timeswhenlucywasright:

I’m watching Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and I forgot how incredibly trashy it is

but at the same time it’s a very good adaptation because it gets the sense of violence and simmering tensions in the city (both a representation of the factional violence peculiar to catholic countries of the time, and to the fighting of apprentices and youths in London). it even has the laughter at Mercutio’s made up move, mocking his punto and passado and ‘hay’. and it’s got the youthfulness, it’s believable for being about teenagers, posturing teenagers who shouldn’t have guns.

you have the play of authority and individuality, seen in the translation of the prologue into news report and monologue by the friar, two different systems of power and dominance. and the way Juliet is made commodity, a power tool for her family.

and it has the language of difference, the Capulets made clearly foreign in their Italianate stylings, Shakespeare intervening in the discourse of aliens in London.

Lurhmann gets the epic scale perfectly; it’s about framing the narrative of two lovers into something bigger and demonstrating the horror of it all. the two teens are fitted into something much bigger than them, epic music and extreme pathetic fallacy combined with shots where only one character addresses the camera. when Mercutio dies, he dies framed by a ruined stage at Sycamore Grove… their lives have been wedded to calamity through their interaction with power greater than them, and they became the play

and you have the madness, the utter idiocy behind all of the plot, the dizziness of the party and the way Romeo falls in love under the influence of ecstasy. and the water’s never far away, they see each other through fish tank, swimming pool and rain – what’s the truth?

it’s visceral, with the trashy flashy realism and the brilliant soundtrack… and that’s what Shakespeare is. pop entertainment that hits you in the stomach with emotions

also I forgot that Paul Rudd was in this film