Baz Luhrmann Romeo And Juliet Comparative Essay

Shakespeare’s The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is an important text written about how love and hate sit along side each other and how if these two ideas are taken to the extreme it can ultimately be fatal. In 1999 Baz Luhrmann made a cinematic adaption to the play the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet into the film Romeo + Juliet. In order for Baz Luhrmann to make his film appealing to his marketed audience he needed to appropriate it to fit the modern society we live in today. This text has been adapted to be more accessible through characterisation, through clever camera work and editing and sound techniques.

One of the ways Baz Luhrmann has adapted the play the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet into a text that fits the modern era is through his characterisation. Character development is
Characters have emotional lives, which define the character. The character needs to be reflected in such a way that the audience can relate and or feel sympathetic to. As a director it is Baz Lurhmann’s job to create the characters so the audience is able to experience the characters journey veraciously. It always helps when the characters way of life is similar to that of the audience and this is why is so prevalent that the characters are adapted to fit the modern era, that Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet is set in. The character Murcutio has been renovated to stand out from everyone else. Baz Luhrmann has also given him the role of being dressed as a drag queen; to extenuate this he wears a white wig and white dress, which contrasts to his dark skin. During the Elizabethan time when Romeo and Juliet was set being gay was something that was every unheard-of and the black American race had just begun to make its way into their streets. So Baz luhrmann