Romeo & Juliet
Shakespeare’s play Romeo & Juliet is back in the news with a lawsuit by Olivia Hussey (Juliet) and Leonard Whiting (Romeo). I’ve always enjoyed Shakespeare plays on film and remember taking a date to see this version at the Harbor Theater in Muskegon in 1968. No, I won’t say who the date was -LOL.
Anyway, the two actors are suing [1] over Franco Zeffirelli filming them very briefly nude in his iconic 1968 version of the play on film. Both are in their 70s now but were 15and 16 respectively at the time. While we should certainly condemn using minors in nude roles, their position is they lost out on job opportunities and had only very limited acting careers after the film- a cause and effect I wouldn’t necessarily see as connected.
Be that as it may, while Zeffirelli’s version is certainly visually iconic, I do not believe it is the BEST ever done. First, we should recognize that many film adaptations take liberties with the play’s text as well as leave out scenes and dialogue. In my opinion, Zeffirelli was trying to make HIS Romeo & Juliet. but he wasn’t making THE Romeo & Juliet. I do have this one on DVD, however.
There are numerous Romeo & Juliet film adaptations going back to the early days of film in the early 1900s. There are also numerous foreign editions and some made-for-TV blips on the screen. But for this discussion, staying closer to the modern era and more to American cinemea, we find the more prominent versions:
1936 by George Cukor with Leslie Howard. [2] Howard has as much magnetism as Romeo as he had as Ashley in Gone with the Wind! And he was 43 freakin’ years old! BLAH!
1968 by Zeffirelli [3]- the one we are discussing. As mentioned, Zeffirelli’s version is certainly visually iconic.
1996 by Baz Lurhman [4] with Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes- both great actors but the film is a modernized mess. I have no issues with setting Shakespeare plays in a more modern era. It certainly works for numerous adaptations. The 2011 adaptation of Corialanus [5] starring Ralph Feinnes comes to mind.
2014 has a version starring Orlando Bloom.[6] While I like Orlando Bloom as an actor, he is 37 years old at the time of this filming and well into a very storied career on film with massive Lord of the Rings and the Pirates of the Carribean franchises. The film is set in modern times with Romeo arriving on stage riding a motorcycle in blue jeans and sunglasses. Again, see my comments on modernization above. I just don’t see this one taking top honors
2013 by director Carlei with ‘traditional’ adaptation text by Julian Fellowes.[7] The film stars Hailee Steinfeld (Juliet) and Douglas Booth (Romeo). A couple years ago, surfing channels on cable, I found this 2013 version I had somehow missed previously. Watching it, I was taken by the fact I was hearing dialogue I had not heard previously. So I go to my home library and grab my copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and flip pages to the point in the film to follow along. Sure enough, script writer Fellowes is including dialogue that had been omitted by previous iterations of the play on film. The actors fit their roles and the performances were excellent. The movie was well filmed and not overly stylistic. Of all the film versions, this one was the best in my opinion. I also have this on DVD
[1]
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/04/movies/romeo-and-juliet-nudity-lawsuit.html
[2]
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028203/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5
[3]
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063518/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
[4]
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117509/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
[5]
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1372686/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
