Product: Romeo and Juliet [Region 2] (1968)
Rating: 3.0
Youth, Beauty, and Violence Outshine Shakespeare
There's no denying the beauty of this film. The power of the story is definitely here. However, the problem with the film, is that Zeffirelli often ignores the text in order to do something that fits his own interprettation of the story. For instance, the balcony scene in this film allows Romeo to climb a tree so that he and Juliet can embrace and fall all over each other for the whole scene. The problem with this is that Shakespeare's text indicates that the two are separated for the whole scene. The reason that the lovers talk so much is that they do not have that physical release. This is not to say that Zeff.'s choice to put them together on the balcony is not a valid choice considering the characters and the historical context. However, the problem with the film that I have is that it is often shown in high schools and has become known as the "definitive" Romeo and Juliet, and that is not so. For a defintive version of the text, we will undoubtedly have to look to the RSC. This version is beautiful, but its young stars are often lost in the text and Zeff.'s treatment of the text (with such omissions as the death of Paris and the scene following the discovery of the "dead" Juliet and such additions as a ten minute sword fight between Romeo and Tybalt for a fight usually written in the text as simply, "They fight. Tybalt falls") is often to serve his own purposes more than Shakespeare's.