Product: Romeo and Juliet [Region 2] (1968)
Rating: 4.0
Greatest Tragedy of All Time
"Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny. Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.... A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life."This version of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is a masterpiece. If you have read the play, you'll notice that the film version is very similar. The actors are very fitting for their characters. Up till this point in this play, directors were using older players. This version uses younger, more fitting actors and actresses. Juliet, played by actress Olivia Hussey, is a young, headstrong girl looking for love. Being that her parents, Lord and Lady Capulet, didn't provide her with much sensitivity and love, Juliet is forced to confide in her nurse. After Juliet finds love in Romeo, actor Leonard Whiting, she learns he is a Montague, her great enemy's son. This devastates both Romeo and Juliet, but nothing will get in the way of their love for one another. The film takes us from the meeting of the title characters to the famous balcony scene. After this, Romeo's friend Mercutio, actor John McEnery battles with Juliet's cousin Tybalt, played by Michael York. He is slain and this starts a war between Tybalt and Romeo. "I am fortune's foe!" Romeo yells this after he kills Tybalt to avenge Mercutio, and then realizes that he is banished from fair Verona. This occurrence threatens Romeo and Juliet's marriage. Another threat to their marriage is the proposal of Paris, actor Roberto Bisacco, to Juliet. Her father, of course, sees Paris as a noble man, worthy of his daughter's hand in marriage. The proposal leaves Juliet to disappoint her mother and father, and the nurse thinks she should marry Paris, although she is already married to Romeo. Now Juliet is left to take desperate measures into her own hands. At Friar Lawrence's cell, actor Milo O'Shea, Juliet insists on his help in the rejoining of her and Romeo. He sees she's desperate and gives her a vial filled with a poison to make her seem dead, while she is really in a deep stage of sleep. He says Romeo will hear the news that she really isn't dead, he'll come and she'll wake. Their marriage should be renewed. As in any other tragedy, not all of the plans are carried out and death is the outcome. With death comes a sense of remorse, both in the Montague and Capulet families. The young actors give the audience a more realistic view of what Shakespeare wanted the characters to be. Hussey and Whiting perform Romeo and Juliet is the fashion in which Shakespeare intended. Both like love, want a little more of it, and will go to great lengths to obtain it. Many viewers argue that they are not truly in love with each other, but rather in lust. The time frame of the film and play is over the course of a couple days, and love usually takes longer to grow than that. None of the characters get enough sleep, and this may force them to act irrationally. You choose for yourself; is "Romeo and Juliet" a story about true love or just a teenage crush? Enjoy the film!