Romeo and Juliet Speech

Romeo and Juliet Speech
Modern text creators make Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ very accessible through the film ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ and the Nextel Commercial. This is done by using key themes and textual features, and creating an understandable and relatable representation of the original play script.* ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ directed by Kelly Asbury uses a wide variety of textual features; for example, the ‘split-house’ effect in the beginning of the movie, and the sequence of symbolic objects and events occur when they meet for the first time.* At the same time, the Nextel Commercial also uses many textual features, such as the costuming, and the relevance to the Balcony scene in the play script.*

The film ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ is a perfect example of modern text creators making Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ relevant and accessible to modern audiences. It is accessible on many levels, such as the similarities to the play script, the themes that have been foregrounded, and the small degree of prior knowledge required. There are several similarities in this film, mainly the characters. The characters are all in the film under either different names or different appearances. The only real difference, apart from all the characters being garden gnomes and animals, would be the exclusion of Mercutio, and the fact that Gnomeo and Juliet actually don’t die in the end, unlike the original play script.* The main theme foregrounded in this film is obviously ‘love’, pretty much the whole film was based in this theme. However, other themes such like Hate, as seen between the two neighbouring families, and fate, as seen by Tybalt’s death. For one to enjoy this film, prior knowledge is not needed whatsoever. A 10 year old girl who has never even heard of Shakespeare can walk in and love the movie to pieces. This is how modern text creators have made ‘Romeo and Juliet’ so relevant and accessible to modern audiences.*

There is a large amount of textual features used in the film ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’. An example of a relevant choice in music would be when Gnomeo and Juliet first meet, and some pretty cheesy love music, named ‘Hello Hello’ by Elton John played. This choice of music really created this ‘magical’ feel to something that isn’t nessicary that incredible. There is also a lot of obvious symbolism, such as the split between blue and red in the neighbouring houses, and the love heart shape that appears when Gnomeo and Juliet are dancing above the water. All these textual features included in Gnomeo and Juliet help modern audiences access, relate, and overall, enjoy the story of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare.*
Although the film ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ managed to project the story in a very entertaining way, the film did go for one hour and thirty minutes; So, I guess you could say that this was a long way to get the message across. This is where I will introduce the Nextel Commercial. Like most commercials, it goes for 30 seconds; however it manages to explain the entire story of Romeo and Juliet in a very clever and funny way. There are many similarities, most importantly that all the characters are the same, and that the key points in the play script are all included. However, because of the length of the film, there are also a copious amount of events that are not included, such as the exclusion of Mercutio. Also, you would need a great deal of prior knowledge of the play if you were to thoroughly understand this commercial, as there really isn’t much time to describe each character and their part in the play. *

Nextel have created a very effective commercial using a wide variety of textual features. The shot lengths are very short, which speeds things up more than what it already is, the setting and costuming in extremely relevant, with the balcony scene (which is arguably the most famous and well-known scene in the play-script) shown. The slogan at the end reads ‘Nextel: Done’. This means that Nextel are focused on doing things faster, quicker and more efficiently, which is exactly what has been done by speeding up the play script. *

Modern text creators definitely make Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ accessible and relevant to modern audiences. This has been done by using key themes and textual features, and creating an understandable and relatable representation of the original play script.