One of the hardest things to do with a Shakespeare play is uproot it from its established time period and setting and transplant it somewhere else. In the case of trying to contemporize a Shakespeare play, it doesn’t always turn out well. Personally, I’ve seen two attempts to modernize Macbeth, but neither of them worked out very well. Branagh’s Hamlet is moved up a couple of centuries, and yet it works brilliantly.
Another one that worked really well was Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation of Romeo + Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. I know not everybody was a big fan of it, but for me, it’s one of the best examples of how universal Shakespeare’s works can be, so much so that you can set it in modern times and have it take place in “Verona Beach” and still have it ring true.
Luhrmann is obviously known for throwing a lot of spectacle into his films, but this was only his second movie. Previously, he had only directed Strictly Ballroom (a film I was rather indifferent towards), so no one really knew what kind of director he was yet. After this however, he gave us the outstanding Moulin Rouge!, the underrated epic Australia, and most recently, his lush adaptation of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
For Romeo + Juliet, he mixes a modern aesthetic with a great cast and delivers a fantastic version of one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. The cast includes some some great names, as well as some very strange choices, such as DiCaprio, Danes, Paul Sorvino, Brian Dennehy, Diane Venora, Jamie Kennedy, and Paul Rudd.
If you can get past that strange feeling you get from the characters speaking Shakespeare in this setting, then it’s really quite an exhilarating experience, not only because it’s got Luhrmann’s trademark flare, but also because this story remains one of the greatest ever written.
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