Romeo and Juliet and a New Generation

The new version of Romeo and Juliet by director, Baz Luhrmann, is clearly attempting to appeal to what the media thinks the "New Generation", or as they would label us , "Generation X", thinks we thrive off of, violence and dysfunction. But my question is, does it work?

Luhrmann chose to keep Shakespeare's original dialog, but decided to change the dialect of the Elizabethan times to the more moden American voice. His main focus was to change the play into a movie that appeals to today's audience. In choosing Danes and DeCaprio he succeeded at getting young America's attention. The setting is where he did most of the modernizing. He took the situation from the original play and translated those to the situations that they most closely resembled today. "Fair Verona" turned from town controlled by elites, to town controlled by rival gangs, the Montagues and Capulets. The members of the gangs carried guns with brand names like "dagger" and "sword". When Romeo sees Juliet for the first time he is tripping, (love potion turned to little white pill). Mercutio kind of threw me for a loop. I felt like I was watching an episode of Jerry Springer. Romeo's best friend is a black drag queen. I can only attribute this to Luhrmann's, like Shakespeare's, need for shock value.

So instead of sitting at home reading Romeo and Juliet, we are at the theaters being visually stimulated by this wonderful remake. But what makes it so great? Not everyone in the "New Generation" relates to being torn between love and remaining loyal to their gang. The thing that I think we can relate to the most is the fact that we like seeing violence and dysfunction in a Pulp Fictionisc style.

I can not deny that the play has many parallels to today's problems. Look at how easy it was to make a few changes to the setting and there you have it, corrupt America, 1996, overcome with crime stemming from gang activity and hate. I have to say that all of this works. The themes of Romeo and Juliet written four hundred years ago are very relevant today. Shakespeare's works have been called "Universal", because what he wrote so long ago still speaks to us today. And I definitely agree that Romeo and Juliet falls into this category. Lauren Fox

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