Summary 
Audacious modernization of the romantic tragedy set within the urban decay of apocryphal Verona Beach, filmed as a frenetic blend of spaghetti western, rock music video, Broadway musical, and B-movie action epic. A young and attractive Romeo and Juliet defy their culture, he the colorfully punk tattooed gang-bangers with handguns and convertible sports cars and she the nicotine and whiskey-soaked decadence of her hyper-wealthy family. A sometimes coarse and hyperkinetic blur of imagery and music, but a memorably played Mercutio and Tybalt plus a wonderfully star-eyed and emotional romance make for a compelling and visceral vision of the timeless tragedy. The art direction/set decoration was nominated for an Academy Award.
Production
Directed by Baz Luhrmann. 1996. 2:00.
Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio (Romeo), Claire Danes (Juliet), Dash Mihok (Benvolio), Vincent Laresca (Abra), John Leguizamo (Tybalt), Paul Sorvino (Fulgencio Capulet), Brian Dennehy (Ted Montague), Christina Pickles (Caroline Montague), Vondie Curtis-Hall (Captain Prince), Paul Rudd (Dave Paris), Jesse Bradford (Balthasar), M. Emmet Walsh (Apothecary), Diane Venora (Gloria Capulet), Miriam Margolyes (Nurse), Harold Perrineau (Mercutio), Pete Postlethwaite (Father Laurence).
Analysis
Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet begins with a television news report, as a female African-American anchor grimly describes the family feud - "from ancient grudge break to new mutiny" - within a contemporary seacoast city that evokes a debauched blend of Miami's South Beach with elements of affluent southern California and the decadence of Mexico City. Luhrmann flashes lightning-quick imagery of the city - "in fair Verona" - as a choir sings, showing a pair of skyscrapers, one topped with a sign for Capulet, another for Montague, plus a towering religious statue that reveals Catholic predominance. Luhrmann's camera moves quickly, like an MTV music video, cutting from close-ups to long shots of the city streets to patrolling Verona Beach police cars. Key characters are freeze-framed and captioned, the heads of the family given first names to personalize them - the immigrant Fulgencio and Gloria Capulet as well as the more mundane but equally wealthy Ted and Carol Montague - and the 1.1 feud erupts at a gas station amid images of overhead police helicopters and swarming SWAT teams. Luhrmann wipes to a baldheaded gang-banger with "Montague" conveniently tattooed to the back of his head, shouting insults - "go rot!" - at the Capulets from a convertible's back seat. Rap music pounds as the Capulet boys taunt three giggling nuns - "bubble, bubble, toil and trouble" - carrying armloads of convenience-store snacks back to their Ladies College van, and one of the Montague boys teases the nuns by licking his own nipple. When the gangs face off, the music switches to the guitar twang of a 1960s Italian spaghetti western, and Luhrmann flashes quick cuts to their pistols, with freeze-frames of their expressions, their dialogue more grunts and exclamations than Elizabethan Shakespeare.
Abra, a menacing Tybalt henchman wearing silver dentures engraved with "sin," inflames the situation, while Benvolio - "part fools, you know not what you do" - tries to keep the peace in a heroic low-angle freeze frame, two Beretta handguns drawn (the barrels engraved with "Sword 9mm series S") one pistol aimed at each gang. The gunfight becomes television news, with Lord Capulet spinning to see the news flash on a TV set, and Montague arriving via limousine and reaching for a "longsword" shotgun, but Captain Prince defuses the situation with shouts from a bullhorn. The music ends, as does the furiously speedy film editing, as Luhrmann shows Prince admonishing the parents of each family - "your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace" - within the colorless silence of the precinct station. This long opening sequence, while certainly lacking the poetry and lofty spirit of typical Shakespearean drama, is nonetheless an exciting tour-de-force of sight and sound, ambitious film-making that - quite appropriately, considering the subject matter - appeals to the rebellious spirit of a younger generation and will probably leave the more snooty scholarly types huffing with disdain.
Luhrmann's success with his film relies on the pivotal title roles, requiring performers young enough to be convincing in their teenaged portrayals, yet mature and skilled enough to realistically convey the gamut of emotions, as well as attractive enough to be sympathetic and appealing, while also sharing a romantic chemistry with one another on screen. The boyishly handsome Leonardo DiCaprio, barely twenty-one years of age at the time of filming but looking several years younger, plays a poetic rebel Romeo. Luhrmann finds him smoking a cigarette and writing poetry in a personal notebook at a deserted beachfront, the rising sun hazy behind his head like a burning halo. His eyes are dark underneath as if he is sleepless, his stylish blond hair unkempt with carefully careless glamor. When his concerned parents approach 1.2 in a black limousine, he walks away, an artistic loner outcast with a recurring musical theme - "nothing" - playing behind him. The romantic imagery continues, with the emissary Benvolio walking with DiCaprio's sun-silhouetted Romeo down the boardwalk to shoot billiards at The Globe pool hall. DiCaprio's Romeo catches an errant cue ball, then dresses like a knight in shining armor for the crash of the Capulet masque, awestruck by the pin-wheeling fireworks on the beachfront. He evokes a brooding interior - "my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars" - and a depth of darkness far beyond his pining for Rosaline. While the other Montague boys sing and howl in their Viking hats, furry orange cowboy chaps, Scottish kilts, and devil horns, DiCaprio's Romeo - "I have a soul of lead" - appears overwhelmed, and Luhrmann's camera finds him plunging his head face-first into a tub of water at the elaborate masque as if in need of silent escape. When he finally emerges, he looks into a mirror and drops his playtime mask pointedly back into the tub.
Claire Danes' Juliet, a resplendent seventeen-year-old actress with an expressive face and intelligent eyes, literally plays an angel to Romeo's knight in shining armor, wearing a white-winged gown for the masquerade party. Luhrmann first shows Danes' Juliet also underwater, her face submerged 1.3 in a basin within the Capulet mansion, her long hair flowing around her face. Like Romeo, Juliet seeks refuge, finding escape in the solitude of water. Luhrmann presents the Capulet household as a comical nightmare, beginning with a close-up of Lady Capulet's red-lipsticked mouth as she shrilly cries out Juliet's name. Joined by the Nurse, their shouts echo throughout the mansion and across the estate, as red banners are unfurled along the façade in preparation for the evening's party. Danes' Juliet, looking lovely and unaffected, endures the neurotic and narcotic blather from her mother, and while the scene plays comically, it also sows the seeds of Juliet's rebellion and her longing for escape. Gloria Capulet, a pacing horror show in sped-up film, sporting a pink slip beneath an open pink furry robe, wears heavy make-up while guzzling Scotch and belching cigar smoke. Servants struggle to stuff her into a Cleopatra costume for the masquerade ball, zipping her into a skirt, tying her into a corset, then fitting her with a jet-black wig and golden tiara. She stomps out of the room at high speed, wielding a big feather fan to cartoon sound effects. Danes' Juliet half-frowns and rolls her eyes at the flamboyance of her mother, just as DiCaprio's Romeo does at the party-time extravagance of Mercutio. Also like Romeo, Danes' Juliet reveals some ominous foresight and trepidation - "o God I have an ill-divining soul" - as does Father Laurence ("much I fear some ill unthrifty thing"), but for the most part she is a beautiful young girl and a tragically romantic victim. Luhrmann's camera captures her from a low angle, gazing in awe up at exploding fireworks, her hands together almost as if in prayer. Her white wings are visible on her back, and with her innocent expression and lovely appearance, she indeed seems like an angel, as Gavin Friday croons "love is all around me" in the background.
The 1.5 first meeting of Romeo and Juliet, a litmus test for any stage or film version of this play, is a resounding success. Still dripping from his head-dunk escape attempt, DiCaprio's Romeo admires a luminous aquarium and all the fish within, but spies Juliet's eye in a coral reef, watching him from the opposite side. They smile a little, then more, not saying a word, separated by the water, and move closer, finally pressing against the glass and beaming in shell-shocked puppy love. When the Nurse calls her away to dance with Paris - absurdly dressed like an American astronaut - Romeo races after, and they share glances and smiles while Juliet awkwardly struggles to dance. DiCaprio's Romeo appears charmingly thunderstruck - "did my heart love till now?" - then takes her by the hand. They giggle and whisper, Luhrmann's camera gently circling them, until Romeo pulls her within an elevator for a private first kiss. The moment is electric - passionate and sweet - and when they emerge in a laughing half-dance, they bump into Paris and her mother, so Juliet pushes DiCaprio's Romeo right back into the elevator for more kisses, the camera now spinning.
After the realization of each other's family heritage - "the only son of your great enemy" - Romeo is whisked away, but he watches Danes' Juliet and her winged silhouette moving from window to window within the mansion, and he stealthily returns 2.1. The scene continues, albeit now with a decidedly comic bent, as DiCaprio endearingly bumbles and stumbles across the estate, setting off motion sensor lighting, causing dogs to bark, and alerting night watchmen. When he climbs a trellis - "what light through yonder window breaks?" - he goes to the wrong window, making a disgusted face at the surprise appearance of the horrific Nurse, and he follows 2.2 behind Juliet - "wherefore art thou Romeo" - when she emerges, talking to herself. DiCaprio's Romeo is spellbound - "speak again, bright angel" - but when he finally addresses her, she jumps and cries out in surprise, and they both fall into the blue-lit water of the pool. The charming images flow over one another: Romeo shouting and splashing, "thy kinsmen are no stop to me"; Juliet smiling prettily at a curious guard; their shared kiss, at first gentle but increasingly passionate in the pool water; her wicked expression and "what satisfaction canst thou have tonight?"; then her headlong dive into him so they fall back into the pool, hugging and kissing each other while twirling underwater. The scene establishes an innocent but sparkling chemistry between DiCaprio and Danes - "a thousand times good night" - upon which Luhrmann builds ("parting is such sweet sorrow") throughout the film.
Luhrmann's frenetic visual style - quick cuts, freeze frames, slow motion, sped-up film - is matched by an eclectic score that ranges from rock, pop and power ballads to thumping hip hop, sizzling alternative musings, and chanting church choirs. A couple of torchy ballads seem to define the aching romance within DiCaprio's Romeo, and Luhrmann shows him before the masque, taking a pill that explodes a close-up of his eye into a flaming pinwheel firework, as Kym Mazelle croons, "young hearts run free." When he turns to the aquarium within the cacophony of the masque, Des'ree sings, "watching stars without you my soul cries," and then "pride can stand a thousand trials, the strong will never fall," as he lays eyes on Juliet for the first time. Luhrmann segues to good effect, using quick cuts to bouncy, fast-moving pop rock: a Wannadies upbeat rock anthem - "it's always you and me and always and forever" - throbs as Romeo races 2.3 in his convertible to arrange their marriage with Father Laurence; and The Cardigans break into "love me, love me" when Romeo utters 2.4 the word "marriage" to the Nurse. The musical mood becomes correspondingly somber, following the plot: Danes' Juliet becomes exasperated within a pink roomful of religious icons and paintings, trying to not notice the Nurse's gigantic rear end as she digs 2.5 into a refrigerator. When the Nurse finally reveals her good news - "there stays a husband to make you a wife!" - a boys' choir begins chanting "everybody's free to feel good" then Prince's "When Doves Cry" to begin the 2.6 wedding ceremony, devolving from hymn to dance club beat. The agonized closing moments of the film are followed by a soulful lament from Radiohead - "I can't do this alone" - that whips itself into an angry fury appropriate for a tale of teenaged love and rebellion against society, family, friends, and the Church: "we hope your wisdom and rules choke you."
Harold Perrineau's portrayal of Mercutio, the finest in the film, is a tragedy unto itself, with the mercurial best friend of Romeo a handsome and eloquent young African-American man, both intellectually and physically flamboyant as well as lethally dangerous. He arrives within fireworks and scattered gunfire, pulling up in his red sports car with vanity plates, laughing as he applies cherry-red lipstick and emerging in a strut, wearing a white fright wig, women's silver chunky high heels, a glittery silver miniskirt with matching bra, plus a shoulder holster for his sidearm. His impassioned Queen Mab speech - on the heels of a magic trick in which he makes a pendant of a heart with an arrow through it disappear from his closed fist - is a tour de force of such power that his friends back away from him. In the sudden silence, DiCaprio's Romeo steps forward - "peace, good Mercutio" - but a mere touch on his shoulder causes Mercutio to shudder. Perrineau's Mercutio dances like a white-winged bat upon a stairs landing in the Capulet mansion, other dancers on the rising staircases either side of him - "never be hung up" - as if from a lavish Broadway production number. During the 2.4 visit by the Nurse - in red lipstick, white sunglasses, a cranberry-red pants suit and carrying a leopard-skin parasol - Mercutio seems desperate for Romeo's attention, the depth of his feelings perhaps belied by the show of flamboyance, and when Romeo departs, Mercutio calls, "a bawd, a bawd" with increasing desperation. After even a pistol shot fails to distract Romeo from the prospect of marriage with Juliet, Mercutio in a sudden close-up reveals both anguish and anger, and he turns and stalks off. Certainly one the Montague Boys - high fives, fist bumps, forearm shivers - he shows special regard for DiCaprio's Romeo, wrestling with him on the beach and cat-calling him playfully. Before the climactic 3.1 battle with Tybalt, he practices his martial arts and gunplay in the surf, tossing a handgun high in the air, then catching it, the barrel against Benvolio's temple.
John Leguizamo's "Prince of Cats" Tybalt is a cheroot-smoking catalyst who inflames the feud, dropping a lit match in slow motion to his silver heels in the opening brawl. He makes a dangerous situation positively lethal, demanding "art thou drawn?" and describing his hatred of the word, "peace," and when a mother and child - the little boy wearing a suit, his hair slicked back - approach from the gas station, Leguizamo's Tybalt aims his pistol at the boy's face, quietly saying, "bang." He shoots the gun out of Benvolio's hand, then pulls another weapon and leaps, shooting both guns in slow motion before rolling at full speed behind a taxi cab, twirling one weapon on his index finger by its trigger guard. In a particularly showy sequence, Leguizamo's Tybalt drops to his knees, pulls off his black leather jacket, draws a sighted pistol, kisses it, then calmly shoots a rival gang member in a speeding convertible. He drops a burning cheroot into a leaking puddle of gasoline, igniting a blaze that results in an explosion that destroys the entire gas station. At the 1.5 Capulet masque, he wears red devil horns, an evil mustache, and a jet-black mini-goatee, plus a glittery red vest under a big-collared suit, blowing smoke when he sees Romeo. He gives a sonic lion's snarl - "darest that slave come hither?" - and confides "to strike him dead I hold it not a sin" to his fellow gang members, who wear skeleton costumes in white-face with black hats. After being silenced - and slapped - by Lord Capulet in a purple silk toga, Leguizamo's Tybalt vows "bitterest gall."
Luhrmann presents the 3.1 confrontation between Mercutio and Tybalt with compelling tension - "we shall not 'scape a brawl" - in a painstakingly crafted sequence that is the pivotal point within the tragedy. Tybalt arrives at the beach with two other gang bangers - "follow me close" - approaching Mercutio as if within a high noon western movie showdown. When Romeo arrives, Leguizamo's Tybalt spits in the sand - "thou art a villain" - and slaps away Romeo's offered handshake of peace. When DiCaprio's Romeo walks away, Tybalt pursues, shouting "turn and draw" repeatedly, finally knocking Romeo down and kicking him. Mercutio watches sullenly - "calm, dishonorable, vile submission!" in close-up - as Romeo rises to his knees before Tybalt - "be satisfied, be satisfied" - and surrenders his gun, thunder rumbling as Luhrmann silhouettes them with a bloody red sun setting into the ocean. Mercutio intervenes, and in the ensuing struggle, is stabbed - "ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man" - by Tybalt, who is pulled away by Abra. Perrineau's expression is chilling as his smile fades - "a plague o' both your houses" - and he sinks to the sand to die: "why the devil came you between us?" His curses on the feud resonate, echoing across the beach with peals of ominous thunder. Luhrmann captures the emotional impact: the score becomes operatic and lightning cracks the sky as Mercutio dies in Romeo's arms; ominous black clouds roll in from the ocean, the shadows passing on the sand; and palm trees bend and carts fall over in a sudden rising wind. As DiCaprio's Romeo begins to pursue Tybalt, Benvolio cries out, "no!" and Luhrmann cuts to Danes' Juliet in 3.2 to divide the powerful moments of 3.1. In silence, Juliet lies on her bed amid an array of candles and religious statues - "come, gentle night" - her knees tucked up to her chin as she smiles and thinks fondly of Romeo: "tedious is this day."
Luhrmann's abrupt cut back to DiCaprio's Romeo in 3.1 is bitterly ironic, as Romeo screams in feral anger, racing after Tybalt and Abra in a high-speed city car-chase, his bloody face pale in the dim glow of dashboard lights. The pursued vehicle careens out of control, and Luhrmann's camera provides a brutally slow-motion shot of Tybalt and Abra flung about the interior, then back to normal speed as the car crashes onto its roof in a metal-scraping slide. When Romeo arrives in a rubber-burning screech, Leguizamo's Tybalt aims his pistol at him, but Romeo kneels, grabbing the barrel of the pistol and pulling it to his forehead. In a screaming cry about Mercutio, Romeo shouts, "either thou or I, or both, must go with him" over and over, and when Tybalt hesitates, Romeo stands and shoots him repeatedly. Leguizamo's Tybalt lurches backward in slow motion, arms flailing, to fall with a splash into a fountain pool. Another crack of thunder resounds as if announcing Romeo's doom, and Luhrmann shoots DiCaprio from directly above as rain falls upon Romeo ("o, I am fortune's fool!").
Pete Postlethwaite's Laurence, in Luhrmann's film a Catholic priest rather than a friar, presents a disturbing cleric, although for the most part he is a benevolent soul (with a maddening error streak). He is first shown instructing young Catholic boys in white shirts and ties, but they sit within a greenhouse and he is teaching them about poisonous herbs, and worse, he teaches while shirtless, a large tattoo of a crucifix across his bare back. Laurence knocks back a shot of whiskey while Romeo tells him of his plans for marriage with Juliet - "Holy Saint Francis!" - and helps him don cassock and robe to say Mass. Luhrmann depicts an intimate wedding ceremony with Father Laurence presiding, but there is an unsettling seediness to his character that remains unexplained, and Postlethwaite's priest completely disappears from the story after agonizing over his undelivered letters to Romeo.
Paris is also minimized - Luhrmann excises Romeo's fight with him at the crypt - and feels comically homogenized with his Christian name of "Dave," a caption of "the Governor's Son," and a headshot on the cover of Timely Magazine announcing his being named Bachelor of the Year. He is dwarfed by the corpulent Lord Capulet in a big white suit and even bigger Italian accent, a cartoonish blowhard bordering on the drunken, even when red-faced and perspiring in a steam bath. The two plan to appeal to Juliet 3.4, Paris in a tuxedo with a bouquet of roses, Capulet in a flowery robe and carrying a tumbler of whiskey, but she prays on her knees before her candle-lit religious shrine. The wedding night scene, with Balthasar waiting in a getaway car down the street, further develops the gentle chemistry between DiCaprio and Danes: he surprises her by appearing suddenly in her bedroom window, and amid romantic music and within the warm glow of a fireplace, they kiss and embrace, she tender with his cuts and bruises from the beating by Tybalt. In the morning DiCaprio's Romeo jerks awake to a nightmare image of his murder of Tybalt, but he reveals affection for the sleeping Juliet, caressing her hair, touching her back, and rubbing his nose against hers. In the blazing morning sunshine, he wakes her and covers them in a sheet as they giggle in point-of-view close-ups. They kneel, still wrapped in the sheet, and kiss, and when the Nurse opens the door suddenly, Romeo sprawls out of the bed. DiCaprio's Romeo again falls into the outdoor pool, and he mouths the word, "adieu!" from beneath the surface to a slow fade, as if drowning.
Luhrmann dwells on the 3.5 anger of Juliet's parents - and its effect upon her spirit - then races through the fourth act, cutting sizeable chunks of text. Lord Capulet erupts into anger, shouting at her in close-up - "disobedient wretch" - then throwing her down on the bed, slapping his wife, and shaking Juliet in a fury. His final fuming - "hang, beg, starve, die in the streets" - is followed by a shove of the Nurse and a slapping away of a servant's tray. Juliet's cold-hearted mother - "I would the fool were married to her grave" - glares icily at her ("talk not to me...I have done with thee") before wobbling slowly off in an inebriated shuffle. The Nurse also disappoints - "I think it best you marry with this Paris" - and Juliet's rush to Father Laurence is in sudden societal isolation. Once Danes' Juliet is armed with her blue vial ("I'll give thee remedy"), Luhrmann cuts to the priest's narrated montage of the plan, showing double-exposed images of the supposedly dead Juliet lying in her bed, a religious statue, a close-up of Capulet, the parents' somber faces at her funeral, Juliet awakening in the tomb, then a smiling close-up of DiCaprio's Romeo. Luhrmann then moves to Juliet's 4.1 "farewell" to her mother (an act of bravery: "God knows when we shall meet again"), completely excising both the pretend contrition before Lord Capulet, and Juliet's hesitation over drinking the vial's contents - she merely whispers, "Romeo, I drink to thee" and drains it - as well as the Nurse's finding of her lifeless body. Juliet's sleeping figure is shown from an overhead shot that swarms with detectives, paramedics, and police photographers, as well as Father Laurence, arriving in time to conceal the blue vial.
DiCaprio's Romeo languishes within a trailer home in the hazy desert, notice of the undelivered letter from Father Laurence going unobserved. With Balthasar's 5.1 news to Romeo of Juliet's funeral - "her immortal part with the angels lives" - Luhrmann quickens the pace to an action-movie clip. After Romeo's rebellious rage - "then I defy you, stars!" - is shouted straight into the sky, his high-speed driving out of the desert dissolves into a police chase back in the metropolis of Verona Beach. With snipers taking shots at him from overhead police helicopters, Romeo stops at the apothecary - a particularly grubby looking M. Emmett Walsh - for a vial of poison, then leads pursuing squad cars - sirens wailing, lights flashing - across town to the Capulet crypt. Caught in the chopper spotlights, DiCaprio's desperate Romeo returns fire with a handgun then storms into the refuge of the dark and silent church.
The concluding moments of Luhrmann's film are powerfully moving, with DiCaprio's Romeo opening an inner door to find a beautiful burial vault, blazing with candles and bursting with flowers, Danes' Juliet lying at its center, a yellow flower in her hair. To rising music, he moves close to her, cheek to cheek, and kisses her hair - "my love, my wife" - before restoring her ring and kissing her hand. Danes' Juliet stirs, but Romeo does not notice, and when she opens her eyes and smiles at him, he is already swallowing the lethal poison. They look each other in the eye, he already dying, and DiCaprio's Romeo musters the strength for his final words - "thus with a kiss, I die" - as Danes' devastated Juliet begins to weep. Luhrmann cuts back to a long shot of them lying together on the brightness of the altar, then moves back as she finds his handgun and points it at her temple. The camera shifts straight above them, catching Juliet's glance above her. As Wagner's Tristan and Isolde opera plays, Luhrmann cuts back to the long shot of the altar, then Juliet crumples atop Romeo with the sound effect of a gunshot.
Luhrmann concludes with an emotional montage - Romeo and Juliet meeting at the aquarium, racing to the elevator, kissing underwater, putting rings on one another's fingers, laughing between the sheets of their marriage bed - that fades to dramatic white. Captain Prince appears to again admonish the saddened parents - "see what a scourge is laid upon your hate" - and Luhrmann excises the promises of atonement from the fathers, instead moving to a reprise of the opening image of the television news report: "never was a story of more woe." Luhrmann's film, undeniably vulgar at times and self-consciously youthful, is nonetheless a convincing romantic tragedy with two young and appealing stars, as well as an exciting and visceral modernization.