Romeo and Juliet (1996) a great take on a classic love story? or an epic fail?

Well, it was true to the script, wasn’t it?

I’m not really a fan of the classic story mixed with modern day garb and environment. I like the classics as they were. As far as giving the original story justice… I’d say it was a completely different movie altogether… incomparable with the far superior original.

I don’t know why but I’ve always kinda liked that movie. I love how the guns have names like “dagger” and “sword”.

You’re refering to Romeo + Juliet with Clair Danes and Leonardo DeCaprio.
I thought it was great, and anytime someone makes a movie from Shakespeare and it’s easy to understand, that gets lurve from me.
The story is so good, I am glad he made it more accessable.
The play is the thing!

Epic fail for the exact reason JOE listed lol.

That song from Garbage was pretty awesome. That was about all I liked about it.

@uberbatman oh c’mon, you had to at least chuckle a little the first time you saw that.

I love it, as filmfann said it was good that it has made the story more accessible though still keeping to the original script.
For example I know a girl who doesn’t strike me as the type to be into literature at all, like at all, but I was completely taken aback when she said she’d read Romeo and Juliet, just cause she’d wanted to, all by herself, not even cause she had to study it for school. It was a pleasant surprise, and the she thanked the movie for getting her into it. Plus I like Claire Danes and Leo was like at his prime so yeah :P

I loved the movie and I have the soundtrack. I’ve tried to get my husband to use Leonardo and Clair for our avatars but he just won’t do it. :(

I was a teenager when that movie came out and I loved it so much. It made the classic translatable to a wider audience. Literature, reaching out and grabbing people who maybe wouldn’t have read the original work gets my vote. I still have the soundtrack too.

@JOE no, i groaned

@uberbatman bah, you’re no fun.

I watched the first 10 minutes in class and thought it was a joke. I couldn’t imagine an hour plus of that…

So I admire the creativity, but it was a little hard to watch if you are a fan of the original.

Loved it. I’m a big fan of Baz Luhrmann. Just the look of the movie alone makes it worth watching. Plus, Leo is so young and nubile in it.

I liked the look of it, but otherwise, meh. I didn’t think that those two had real chemistry. It felt like everyone was playacting.

I remember thinking it was pretty dumb at the time, but I haven’t seen it in years.

I thought it was weird and still to this day have not seen the whole movie. I hated Leo then and didn’t care much for Claire Danes either. I prefer West Side Story to be honest. Same sort of thing.

I liked it a lot. I also like comparing the different versions of the play, just for my own enjoyment.

I found that version a lot easier to understand that some others.

I feel like watching it now. Actually I’ll just watch my favourite scene. At the party with the fish tank and the elevator… sigh.

Now I really want to watch West Side Story and sing along. “I wanna bust! BUST COOL!” haha…awesome song!

I thought it was a fair rendering, a popularization, of the original, but not as good as the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton version of “Taming of the Shrew” (1967).

The only great film version of “Romeo & Juliet” was West Side Story.

@AstroChuck I was going to mention that, but did not because the dialogue was nowhere near the original. But I do love anything Bernstein!

@Yetanotheruser- IMO Shakespeare is overrated. Leonard Bernstein turned his work into a masterpiece.

Bernstein was responsible for the music in West Side Story. The book (dialogue) was written by Arthur Laurents, and the lyrics Gee, Officer Krupke, Krup you! were written by Steven Sondheim.

Bernstein went on to develop the music into a complete ballet suite.

I enjoyed the Luhrmann version, myself. It was visually interesting. I watched it as a teenager, and it did kind of make me connect more to the Shakespearean language. I don’t think it will go down in history as being a great adaptation of the play, though.

to be honest i liked it. i like that they mixed modern elements with older ones too, and claire danes being awesome doesn’t hurt.
besides, i really dislike the story of romeo & juliet, so it was nice to actually enjoy it for once

West Side Story and My Fair Lady are two musicals that are highly regarded, but I think suck.
WSS changed the ending, which capped the dedication of this romance. It amazes me anyone likes it.

If it’s the version I think you mean, then it was total crap. But I might be thinking of a different one.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic Agreed. Lurve to you.

I like Zeffirelli’s 1968 version really well, but I haven’t seen Luhrmann’s 1996 version. The ads just didn’t appeal to me at the time it came out. However, I was recently watching Luhrmann’s “Strictly Ballroom,” which I really like, and looking up stuff on IMDB.com, when I learned that “R&J” was Luhrmann’s, which along with Molin Rouge! was part of his Red Curtain trilogy. Now I’m intrigued, and I may have to see R&J.

I prefer the classic…..that guy is hotter, even though he’s old….but at his time, he was handsome…:)

At first I thought it was an epic fail. But now I Lurve it. There is just something about it, It could have been the fact that they looked like they did and still stuck to the script.

I love that movie. I really dislike Leonardo DiCaprio but he was good back then. He fit the role. Claire Danes has always been one of my favorite “teen angst” actresses, I watched My So Called Life religiously. I also have the soundtrack to the movie. On cassette tape. Yep.
My son is almost 15, and he really likes this movie too.