A Comparison of the Fight Scene in Act 3 of Shakespeare's Play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in the Film Versio
Uploaded by ashchap on Nov 24, 2002
A Comparison of the Fight Scene in Act 3 of Shakespeare's Play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in the Film Version by Zeffirelli (1968) and Lurhmann (1997)
The play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is about two families who have been fighting for years. When Romeo falls in love with Juliet and Juliet falls in love with Romeo, there are many consequences, including the deaths of a member of each family – Mercutio and Tybalt.
I will be studying the fight scene where Mercutio and Tybalt die, and comparing, the two film versions of the play, I will find differences and similarities as well as describing how each director / producer interprets and makes their version of the film. I will describe how eight different factors are present in each version of the film: Genre/Film, Institution, Audience, Representation, Mediation, Film Language and Ideology.
The characters in the play that appear in the fight scene are: Romeo from Montague, Benvolio from Montague, Juliet from Capulet, Tybalt from Capulet and Mercutio who is not from either house.
Each of the film produces has made a different type of film in a different type of genre. Genre is the type of film that it is, based on the camera angles and movements, the content, the adaptations and the interpretations as well as other general features that help to determine the genre.
Lurhmann has made a film that is like a modern drama in the way that strange camera angles and movements are used, also there are numerous small adaptations and changes to the script. Both films are a tragedy type film because people die, there is fighting and despair, and two of the main characters die during the fight scene and two more die at the end of the play. Both of the films are also romances, which is obvious, and the main theme of the play/film, but the romance is brought into the fight scene in Lurhmann’s version so as to make it feel more important and noticeable. I think that these adaptations of the script by Lurhmann make the film more like a modern drama and very different to the Zeffirelli version.
In the film production team (the institution), there are a lot of different people who want the film to be different. The people have different ideas of how to make the film and what to put in it. The shareholders want it to make money, the experts want it...