Old English.. with Hawaiian shirts..
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smulkin — 10 years ago(July 29, 2015 09:33 AM)
And yet Zefferelli's version still manages to gut the play of it's most interesting momentsJuliet's "gallop apace" speech and her "dashing my brains out" speech, and Romeo killing Paris. It turns the story into the corny love ode that I spend the entire unit trying to convince the students that it's not.
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Ace_Spade — 10 years ago(July 30, 2015 08:28 PM)
I'd like to respectfully disagree with you on that one. I think that Zefferelli's version highlights the conflict between the two families incredibly well, showing the bloody riot at the beginning and the escalation of the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt acting as a microcosm of the families' feuds. A lot of versions omit Romeo killing Paris.
Even if Zefferelli's film focuses on the romance more, I find it hard to think of Shakespeare's work as corny, even when it is trimmed. -
Ace_Spade — 10 years ago(August 02, 2015 05:52 AM)
As a sub-note, I think you'd have a hard time convincing most students that Romeo & Juliet isn't a corny love ode regardless of the version presented. Most people have that preconception about R+J, I think.
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ehaas-3 — 10 years ago(August 24, 2015 09:15 AM)
So you reject the entire genre of Shakespeare in a modern setting with the original language intact?
There are quite a lot of these movies and stage productions. Of course, that doesn't mean you have to like it, but the concept is pretty respectable by now. -
AndrewGS — 9 years ago(November 05, 2016 09:07 AM)
So you reject the entire genre of Shakespeare in a modern setting with the original language intact?
There are quite a lot of these movies and stage productions. Of course, that doesn't mean you have to like it, but the concept is pretty respectable by now.
It can work (this movie was overall good, though mostly because of the acting of DiCaprio and Danes) but I think doing that reduces the ability to suspend disbelief. Sure people spoke and acted differently in a story set in the past but if they speak in non-contemporary English in a contemporary setting it feels too much like admitting it's just a high concept movie rather than one really relatable and applicable today. -
ItsNotJust-a-flick — 10 years ago(December 25, 2015 03:06 AM)
You cannot just get rid of Shakespeare's language. It's literally a poetry (it has rhythmic structure of the verses). And that's one of the main qualities of his work, apart from the themes and characters he explores (plots themselves are rather mediocre).
70s - the time when even Stallone had to make a decent film