Product: Romeo and Juliet [Region 2] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
one of my all time top five
For me this one is up there with "One Flew over the Cuckoos nest", "Lord of the Rings", "Amadeus" and "Star Wars". You can't blame subsequent adaptions for adding guns and rap music because as far as I'm concerned this version tells the traditional tale of Romeo and Juliet as well as a film can. (the only change I'd make would be editing out a few sobs here and there.) It surprises me that this is the only version out there with "child" actors because Romeo and Juliets age is an essencial part of what makes the plot and dialogue psychologicaly belevable to me.This is more of a directors film than an actors film. It's acted wonderfully but probably more because the actors were well chosen for the parts and less because they were skilled at the craft of acting. Director, Franco Zeffirelli manages to enact the most paradied moment in western drama, the balcony scene, in a way that is at once so fresh and so fearlessly pure and straightforeward that I felt like I was watching an age old natural phenominon (like a sunrise) for the first time. The only people I've met who don't love this film are folks who don't connect with the play in the first place. Also, whoever wrote the dialogue did a nice job.P.S. If a dated 1960s look bothers you then get the remastered widescreen DVD. It feels more timeless.