Product: Romeo and Juliet [Region 2] (1968)
Rating: 4.0
Beautifully Casted, Adept Cinematography, Soundtrack Moving and the words wonderfully rendered
It is written somewhere, possibly Homer or Plato, (possibly Oscar Wilde) that Poets are in-love with love, that is to say, the "Ideal of LOVE"... because the truly moving love poems, plays and stories that have been penned over the last 500 years, have something in common: most begin with so much passion; as in all good tales, there is a major conflict, but the Love is Real, ending in tragedy and tears. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is one such tale."Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O no! it is an ever-fixed markThat looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come:Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved."- William ShakespeareSonnet CXVIThis is true romance and love from the depths of the soul - true love is unmoved...through out time.The Sonnets are most likely the most heart-felt lines about Love and Devotion ever written.My point is Romeo and Juliet expresses this Love without any political agenda - though finally ending the violent feud between the Montegues and the Capulets.Olivia Hussey as Juliet gives us a unique and star performance. Not only because of her great beauty, but her understanding of the role.The famous line: "Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou, Romeo", was delivered not like any other rendition of this play. See the balconey scene in this film and you will catch the nuances, and the actor's skill.Leonardo Whiting is also a striking fellow and played Romeo in the midst of that "Love Spell" (adolescent) with the innocence and honesty the role deserves.Michael York as Tybalt, revealed the passion, aggression and focus the role requires, and once Romeo kills him, acts out a wonderful "death scene", a great performance!The soundtrack by Nino Rota, "What is Youth", added the necessary feeling to this classic Love Story.A memorable piece.This is the best film interpretation of the play and a classic love story that spawned Shakespeare's beautiful Sonnets.A film to own and enjoy about the wonder of 'adolescent love'; that it still exists, is quite real and will continue its innocence and purity to the end of time.