My voice teacher is making us watch what could quite possibly be the worst version of Romeo and Juliet ever made. Romeo and Juliet meets French opera. Look, I know they never have the actors who play Romeo and Juliet actually be 13 and 16, but Romeo and Juliet are both played by actors in their 40s! I've never been a Shakespeare purest, but can we at least attempt to make it reflect the text a little bit? There's a reason Romeo and Juliet are supposed to be teenagers. And all this time I thought having Mel Gibson in his mid-thirties play Hamlet was bad... Mercutio is more an extremely serious character and does not have a personality. Benvolio is not in the play. Like, at all. And as for the singing... My feeling towards opera in general is that just because something is boring, in another language, and sung in such absurdly high keys that it's actually PAINFUL, to listen to does not make it intellectual. Opera is already the epitome of pretentious bullshit, as far as I'm concerned. Then make a Shakespearian opera? I think we’ve found the fucking pretentious bullshit Holy Grail! I even like a lot of Shakespeare‘s plays, and still admit that that’s over the top.
I watched a version with a very young girl. It was pretty bad. But you saw boobies, which is always a fun time. But the modern version is just awesome. Loved it.
Yeah I'm not real big on shakespeare but the modern version I enjoyed quite a bit. I like the beginning.
I really liked zifferelli's 1968 version, pretty entertaining movie rendition of what we had to read in highschool english class.
Yes, that is the one with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. This is the best version by far. While I like DiCaprio, I thought the version with him was complete rubbish and taken totally out of context. Romeo and Juliet belongs in the time frame of which it was written, and not forwarded to modern times. To call the movie with Dicaprio Romeo and Juliet is a travesty to a work of fine art. What will happen next? Will there be a new Gone With the Wind forwarded to modern times? I sure hope not.
