Product: Romeo and Juliet [Region 2] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
Grab this instead of the DiCaprio version, okay?
I don't care how much that statement dates me--I make it after buying that one and saying "ouch". This one was a trailblazer in that it was the first to cast young people in the main roles rather than thirtysomething types. Can you imagine a bunch of thirtyish single men running about the streets getting into duels over the wrong facial expressions or tones of voice? None of whom has ever been married? Or a thirtyish woman still needing a nurse/ governess? That's how it was with this play before this production of it. But the trouble is that you can only make the same breakthrough once. After that, it's been there/ done that. The other way this one beats earlier productions is that the characters have actual personalities--they don't orate as in stage productions. Somehow, the scene where Mercutio makes an off-color pun about what time it is comes off better, as does the nurse's quickly suppressed laughter--she's supposed to be offended, after all. There's one strange note later on that would come off as funny if it didn't involve death. When Romeo, enraged by Tybalt's killing of Mercutio, runs Tybalt through, Michael York's Orson Welles-style basso makes Tybalt's cry of anguish sound more like a roar. He does Tybalt's arrogance perfectly before that, though. Not to mention Milo O'Shea's protrayal of Friar Laurence in the manner of the standard Irish parish priest. Plus, Olivia Hussey does Juliet as the signature sweet young thing in a way that, despite her husky Marina Sirtis-type voice, works perfectly.