Product: Romeo and Juliet [Region 2] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
My Very Favorite Movie of All Time
This is my absolutely favorite movie. It is simply flawless, and what first made me love Franco Zeffirelli, one of the few directors whose names I have bothered to remember.Olivia Hussey plays Juliet, as young-looking as Shakespeare wrote her to be: not yet fourteen. Leonard Whiting plays Romeo, as handsome and charming, and also very young, as he was meant to be. That such impressive Shakespearean acting comes from such young people is a tribute to their teachers. They must have been acting all their lives. The sets, the costumes and the props are all as lavish of color and authenticity as one could possibly ask. The music is charming; it's a perfect movie.You all know the story, of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, those star-crossed lovers. Their families have been fighting for as long as anyone can remember, and the young hot-heads on both sides keep it going. The prince declares that the lords of both households will pay with their lives if the fighting does not stop.So Capulet gives a great ball, and Romeo and several of his cousins and friends don masks and crash the party. There, with Juliet looking so utterly adorable no one could help loving her, he is totally smitten. She is also overwhelmed by the intensity of her response.That night, she goes out on the balcony to talk to herself about Romeo, and how awful it is that he is a Montague. He is listening, and they perform the ever famous balcony scene. They do it superbly, with such true feeling that I suspect there may have been something of a romance between Hussey and Whiting as well. Her costume is a very push-up bodice which is properly her underclothes. What with her leaning over the balcony most of the time, you can see she's well developed, in spite of her youth. (Indeed, you can't help but figure Hussey is at least a little older than almost 14.)She tells him she will send her servant to him tomorrow at nine, and she does. She wants to meet him in a friendly monk's chamber, where they will be wed. And indeed it comes to pass.Unfortunately, Mercutio, a Montague, is met in the public square by Tybalt, a Capulet, and is slain. In fact, he was slain beneath Romeo's arm, as he was attempting to separate the combatants. Romeo goes nuts and chases after Tybalt and kills him. He then runs to the monk and asks him to help. While he is there, Juliet's nurse comes to bring the message that Juliet is at home, grieving for her cousin Tybalt, and crying that she must see Romeo that night.The audience gets to see Romeo, too, the next morning, as he lies naked in Juliet's bed. This is the one I call "the beautiful buns scene." I expect men call it the beautiful breasts scene. In any case, Romeo must run away or be killed by the Capulets. But then Juliet's father insists she must marry Paris, who seems to be a nice enough guy if she wasn't already married to Romeo.She goes running off to the monk again, and finds Paris there before her. The monk sends Paris off while he takes her into his chamber and, after she tells him that Romeo has been banished, he devises a plan. Being an amateur chemist, he has a potion that will make her appear to be dead for 42 hours. She will be placed in the Capulet vault, and wake up later, with Romeo and the monk there, and she will run away with Romeo and share his exile until the prince can be persuaded to raise the banishment he has pronounced.She does that, and the monk sends off a letter to Romeo to tell him of the plan. But Romeo's servant Balthazar observes the funeral, and of course thinks Juliet is really dead. He hurries to his exiled master, passing the monk who has been entrusted with the letter, and they race back to the Capulet vault. There Romeo drinks real poison, Juliet awakes and, once she finds he is dead, takes his dagger and plunges it into her chest.Ironically, at the funeral of the two of them, the Montagues and Capulets finally make peace.