Which Romeo and Juliet is the best date movie?
Recently I was asked to review the latest Romeo and Juliet movie on DVD. Here’s a draft of that review below. Let me know what you think.
What do you want in a film version of Romeo and Juliet…? A chance to share an unforgettable production of the classic love story with someone special. Well, Carlo Carlei’s 2013 interpretation, recently released on DVD is not going to be that unforgettable production. In fact, I need to write this review fast, before the whole movie slides out of my brain completely.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I’m an English teacher, and so some of the aspects of the film that bug me aren’t going to bother you at all. For instance, why does this version start with a jousting tournament instead of the street fight that begins the actual play? If I live to be 150, I’m not going to figure out the rationale for arbitrary changes like that, but for purposes of this review, I’ll let go of my frustration with those issues and focus on the ones you will care about.
Romeo and Juliet has plenty of philosophizing in it, but it is a play that doesn’t work for an audience if the audience doesn’t feel it. How can you understand what Romeo and Juliet are up to if the production doesn’t let you experience the feelings of the title characters and of their families and friends as well? Romeo and Juliet is a personal tragedy of two lovers, but it is a communal tragedy as well. Ironically, it is in this area of feeling that Carlei most conspicuously lets his audience down.
Take Mercutio for instance. Who is he supposed to be? He’s the sarcastic friend that you alternately want to smack or high-five, depending on the circumstances. He ridicules Romeo’s passion for Rosaline but takes on Tybalt to defend Romeo when Romeo, from Mercutio’s viewpoint, is oddly unwilling to defend himself. In Carlei’s production Mercutio is just flat. He loses all his sarcasm, all his wit, and becomes just a plot device. Most of the banter between Mercutio and Romeo is cut, and what little is left doesn’t give us a clear idea of their relationship. If I weren’t familiar with the play, I would have difficulty figuring out why Mercutio feels so obligated to defend Romeo. But wait, Carlei supplies a motivation. For no apparent reason, he makes Mercutio, who in the original is a member of the Prince’s family, into a Montague. Great, Mercutio stands up for Romeo because he feels obligated to, not because there is any deep bond between them. Wake me when it’s over.
Actually, Romeo is out of luck in this production as far as friends are concerned. Benvolio, who is supposed to be his closest friend and confidant, as well as cousin, gets merged with Balthasar, a younger and more subordinate character, with the result that Benvolio seems more like a little kid tagging along with Romeo than a best bud. No wonder Carlei cuts much of the romantic advice that Benvolio gives Romeo in the original play: it would sound ridiculous coming out of this version of Benvolio. Unfortunately, Carlei didn’t have the sense to protect Benvolio from looking ridiculous in other ways. As usual, for no apparent reason Carlei introduces a sequence in which Benvolio, noticing that Romeo isn’t going after Rosaline at the Capulet party, tries to flirt with Rosaline himself—after hinting to Romeo how dangerous a romance with a Capulet would be. In the original play Benvolio is a rock Romeo could lean on, if only he realized it. In this version Benvolio is both the annoying little kid and the jerk who wants to get his buddy’s girl for himself.
Juliet doesn’t fare any better. In the original play the Nurse is like a mother figure who supports Juliet when her remote and overly formal mother doesn’t. The Nurse is warm and maternal, and often inadvertently funny. Carlei’s version of the Nurse, on the other hand, is only marginally less remote than Juliet’s mother, so relatively emotionless it is hard to believe her willingness to help Juliet get together with Romeo. Shakespeare’s Nurse was also one of the clown parts, whose lines are rivaled for humor only by Mercutio’s. Carlei’s Nurse is a stiff matron without even a touch of humor. Even the lines that make one realize that the Nurse’s deceased daughter would have been the same age as Juliet are gone. After all, we wouldn’t want any real emotional connection between Juliet and the Nurse, now would we?
Despite the emotional wasteland in which Carlei places them, I still hoped to feel something for Romeo and Juliet. I just couldn’t. With so much of their context ripped away, I didn’t really know them, and so it was harder to feel for them.
Yes, that thud you just heard was Shakespeare turning over in his grave. Carlei’s presentation is not one of which he would have approved. More to the point, I can’t imagine too many teenagers approving either. Do I have any evidence for that assertion? My students were not talking about the film when it was in theaters, and they are not talking about it now. Get the point?
Well, how about Baz Luhrmann’s take on Romeo and Juliet? (If you don’t follow directors, that’s the one with Leo DeCaprio and Claire Daines in it.) Although I’m not a big fan of modern dress Shakespeare and thus couldn’t get used to Romeo running around in a Hawaiian shirt, this version was fun rather than annoying. Sometimes Luhrmann throws Shakespeare’s intent out the window, so I prefer to think of it as a separate work in the same way that West Side Story is. That said, Luhrmann maintains enough of the chemistry of the original for me to feel with and for the characters.
But wait! Before you get your Netflix order ready, I want you to consider another alternative: Franco Zefirelli’s 1968 Romeo and Juliet, starring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting.
Okay, I know some of you are saying, “Who?” about all three of them. Bear with me for a minute.
I saw Romeo and Juliet about a year after it first came out in theaters. I was thirteen at the time, and it instantly became not only my favorite version of Romeo and Juliet but one of my favorite movies of all time. My freshmen English classes normally have to watch at least part of it. They protest bitterly at the beginning that they want to see the one with Leo and Claire. By the end, though, they are no longer protesting. They can see exactly what I mean about the effect the Zefirelli version has. If we are lucky enough to have time to see the ending, there isn’t a dry eye in the house. (Yeah, guys, you may want to have some Kleenex discreetly near at hand, unless you want your girlfriend to see your sensitive side.)
This kind of reaction comes partly from the fact that Zefirelli successfully exploits the power of the relationships that Shakespeare created. Zefirelli’s Mercutio, though played by an actor too old to be an ideal fit, is the wise-cracking but deep-hearted guy Shakespeare intended. Benvolio and Romeo really are best buds. The Nurse is more mother to Juliet than Juliet’s mother is. Each of these characters plays his or her part in the inevitable tragedy, but, more important, each one of these characters plays his or her part in helping us discover who Romeo and Juliet really are. Nor are these the only ones. Zefirelli’s Prince means business in trying to restrain the feud; Carlei’s Prince doesn’t get that worked up, even at the end. Zefirelli’s Capulet has so much force behind his anger with Juliet when she won’t marry Paris that every year one or two of my students actually think he is going to beat her. Carlei’s Capulet is just going through the motions. In fact, virtually every Carlei character is just a pale ghost of the parallel character in Zefirelli.
As for Romeo and Juliet, yes, I know, you may not have heard of the actors before, but give them a chance.
Guys, aside from being a great actress, Juliet is volcanically hot, more so than any other Juliet I have ever seen. (Sorry, Claire!) If you want to feel what Romeo is feeling, just look at Juliet, and you will get the idea. Even love at first sight seems plausible with a Juliet like Olivia Hussey. If I ever had a celebrity crush, she was it.
Girls, when showing the film in class, I have to repeatedly deny that Romeo is Zac Efron. Actually, that’s such a popular confusion of identity that at one point someone put up the wedding night scene on YouTube and labeled it as a deleted scene from High School Musical. I have heard girls debate who was hotter, Romeo or Benvolio, but I have never heard anyone complain that Romeo wasn’t hot enough to make Juliet’s reaction to him completely understandable.
Looking for an unforgettable Romeo and Juliet to share with that certain someone? Try Zefirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. You will not be disappointed!
