A cherished memory from when I saw it in the theater in the 90s with my best friend Kathryn, was hearing a girl in the front yelling “Nooo!” during the end scene when Romeo drank the poison.
We were shocked, and unkindly giggly, that she’d had no idea what happened in the play. Which is to say that Romeo and Juliet is so known, so over saturated , that it’s easy to dismiss as cliche. But the early masterworks really are masterful .
We loved it, my best friend and I, we got the soundtrack and listened to it over and over. The movie hit all the right notes for us at the time. It was relatable because we were the same ages as the cast and we liked Shakespeare and MTV, and it was fun.
I was worried therefore that this viewing would suffer from that rose tinted glasses failure of nostalgia.
I loved the Whedon Much Ado around the same time and it lost so much on rewatching.
The Teaching Company lecture lauded the Baz Luhrmann editorial style of quick cuts and music video feel, as supremely appropriate to the fast pace and violence of the play.
I quite agree and, in fact, thought that the editing and music would be my favorite parts of this viewing.
I was wrong. I loved those things it’s true, but I loved best the casting and the acting.
Some examples here.
The Montagues.
The Capulets.
"O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art / As glorious to this night, being o'er my head, / As is a winged messenger of heaven"
Clare Danes was innocent and sweet but not cloying or stupid. Her love and her helplessness felt real and heartbreaking.
DiCaprio is floaty and daydreaming here, he is moody and romantic and rash in all the right ways. He’s probably the least interesting member of the cast for me but he is solid. I remember watching What’s Eating Gilbert Grape not long before this and liking him a lot already when I first went to the movie.
Benvolio "I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me,". Dash Mihok was my crush of this film when I was a baby Missy. His quiet nature and only-reasonable-person-in-the-room vibe appealed greatly to my sense of hope. Plus of course, like everyone in this movie he was good looking.
John Leguizamo as Tybalt kills me. His “Peace, I hate the word” and his desperate trapped machismo during the duel scene are truth and beauty and all the great things that acting can be.
Prince of cats indeed.
Harold Perrinau’s Mercutio the, if not actively crushing then at the bare minimum, camp consort of Romeo is a joy to behold.
His loyalty and devil may care delivery bring a life to this stodgy character that I have never seen matched in any version of this play.
I mean look at him!
Special shout out to the loving but flighty Nurse Miriam Margolyes and the meddlesome Priest of Pete Postlethwaite I found them both sterling.
The movie was popular but not well received in its release and I think the Vulture review gets it right when it claims that critics didn’t know what to do with a frenetic slightly psychedelic Shakespeare but that young audiences got it instantly.
I’m so happy to have been in that time and to have gotten it in that way.
I had a lot of sitting around time at work yesterday and finished the movie up while sitting in the lab.
I did not imagine finding myself brought to tears, in a labcoat, by a 30 year old movie that I had seen multiple times before, but there I was.
Romeo and Juliet: 5 stars
Mom score: 1 star for Lady Capulet and 4 stars for Lady Montague.
I hate that the good mom had to die of grief off stage to get this rating.
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