Set the Trends for the late 1990s and early 2000s

Rating: 7/10 (1 September 2005)

William Shakespeare's masterpiece definitive romantic tale already had love, passion, tragedy and unbeatable literary genius. What Baz Luhrmann did was to turn up its volume, slap on the sunscreen and yell out (captured essentially through the way Leonardo DiCaprio cried in the murder scene) to the world in the midst of a 1996 drag party at the beach.
And what a scream it let out too. Whilst not initially blockbuster fare, it hit the underground and worked itself into the mainstream due to its raw energy- what later became the hallmark of Baz Lurhmann's film signatures when he completed 2001's now celebrated, Moulin Rouge. The film was yelling out to the world way ahead of its time. From the fashion in the film, the stylings of the film all the way to the flair and even hairstyle of the lead characters, this film oozed trend-setter. That it went on to launch Leonardo DiCaprio and his floppy fringe, furrowed brow and a cigarette dressed in a suit without a tie (spanning millions of teenage admirers and copycats the world over), was just the one element of the show's powerful placement as one of the defining pieces of cinema in the 1990s.
Till that time, teenage fare (if people even still consider this film to be as such) was considered fluffy - one must remember that the film was launched in 1996 - with only shows like 'My Own Private Idaho', 'Reality Bites' or even 'Clueless' before it, whilst it way ahead of the teenage movie formulaic explosion that took place after 1998/99, and even the better of those never could touch this film's raw energy, angst, stylistics nor emotion. That was how powerfully strong the undertones and reverberations surrounding this teenage culture defining movie of the 1990s was.
And yet again, it was not just a teen flick- it had the essence of literary prose still entrenched in within, it had a flair for style unseen in any movie at the time (thereby establishing Baz Lurhmann as a revolutionary), and combined with the editing, musical layout & soundtrack (The Wannadies, etc) and sparklingly romantic scenes like the 'fish tank' wooing sequence, it was pure Shakespeare with a twist, and a delectable shout at the beach to stop the world to take notice.