William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (often shortened to Romeo + Juliet) is a 1996 American romantic crime tragedy film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann, co-produced by Gabriella Martinelli, and co-written by Craig Pearce. It is an adaptation and modernization of William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles of two teenagers who fall in love, despite their being members of feuding families. Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino and Diane Venora also star in supporting roles.
Synopsis[]
In Verona Beach, the Capulets and Montagues are two rival gangs. The animosity of the older generation—Fulgencio and Gloria Capulet and Ted and Caroline Montague—is felt by their younger relatives. A gunfight between Montagues led by Benvolio, Romeo's cousin, and Capulets led by Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, creates chaos in the city. The Chief of Police, Captain Prince, reprimands the families, warning them that 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 in love, is attending. They meet their friend, Mercutio, who has tickets to the party, and Romeo takes ecstasy as they proceed to the Capulet mansion. The effects of the drug and the party overwhelm Romeo, who goes to the restroom. While admiring an aquarium, he sees Juliet on the other side, and the two instantly fall in love, both unaware who the other is. Tybalt spots Romeo and vows to kill him for invading his family's home.
After Romeo leaves the party, he and Juliet each learn that they belong to feuding families, but Romeo sneaks back to see her. Juliet tells him that if he sends word by the following day, they will be betrothed. The next day, Romeo asks Father Laurence to marry them, and he agrees, hoping their marriage will end the feud. Romeo passes the word on via Juliet's nurse and the lovers are 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 uses the opportunity to inflict a deadly wound on Mercutio, who curses both houses before dying. Enraged, Romeo chases after a fleeing Tybalt and shoots him dead.
Captain Prince banishes Romeo from the city, and he goes into hiding with Father Laurence. The nurse arrives and tells him that Juliet is waiting for him. Romeo climbs over Juliet's balcony, and they consummate their marriage. Meanwhile, Fulgencio decides Juliet will marry Dave Paris, the governor's son.
The next morning, Gloria tells Juliet that she is to marry Paris. She refuses and Fulgencio threatens to disown her. Juliet runs away and seeks out Father Laurence, imploring him to help her and threatening to commit suicide. Father Laurence gives her a potion that will let her fake her own death and be put in the Capulet vault to awaken 24 hours later. Romeo will be informed of the plot, sneak into the vault, and once reunited the two can escape to Mantua. But Romeo learns of Juliet's apparent death from Balthasar and leaves for Verona before the message from Father Laurence arrives.
Romeo enters the church where Juliet lies and bids her goodbye, and, thinking her dead, drinks a vial of poison. Juliet awakens just in time for them to share a final kiss before Romeo dies. A distraught Juliet picks up Romeo's gun and shoots herself in the head. The two lovers are soon discovered in each other's arms. Captain Prince condemns both families whose feuding led to such tragedy, while coroners quickly transport the two bodies to the morgue.
Reception[]
Leonardo DiCaprio won Favorite Actor and Claire Danes won Favorite Actress in a Romance at the 1997 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. At the 1997 MTV Movie Awards, Danes won Best Female Performance. DiCaprio was nominated for Best Male Performance, and DiCaprio and Danes were both nominated for Best Kiss and Best On-Screen Duo. At the 51st BAFTA Film Awards, director Baz Luhrmann won Best Direction, Luhrmann and Mary Haile won the Best Adapted Screenplay, Nellee Hooper, Craig Armstrong and Marius De Vries won the Best Film Music, and Catherine Martin won the Best Production Design. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Sound.
The film won several awards. At the 47th Berlin International Film Festival in 1997, DiCaprio won the Silver Bear for Best Actor and Luhrmann won the Alfred Bauer Prize. Luhrmann was also nominated for the Golden Bear Award for Best Picture. At the 69th Academy Awards, Catherine Martin and Brigitte Broch were nominated for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration.
Conversely, Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review of only 2 stars out of 4, saying, "I've seen King Lear as a samurai drama and Macbeth as a Mafia story, and two different Romeo and Juliets about ethnic difficulties in Manhattan (West Side Story and China Girl), but I have never seen anything remotely approaching the mess that the new punk version of Romeo & Juliet makes of Shakespeare's tragedy."
The film was nominated to appear on the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Passions list in 2002.
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The article or pieces of the original article was at Romeo + Juliet. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with 20th Century Studios Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |