,276 theaters, and grossed $11.1 million its opening weekend, rankingnumber one at the US box office. It went on to gross $46.3 million in the United States and Canada.[22]
In Australia, the film opened onBoxing Day and wasnumber one at the Australian box office with a gross of A$3.3 million (US$2.6 million) for the week.[23] It remained number one for a second week and returned to the top in its fourth week.[24][25] It was the ninth highest-grossing film in Australia for 1997 with a calendar year gross of A$12.9 million.[26] Overall, it has grossed US$12.6 million in Australia and US$147,554,998 worldwide.[5]
Review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes reported 74% of 70 critics gave a positive review, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Baz Luhrmann's visual aesthetic is as divisive as it is fresh and inventive."[27]Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 60 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[28] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[29]
James Berardinelli gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Ultimately, no matter how many innovative and unconventional flourishes it applies, the success of any adaptation of a Shakespeare play is determined by two factors: the competence of the director and the ability of the main cast members. Luhrmann, Danes, and DiCaprio place thisRomeo and Juliet in capable hands."[30]
Conversely,Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review of only two stars out of four, saying, "I've seenKing Lear asa samurai drama andMacbeth asa Mafia story, and two differentRomeo and Juliets about ethnic difficulties in Manhattan (West Side Story andChina Girl), but I have never seen anything remotely approaching the mess that the new punk version ofRomeo & Juliet makes of Shakespeare's tragedy."[31]
Some reviewers significantly revised their opinions of the film as time passed. For example,Stephanie Zacharek went from describing it as "destined for the trash heap of Shakespeare adaptations" in her original review in Salon,[32] to writing "I Panned Romeo + Juliet in 1996. Now I Think It’s One of the Best Shakespeare Adaptations" when revisiting the movie in her 25-year retrospective review forTime magazine.[33]
Romeo + Juliet competed for theGolden Bear at the47th Berlin International Film Festival, winning theAlfred Bauer Prize for Luhrmann and theSilver Bear for Best Actor for DiCaprio.[34] It received seven nominations at the51st British Academy Film Awards and won in four categories, includingBest Direction andBest Adapted Screenplay.[35] The film received a single nomination forBest Art Direction at the69th Academy Awards.[36]
Other notable ceremonies where it received much recognition included audience oriented award shows, such as theBlockbuster Entertainment Awards, and theMTV Movie Awards.
American Film Institute recognition
The film was originally released on DVD on March 19, 2002, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.[43] A 10th anniversary special edition DVD containing extra features and commentary was released on February 6, 2007, and a Blu-ray edition was released on October 19, 2010.[44]
The film maintains a popular reputation among English teachers, as a means through which to introduce secondary school students to the play. Although not to every critic's taste, the film is now recognised as one of the most influential Shakespeare film adaptations ever made.[45]
Retrospective reviews are generally positive. While discussing Luhrmann's adaptation there are comments that include "... the most consistent source of delight in Luhrmann’s movie: the way he sticks so close to Shakespeare yet manages to update the Bard’s play sothoroughly"[46] and lamenting the lack of Oscar success ("though it was sadly overlooked at the Academy Awards"[46]) and, in an updated review on RogerEbert.com a headline that comments how the film "is irreplaceable".[47] The film's timelessness is another theme of these retrospecive reviews,[48] as is praise for the mix of modern images with traditional languages which challenged some early reviewers, leading to comments including "he proved you don’t need to change the language to make Shakespeare accessible".[49]
Miriam Margolyes, who played the nurse in the film, wrote about her experiences on the film in her 2021memoirThis Much Is True. On her co-starLeonardo DiCaprio, she wrote:[50]
Leonardo has grown into an extremely fine actor but back then he was just a handsome boy who didn't always wash; he was quite smelly in that very male way some young men are. Sometimes he wore a dress. "Leonardo, I think you're gay," I said. He laughed and said, "No Miriam. I'm really not gay." But I was wrong. We filmed inMexico City, paradise for someone like me who loves fossicking around flea markets and antiques shops, and, like me, Leonardo was into bling in a big way, too. We'd spend hours going through the markets together. I don't know that I've ever had such fun."[51][52]
She further commented on the chemistry between the film's two leads:
I liked [DiCaprio] tremendously and admired his work, but luckily I was immune from his groin charms, unlike poorClaire Danes, then only 17. It was obvious to all of us that she really was in love with her Romeo, but Leonardo wasn't in love with her. She wasn't his type at all. He didn't know how to cope with her evident infatuation. He wasn't sensitive to her feelings, was dismissive of her and could be quite nasty in his keenness to get away, while Claire was utterly sincere and so open. It was painful to watch. Many years later, I was in a restaurant and she came up to me and said: "We worked together on a film once, I don't know if you remember me? My name is Claire Danes." It was the opposite of the arrogant behaviour of some stars and so typical of her.[53][51]
$2,588,927; $1=A$1.26
Gross 1 January 1997 to 31 December 1997 $12,886,821
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