Romeo and Juliet Movie Analysis

Baz Luhrmann is the director of a modern version of Romeo and Juliet (written by Shakespeare). There are many differences from the movie and the book, such as swapping swords for guns, to really emphasize the violence there was in that day. However, despite the differences between the book and movie, Luhrmann kept to a very similar plot. His point in the movie was to make people believe that love at first sight was possible, that it was fate that Romeo and Juliet met and fell into deep love. He shows this by really describing and showing the emotions of Romeo and Juliet. Luhrmann highlights their feelings by either zooming in on their faces, having a slow motion scene, or just showing them interact with each other. On occasion, he uses several images or scenes to convey one part of his point, which it what helps with the general understanding of the movie. He takes the opportunity to visually communicate their affection towards one another in the movie, something that Shakespeare did not have the chance to do when writing a play. Luhrmann had an interesting take on the final scene where Romeo and Juliet take their lives. For a short moment Juliet wakes up right before Romeo is dead and the two of them have a moment. That part adds to show that his point is that they are in love as does the way they react to each others deaths. The fact the when one saw another dead they immediately thought to kill themselves because they couldn’t carry on without the other, says something about their relationship.
He helps viewers understand the characters feelings for each other by using recurring symbols through the movie to show that it was all fate. Water and Christ symbols are the major ones. You see water when Romeo and Juliet first meet, in the balcony scene with the pool, Mercutio is killed on the beach, and Tybalt is killed in a fountain. You see the image or a statue of Christ or Mary in many scenes, as well as the use of crosses and candles. These things show