Product: Romeo and Juliet [Region 2] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
THE Great Adaptation Of The World's Most Tragic Love Story
Shakespeare is that one playwright in history that everybody knows by name and by reputation; and anyone who has ever wanted to do a play has come across The Bard at least once. His plays are essays on the human condition. When it comes to Shakespeare and the cinema, four names stand out as being the most qualified and most successful. In the distant past, there was Lord Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles. In our present day, there is Kenneth Branagh. And fourth in this group is the Italian filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli.Zeffirelli had shot to international stardom as a director when he directed Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton through the Bard's THE TAMING OF THE SHREW in 1967; it was widely hailed as one of the greatest film adaptations of Shakespeare ever. And then in 1968, Zeffirelli took on the most famous love story in all of literature, Shakespeare or otherwise, ROMEO AND JULIET. This timeless tale of two lovers in warring families in Renaissance-age Verona, Italy has always been a favorite from its very inception, so much so, of course, that there was an American musical version of it set on the mean streets of modern-day New York (WEST SIDE STORY). But one niggling complaint has always been that those actors chosen to play the parts of the doomed teenage lovers are often much older than the parts call for.Zeffirelli deftly avoided this by casting two real-life teenage actors, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, in those roles; and despite them being obvious neophytes, they both succeeded extremely well. Having done many a Shakespeare play myself when I was in school, and having seen this particular film several times, I can vouch for how well this film holds up to scrutiny, given the year of its release and the fact that Shakespeare's dialogue is likely to fly over the heads of a lot of modern filmgoers. Surrounding Whiting and Hussey are a cast of solid actors such as Milo O'Shea (as Friar Laurence) and Michael York, in an early role as Tybalt, while Lord Olivier himself supplies the narration. Nino Rota's music score (including the poignant love theme, known as "A Time For Us", which was a #1 hit for Henry Mancini in the early summer of 1969) is hugely appropriate; and the cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis and the costume design of Danilo Donati not surprisingly garnered well-deserved Oscars.It is very hard, even in an often cruel world like ours is, not to believe in the kind of love that Romeo and Juliet, in the personage here of Whiting and Hussey, have, and how unspeakably tragic circumstances ensure that their love will always be forbidden and never allowed to be consummated. This is why Zeffirelli's version of ROMEO AND JULIET still holds a place among all the great Shakespeare films. Its story is so utterly timeless; and because it is done absolutely right by Zeffirelli, its heart-rending impact is absolutely indescribable.