The Most Misunderstood Film to Date

Rating: Null/10 (2 March 2003)

Romeo + Juliet
Before watching this movie you have to take into account 2 things. First: Shakespeare is dead. He has been for a long time, and all that's left are plays. Because of this, people take these plays and adapt them in their head according to the life that they live TODAY everytime they read them, and almost never on purpose. Secondly: Shakespeare's work is also dead. It's has gone from being unparalelled artistry to being force-fed to students all through school in it's original form with little to no room for interpretation.
With those two things in mind, we come to this film. The title of the film is a lie - this is not William Shakespeare's work. Personally I think the title is a brilliant irony - It cannot be Shakespeare's work, Shakespeare is dead (see point one). So what we have here is an adaptation of the work "Romeo and Juliet" that tries to take a dead work and bring it back to life.

IF YOU REFUSE TO TAKE THE FILM AS SUCH DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE
With that cleared up, Baz is trying to adapt Romeo and Juliet and is aiming for a target audience that HATES SHAKESPEARE. The adolescent mind sees Shakespeare and thinks an hour long, butt-numbing class where an old prof recites the same lesson he's given umpteen million times.

Needless to say, to make aim for this audience was a high goal to set in the first place. Can you even imagine the production studio's response to this? I'd wager it was hard for Baz to find anyone willing to produce this film.
With all of this in mind, we come to the question of "Was this film a success?", and in EVERY SINGLE aspect, it was. He took a work that kids hate and made them love it. He did it with style and flair, produced something no one had ever seen before, and just about cleaned house at the box office.

So if you're going to bitch about this "not being true to the play" or that "it fails because of the dialogue's datedness" then you're wasting your breath. If you want Shakespeare, go read the book, they're everywhere. If you want to see an incredible piece of film that KNOWS it's an incredible piece of film, then watch Baz leave every other Shakespeare adaptation on the dusty old shelves of the Used Movies rack.