Romeo + Juliet (1996)
September 30, 2024 3:24 PM - Subscribe
In director Baz Luhrmann's contemporary take on William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed. Though the film is visually modern, the bard's dialogue remains.
Starring lots of people, including Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo, Claire Danes as Juliet, Paul Sorvino as Lord Capulet and Brian Dennehy as Lord Montague.
Oh and Miriam Margolyes as the Nurse.
Letterboxd for those who do.
JustWatch, in case that helps anyone.
Contemporaneous Roger Ebert review, who did not care for it.
25th Anniversary piece from Time Magazine.
The Ringer has a retrospective I do not bite my thumb at.
Starring lots of people, including Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo, Claire Danes as Juliet, Paul Sorvino as Lord Capulet and Brian Dennehy as Lord Montague.
Oh and Miriam Margolyes as the Nurse.
Letterboxd for those who do.
JustWatch, in case that helps anyone.
Contemporaneous Roger Ebert review, who did not care for it.
25th Anniversary piece from Time Magazine.
The Ringer has a retrospective I do not bite my thumb at.
My only exposure to this movie is through Tumblr gifs, which tend to show Perrineau having an absolute ball with his part. Which is not a bad thing, all in all.
I don't think I'm inclined to see the whole thing, though. R+J is not my favorite play to begin with, and it appeals even less as I get older. Grow the hell up, you emptyheaded children.
(I did see one televised performance of the Prokofiev ballet that made clear that Juliet was being railroaded by her parents into an unwanted marriage to Paris, such that Romeo represented a way out. That's an interpretation I can get along with -- even in the play, Juliet is smarter and more trapped than Romeo. Not that either of them is winning any prizes for brains.)
posted by humbug at 4:31 PM on September 30 [3 favorites]
I don't think I'm inclined to see the whole thing, though. R+J is not my favorite play to begin with, and it appeals even less as I get older. Grow the hell up, you emptyheaded children.
(I did see one televised performance of the Prokofiev ballet that made clear that Juliet was being railroaded by her parents into an unwanted marriage to Paris, such that Romeo represented a way out. That's an interpretation I can get along with -- even in the play, Juliet is smarter and more trapped than Romeo. Not that either of them is winning any prizes for brains.)
posted by humbug at 4:31 PM on September 30 [3 favorites]
I love this adaptation. Early on, I found the fast cuts all a bit much, but once we got into more meaty parts of the script things settled down enough that I wasn't finding it distracting. Also, I love that they had Perrineau use the Queen Mab speech in a way to make it significant in a modern telling.
posted by rmd1023 at 4:54 PM on September 30 [5 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 4:54 PM on September 30 [5 favorites]
I saw this when it came out, thought it was kind of neat, and... pretty much the only thing I remember about it was John Leguizamo just completely going for it. Everything else was too slick to stick in my brain.
You know what Shakespeare adaptation from the same year did stick in my brain? Tromeo and Juliet. "They found a peanut, all right, honey. The found a peanut of death."
posted by phooky at 7:39 PM on September 30 [2 favorites]
You know what Shakespeare adaptation from the same year did stick in my brain? Tromeo and Juliet. "They found a peanut, all right, honey. The found a peanut of death."
posted by phooky at 7:39 PM on September 30 [2 favorites]
John Leguizamo as Tybalt "Thou art a villain!" and Harold Perrineau as Mercutio stole this one. I saw this 3-4 times in the theater as I had just moved away from home and wasn't old enough to drink. I also really liked Quindon Tarver's cover of When Doves Cry.
posted by soelo at 7:50 PM on September 30 [9 favorites]
posted by soelo at 7:50 PM on September 30 [9 favorites]
Rewatched this recently and still liked it - I also thought Harold Perrineau completely stole the show. And Leguizamo, Dennehy, Sorvino, Rudd, lots of good performances (and inspired casting!). Leo was a bit of a weak point IMO, but Claire Danes was nice.
The name "Dave Paris" still cracks me up. And "Ted Montague".
Don't get me wrong, I don't think this movie works very well as a legitimate tragedy, more of a fun experiment...
Although "Lovefool" is a legit classic.
posted by equalpants at 8:04 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]
The name "Dave Paris" still cracks me up. And "Ted Montague".
Don't get me wrong, I don't think this movie works very well as a legitimate tragedy, more of a fun experiment...
Although "Lovefool" is a legit classic.
posted by equalpants at 8:04 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]
so one of my favorite Turns Outs is that, back in the day, Shakespeare plays would basically depict historic figures like their contemporary counter parts (e.g. Cleopatra would be dressed like a European monarch), which means that, in a certain sense, this is actually the most properly authentic a staging of Romeo & Juliet can be
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:30 PM on September 30 [13 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:30 PM on September 30 [13 favorites]
separately I do genuinely love this movie and its sheer goddamn audacity — everything from the opening narration being delivered by a newscaster to Luhrmann seeing frequent references to swords in the script and just going "fuck it we'll just write 'sword' on a gun" and it WORKS PERFECTLY SOMEHOW
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:32 PM on September 30 [15 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:32 PM on September 30 [15 favorites]
I do bite my thumb at that review for The Ringer. Those plot holes they're complaining about aren't even real (Cellphone coverage in isolated trailer parks wasn't great in 1996, Father Laurence did not supply deadly poison to Romeo), and the Montague Boys are the perfect embodiment of troublesome teenage boys. Yes, I am sure it is so good.
One of my favourite parts is Romeo saying "Wilst thou leave me so unsatisfied?" and Juliet giving him a hell of a look replying "What satisfaction could thoust have" you dirty bastard?
posted by WhackyparseThis at 1:34 AM on October 1 [3 favorites]
One of my favourite parts is Romeo saying "Wilst thou leave me so unsatisfied?" and Juliet giving him a hell of a look replying "What satisfaction could thoust have" you dirty bastard?
posted by WhackyparseThis at 1:34 AM on October 1 [3 favorites]
I’d love to write something more considered and insightful, but I’m just stuck on “I fckn love this movie.”
posted by jjderooy at 3:00 AM on October 1 [6 favorites]
posted by jjderooy at 3:00 AM on October 1 [6 favorites]
There's a lot to like about this movie, even though it occasionally collapses into its own theatrical excess. The soundtrack is an absolute classic.
posted by merriment at 5:07 AM on October 1 [2 favorites]
posted by merriment at 5:07 AM on October 1 [2 favorites]
The scene at the gas station with Leguizamo was fun.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:41 AM on October 1 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:41 AM on October 1 [1 favorite]
phooky - I had completely forgotten that the excellent Tromeo & Juliet came out the same year as this. Wow!
posted by rmd1023 at 8:28 AM on October 1 [2 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 8:28 AM on October 1 [2 favorites]
"By my heel, I care not."
Ugghhhhhh, Harold Perrineau as Mercutio was just fuckin perfection
posted by Kitteh at 8:52 AM on October 1 [8 favorites]
Ugghhhhhh, Harold Perrineau as Mercutio was just fuckin perfection
posted by Kitteh at 8:52 AM on October 1 [8 favorites]
^ That's one of the gifs that regularly circulates on Tumblr. Putting Mercutio in heely sneakers for that line is legit clever.
posted by humbug at 9:47 AM on October 1 [4 favorites]
posted by humbug at 9:47 AM on October 1 [4 favorites]
Every Luhrmann is a trainwreck. Rarely good, but never boring.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:52 PM on October 1
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:52 PM on October 1
I saw this in college while coming down from acid. At one point everyone was talking backwards.
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:07 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:07 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
Few things were ever so heart-rendingly, achingly beautiful as Leo & Claire set to that Des'ree song, and fewer still as glorious as Harold Perrineau.
posted by ApathyGirl at 4:04 PM on October 1 [3 favorites]
posted by ApathyGirl at 4:04 PM on October 1 [3 favorites]
This came out when I was a kid; I liked it then and still like it now, but it completely confounded my expectations for a Baz Luhrmann movie. It took years before I realized that I actually despise Baz Luhrmann stuff, and Romeo + Juliet is the only exception. I dunno, was he reigned in by the limitations of doing a Shakespeare script/not being a super successful diretor yet? It's a very high energy adaptation, and that is a Baz Luhrmann thing, even if it usually sends me spiraling with secondhand embarrassment.
I think it helps that I never much liked Romeo & Juliet. Weirdly, it's one of the plays that schools insist on teaching to 7th/8th/9th graders, though I don't think teenagers ever have a ton of sympathy for the main characters. (As a kid, I remember the general sentiment being "why are they so stupid." As an adult, at some point I developed enough emotionally to accept that it's pretty tragic that two stupid kids could end up dead because all the adults were committed to a pointless, endless feud. But I was a pretty judgy teenager, so I just blamed the two teenagers at the heart of the story.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:14 PM on October 1
I think it helps that I never much liked Romeo & Juliet. Weirdly, it's one of the plays that schools insist on teaching to 7th/8th/9th graders, though I don't think teenagers ever have a ton of sympathy for the main characters. (As a kid, I remember the general sentiment being "why are they so stupid." As an adult, at some point I developed enough emotionally to accept that it's pretty tragic that two stupid kids could end up dead because all the adults were committed to a pointless, endless feud. But I was a pretty judgy teenager, so I just blamed the two teenagers at the heart of the story.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:14 PM on October 1
Venue for my first ever date in high school!
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 2:58 AM on October 2 [1 favorite]
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 2:58 AM on October 2 [1 favorite]
John Leguizamo as Tybalt "Thou art a villain!" and Harold Perrineau as Mercutio stole this one.
There's a reason I continue to love that movie forever.
posted by corb at 11:30 AM on October 2 [1 favorite]
There's a reason I continue to love that movie forever.
posted by corb at 11:30 AM on October 2 [1 favorite]
It was interesting on the re-watch to realize that Romeo falls in love with Juliet while rolling on molly. Not an auspicious start to a marriage, I think?
My stoner girlfriend at the time (ah college) called this out, "See? See? I told you. You never date someone you meet rolling. Never."
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 12:59 PM on October 2 [2 favorites]
My stoner girlfriend at the time (ah college) called this out, "See? See? I told you. You never date someone you meet rolling. Never."
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 12:59 PM on October 2 [2 favorites]
I was listening to the In Our Time episode on Romeo & Juliet, and when they came to talking about favourite adaptations, the academics all agreed that they were going to be uncontroversial and select the Luhrmann adaptation. It's apparently very highly regarded amongst Shakespeare scholars! For one thing, it keeps all of Shakespeare's original dialogue, renders it as heightened language, and then bends over backwards to make the rest of the movie match its energy. There are very few directors who could keep that up for a full movie, but Baz Lurhmann has only one setting, and it's "extra".
Its genius is taking the traditional approach of dressing historical roles in contemporary dress, and applying it to the entire production. The narrator is rendered as a news anchor, the setting is transplanted to a close equivalent of the noble-families-at-war of the original, and anything that doesn't quite work is unashamedly made to work (like keeping all the sword language and then smash-cutting to a close-up of a gun labelled "RAPIER"). It's totally clear what the emotional register of each scene is, even if the language is unfamiliar - audiences today don't know what 'biting the thumb' means, but everything's so manic that it seems somehow natural that this is how they threaten each other in Verona Beach. And then it has some ideas of its own: the fishtank scene was cited as one of the most iconic takes on Romeo and Juliet's meeting. But it's also, especially given how loud it is, able to capture the nuance of the play - it's not straightforwardly romantic, and is aware that this is a bad match that wouldn't end well even if the Capulets and Montagues were at peace.
posted by Merus at 8:55 AM on October 3 [7 favorites]
Its genius is taking the traditional approach of dressing historical roles in contemporary dress, and applying it to the entire production. The narrator is rendered as a news anchor, the setting is transplanted to a close equivalent of the noble-families-at-war of the original, and anything that doesn't quite work is unashamedly made to work (like keeping all the sword language and then smash-cutting to a close-up of a gun labelled "RAPIER"). It's totally clear what the emotional register of each scene is, even if the language is unfamiliar - audiences today don't know what 'biting the thumb' means, but everything's so manic that it seems somehow natural that this is how they threaten each other in Verona Beach. And then it has some ideas of its own: the fishtank scene was cited as one of the most iconic takes on Romeo and Juliet's meeting. But it's also, especially given how loud it is, able to capture the nuance of the play - it's not straightforwardly romantic, and is aware that this is a bad match that wouldn't end well even if the Capulets and Montagues were at peace.
posted by Merus at 8:55 AM on October 3 [7 favorites]
This pick has proven unexpectedly popular! I'll put a plug in for our next Club selection, As You Like It from the National Theatre.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:43 PM on October 3 [2 favorites]
posted by fiercekitten at 6:43 PM on October 3 [2 favorites]
Merus: I've always loved the way that Luhrmann goes WE'RE DOING IT HARD FAST AND BY THE BOOK and then makes the play be a movie and it all just works.
I was doing R+J in high school during its theatrical run and my English teacher arranged for the whole class to see it at the cinema. I don't think you'll get a better response to the film than a pack of fourteen and fifteen year old kids who all understand implicitly how difficult it is to wrangle big teenage love affairs. The scene in the vault at the end especially - pitch perfect.
posted by Jilder at 9:50 PM on October 3
I was doing R+J in high school during its theatrical run and my English teacher arranged for the whole class to see it at the cinema. I don't think you'll get a better response to the film than a pack of fourteen and fifteen year old kids who all understand implicitly how difficult it is to wrangle big teenage love affairs. The scene in the vault at the end especially - pitch perfect.
posted by Jilder at 9:50 PM on October 3
God, the SOUNDTRACK of this movie!! Everyone had to own the CD. I think I got it for Christmas that year.
posted by potrzebie at 12:32 AM on October 6 [1 favorite]
posted by potrzebie at 12:32 AM on October 6 [1 favorite]
interesting on the re-watch to realize that Romeo falls in love with Juliet while rolling on molly. Not an auspicious start to a marriage, I think?
nobody spoil it! now i wanna see what happens
posted by HearHere at 1:41 PM on October 11
nobody spoil it! now i wanna see what happens
posted by HearHere at 1:41 PM on October 11
tl;dw ⏭️ they BOTH die, tragically?
wtf! who wrote this
posted by HearHere at 2:00 PM on October 11 [1 favorite]
wtf! who wrote this
posted by HearHere at 2:00 PM on October 11 [1 favorite]
There is a musical on Broadway and soon to be on tour called & Juliet. The premise is that she doesn't off herself.
posted by soelo at 10:19 AM on October 14
posted by soelo at 10:19 AM on October 14
There is a musical on Broadway and soon to be on tour called & Juliet. The premise is that she doesn't off herself.
Well, let's be clear: The premise of & Juliet is the best story they could fit to Max Martin's song catalog.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
(no joke, the man's got a gift for a particular kind of pop I can't resist.)
posted by ApathyGirl at 10:56 AM on October 15
Well, let's be clear: The premise of & Juliet is the best story they could fit to Max Martin's song catalog.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
(no joke, the man's got a gift for a particular kind of pop I can't resist.)
posted by ApathyGirl at 10:56 AM on October 15
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Mercutio is my favorite character in the play and I did not care for this characterization. It was just too screamy and didn't give space for the actor (Harold Perrineau) to really live in the character. Honestly, no-one was given time to just be the character except for Leo and Claire. Which is OK, maybe, as they're the title characters. We all know, if you've been following this club, Shakespeare loves a unique character and there's usually plenty to go around. Not this time. Only raves. No thoughts.
posted by fiercekitten at 3:31 PM on September 30