50 Years Ago Today: Romeo Oh Romeo

We all know the story. The forbidden love of Romeo and Juliet that battled through the fierce rivalry of the Capulet and Montague houses. This groundwork for all grand love stories is one that filmmakers, playwrights and actors still try to mirror, echo or remake. The emotion and passion that we all could read through the text has always been tried to be conveyed on screen or on stage. Whether it has been through company theater or film versions of the play: Shakespeare created a tragically iconic love story that continues to resonate famously.  But not all adaptations of this play have been successful. On stage, these performances can be phenomenal. The Royal Shakespeare Company is just as one example of a successful stage production house where most casts are deliberate and careful when honoring and preserving the text and bringing it to life.  Film, however, is inherently more open-ended. This can be a great thing in the sense that a lot more people have the opportunity to make an interpretation or movie of the work. But this also means that the text can be warped and twisted when taken by the wrong hands and either made into something completely different or just misused, abused and disrespected altogether.  Although there have been some adaptations before and many after, my opinion is that the best adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” is the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version. The acting, music, scenery and costumes are all few of many factors that perfectly encapsulate the intention of the Shakespearean tragedy. The young actors, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting command the screen with their genuine and heartfelt performances. Hussey, only 16 at the time of filming, and Whiting, only 17, both portrayed accurate and convincing portrayals of these ages. Their innocence is perfectly balanced with the sense of confidence and maturity that these two characters convey. Every scene is stacked to the corner with accurate baroque attire, all shaded by a honey colored light that makes the whole movie seem itself like a dream. There is also something about this adaptation that makes it timeless. Some movies need revival so that producers can add CGI and better quality to improve the connection between the viewer and the work. But the 1960’s quality that this film is made with, though unintentionally done, makes it seem more like an antique treasure that should not be tampered with.  Other adaptations of Romeo and Juliet have been at their best, adequate and at their worst, disrespectful. The 1996 Baz Luhrmann adaptation, famous for projecting the young Leonardo DiCaprio and innocently sweet Claire Danes, is an adaptation that falls towards disrespect. I would have walked out of the theater, because after all, when someone is intending on remaking or inventing a new version of an old film or book, they should ask themselves: what can I add that hasn’t already been done and will do nothing more than honor the original edition? Everyone since 1968 has obviously ignored this question.  Regardless if you like the 1996, 2013, 1936, 1908 or even “Gnomeo and Juliet”, the 1968 version is still the best one. The only adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that doesn’t follow the Shakespearean text that is worthy of approval is West Side Story from 1961. But that might be because of my love for Rita Moreno.