Product: Romeo and Juliet [Region 2] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
The Best Screen Adaptation of Shakespeare in History
Whoever suggested that Olivia Hussey is not a skilled actress needs to take a second look at this film. Hussey IS Juliet. Withouth Hussey, there is no Juliet. I'm an English teacher, and of Shakespeare's major plays, Romeo and Juliet is my least favorite. But this film changed everything. Zefferelli could not have picked two better youngsters to play Romeo and Juliet. The chemistry is perhaps the most explosive I have ever seen on screen. The viewer is thoroughly convinced, and 100% invested in the love-struck main characters. I can't recall being this devastated by an on-screen tragedy, except perhaps when I watched the doomed relationship of Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty in Splendor in the Grass. A thoroughly well-acted and brilliantly directed masterpiece.