Product: Romeo and Juliet [Region 2] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
Nearly 40 years old, now, the film still works...
You can even get a flash of Olivia Hussey's breast in the bedroom scene if you look closely, and she was only 15 at the time of filming, so this version of the ancient play was controversial in its day. It has passion, style, great supporting actors, and is true to its source as well. While the more recent version with Leonardo DiCaprio has some good moments, too, this one is the high water mark of "Romeo and Juliet" on film. I will never forget seeing this at the base theater at Fort Knox, Kentucky, after spending a month in Vietnam, facing almost another year in the Army. When the movie ended, one soldier in front of me said to his buddy, "They think they've got troubles? Try being in the damn Army!" Well, R and J did have life-ending troubles, but their falling in love, as instant as it was, achieves believability and really tugs at the hearts of the audience. This movie was a fine accomplishment, and its soundtrack album was also a big seller on LP in the late '60's. That Shakespeare fellow did his writin' before movies were invented, I think, yet his stuff adapts really well to the screen. For my taste, a Shakespeare movie almost always beats seeing his plays on stage.