The play opens with servants from both houses engaged in a street brawl that eventually draws in the family patriarchs and the city officials, including Prince Escalus. This is just my interpretation, however I do believe that this was done intentionally by Baz Luhrman, rather than him just trying to make the film more aesthetically pleasant for the viewer by making the colours bolder.Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy, where there is an ongoing feud between the Montague and Capulet families. I believe that this was done intentionally to emphasise the colour red, which is often associated with blood, foreshadowing that some sort of passion/love would lead to death or violence, which it inevitably does. There are also a few points in the movie where roses are evident, which is an obvious representation of love or passion however I noticed that some sort of colour correction had been implemented to make the colour of the roses much more vibrant and obvious. These weapons fit perfectly with the personalities of the character as Benvolio is often represented as a more thuggish, inelegant character, whereas Tybalt is represented as a more intelligent and sophisticated character, showing how their personalities are identifiable through their weapons of choice. The style of weaponry is also key in representation of characters at points for example Benvolio (Romeo’s cousin), is seen brandishing a pistol at various points throughout the film, whereas Tybalt’s (Juliet’s cousin) weapon of choice is seen to be a rapier. Some obvious imagery throughout is the focus on weapons, in particular guns, which tends to foreshadow a death or serious incident of some short when displayed so frequently throughout a film. A piece of strong imagery is useful in foreshadowing key events when necessary.

Throughout the film the conflict is made apparent with different forms of imagery, which is something that we could take in to consideration when producing our film. We though that watching this was particularly useful, as many members of each family are represented as gangsters which is the portrayal we are trying to achieve in our project. This particular adaptation portrays the Capulet’s and Montague’s as two criminal families, who are in constant conflict with each other. As part of our initial research, we also watched Romeo & Juliet (1996), that was directed by Baz Luhrman, and completely modernises Shakespeare’s original story, but includes the original script.

Romeo and juliet script 1996