Romeo and Juliet

(1968 film)

Introduction

Technicalities

Audio/visual unsynchronised
When the minstrel begins his song, a pipe player, a violin player and lute player are seen playing
behind him (all miming badly). There is no violin or flute on the soundtrack at that point; only
what sounds like a harp.

Around 01:56:13, we can see flute players (all mimicking badly), while we hear choirboys on the
soundtrack.

Character error
Towards the start of the movie, a man is having his arm bandaged. As soon as the piece of
narrative for the character stops, she just leaves it not tucking it in in any way at all and he gets
up as if she had finished, leaving bandage just hanging to unravel as he stands up.

Continuity
The Prince's speech during the funeral includes the line "I...too have lost a brace (i.e. a pair) of
kinsmen." In this version, only one of the Prince's kinsmen (i.e. Mercutio) is killed. Count Paris,
the Prince's cousin who is slain by Romeo in the play, is left very much alive in this version. This
may indicate that the film was trimmed before release, and that the death of Paris was actually
cut. The souvenir program given out when the film first played in theatres indicates that plans
were originally made for Paris to be killed by Romeo, just as in the original play (there is a
reference to "the graveyard where Romeo slays Paris").
When Romeo and Benvolio arrive at the Capulet's ball, Benvolios's love interest is seen standing
in one place. In the next shot she's seen walking around and in the next shot she is seen standing
in the same place she was before she began walking around.

In the crypt, at the end of the movie, Juliet's hands are in several different positions during
Romeo's speech.

After Tybalt is stabbed, the blood stain on his shirt keeps changing places.

During the scene at the Capulet's ball where the minstrel sings, in the wide shot the minstrel is
seen wearing his mask even though he removed it at the beginning of his song.

When Romeo runs to find Tybalt after Mercutio dies, Balthazar runs after him and loses his hat
in the square. But when he catches up with Romeo, his hat is back on.

Around 02:04:57, we can see Romeo pulls the shroud up Juliet's knees. On the next shot (around
02:05:43), the shroud is just under Juliet's hands.

Around 02:14:26, we can see both characters with their hands posed in different ways. Around
02:15:47, both characters have hands posed the same way.

Around 00:44:38, we can see Romeo walk near a tree's branch. Around 00:44:58, he's doing it
again.

In the bedroom, Juliet's arm is lying across her chest. In the next shot it's by her side.

In the opening fight between the Capulets and the Montagues, Tybalt gives Benvolio a very
nasty stab to the eye (area) with his sword. Then, in the next scene, when Benvolio meets
Romeo, he shows absolutely no sign of any injury or distress.

Revealing mistakes
When Romeo and Juliet's bodies are laid out in front of the ruler, Romeo takes a deep breath.
During the close-up of Juliet in the scene where the Capulets find Juliet "dead" in her
bedchamber, she is visibly breathing.

When Romeo is talking to Tybalt's dead body, Tybalt is visibly breathing.

In the chapel, when Juliet wakes up to find Romeo dead, she leans over him in mourning, though
he is visibly breathing.

Setting/s:
City of Verona in Italy, The Capulet Hall, fountain in the garden of the Capulet residence,
garden of the churchyard

P.O.V.: Third Person (Omni.)

Background

Shakespeare's classic tale of romance and tragedy. Two families of Verona, the Montagues and
the Capulets, have been feuding with each other for years. Young Romeo Montague goes out
with his friends to make trouble at a party the Capulets are hosting, but while there he spies the
Capulet's daughter Juliet, and falls hopelessly in love with her. She returns his affections, but
they both know that their families will never allow them to follow their hearts.

Cast and characters:

Leonard Whiting as Romeo Montague
Olivia Hussey as Juliet Capulet
John McEnery as Mercutio
Milo O'Shea as Friar Laurence
Pat Heywood as The Nurse
Robert Stephens as The Prince
Michael York as Tybalt
Bruce Robinson as Benvolio
Paul Hardwick as Lord Capulet
Natasha Parry as Lady Capulet
Antonio Pierfederici as Lord Montague
Esmeralda Ruspoli as Lady Montague
Keith Skinner as Balthasar
Roberto Bisacco as Paris
Bruno Filippini as Leonardo, the singer (uncredited)
Laurence Olivier as Chorus and voice of Lord Montague (uncredited)

Producer: John Brabourne

Anthony Havelock-Allan

Director: Franco Zeffirelli

Summary

One summer morning in Verona, Veneto, a longstanding feud between the Montague and the
Capulet clans breaks out in a street brawl. The brawl is broken up by the Prince, who warns both
families that any future violence between them will result in harsh consequences. That night, two
teenagers of the two families Romeo and Juliet meet at a Capulet masked ball and become
deeply infatuated. Later, Romeo stumbles into the secluded garden under Juliet's bedroom
balcony and the two exchange impassioned pledges. They are secretly married the next day by
Romeo's confessor and father figure, Friar Laurence, with the assistance of Juliet's nursemaid.

That afternoon, Juliet's first cousin Tybalt, enraged that Romeo had attended his family's ball,
insults him and challenges him to a brawl. Romeo regards Tybalt as family and he refuses to
fight him, which leads Romeo's best friend, Mercutio, to fight Tybalt instead. Despite Romeo's
efforts to stop the fight, Tybalt badly wounds Mercutio, who curses both the Montague and
Capulet houses before dying. Enraged over his friend's death, Romeo retaliates by fighting
Tybalt and killing him. Romeo is subsequently punished by the Prince with banishment from
Verona, with the threat of death if he ever returns. Romeo, however, sees his banishment as
worse than the death penalty, as Verona is the only home he has known and he does not want to
be separated from Juliet. Friar Laurence eventually convinces Romeo that he is very lucky and
that he should be more thankful for what he has. Romeo then secretly spends his wedding night
together with Juliet and the couple consummate their marriage before Romeo flees.

Juliet's father and mother, unaware of their daughter's secret marriage, have arranged for Juliet to
marry wealthy Count Paris. Juliet pleads with her parents to postpone the marriage, but they
refuse and threaten to disown her. Juliet seeks out Friar Laurence for help, hoping to escape her
arranged marriage to Paris and remain faithful to Romeo. At Friar Laurence's behest, she
reconciles with her parents and agrees to their wishes. On the night before the wedding, Juliet
consumes a potion prepared by Friar Laurence intended to make her appear dead for forty-two
hours. Friar Laurence plans to inform Romeo of the hoax so that Romeo can meet Juliet after her
burial and escape with her when she recovers from her swoon, so he sends Friar John to give
Romeo a letter describing the plan. However, when Balthasar, Romeo's servant, sees Juliet being
buried under the impression that she is dead, he goes to tell Romeo and reaches him before Friar
John. In despair, Romeo goes to Juliet's tomb and kills himself by drinking poison. Soon
afterwards, Juliet awakens and discovers her husband dead. Juliet refuses to leave Romeo and
kills herself by piercing her abdomen with his dagger. Later, the two families attend their joint
funeral and are chastised by the Prince.

Evaluation

Tone & Mood

Tone: The film's tone runs the range from the highest elation to the darkest sorrow.

Mode: The mood tends to shift as their passions do, including with swells of the music (as when
Romeo and Juliet kiss for the first time) and the quick, rapid movements of the camera (as when
Romeo runs happily home after the balcony scene).
Theme: The Forcefulness of Love

Author’s Purpose
Shakespeare wanted couples to appreciate their love together. People complain how they face
problems that ruin their relationships that force them to separate from each other. Shakespeare
wrote Romeo and Juliet to explain the worst possible lovers can find themselves in. Romeo and
Juliet both are from families that hate each other, they face the fact that Romeo kill Juliet’s
cousin, and that they have know each other for no over a week. This possibly the worst situation
that couples can find themselves in, the play tells the reader no matter what true love will always
come through. Anyone can write about a perfect loving couple’s story but writing about the
worst takes skill.

Connection to reality
In reality there are still families who have differences and quarrel with each other because of
disparity in economic status, envy, greed, grudges, and because of political, cultural and religious
differences.

This feud if not patched up immediately would result to chaos, violence, filing of cases and
worst killings.

Points to critique

Zeffirelli has made an outstanding, beautiful film, but this film is too mature for kids there are
explicit contents in the film that are prolonged which is not good to watch. In the film when
Romeo and Juliet met they didn’t familiarized each other, they directly expressed their love.
They immediately kissed each other. the Capulets and the Montagues have been in a family
feud. Romeo and Juliet, the offspring of the rivaling families, meet at a party, fall in love, get
engaged, marry, and consummate the marriage all in one week. Of course, it’s a secret to
everyone except Juliet’s nurse (Shakespearean equivalent of a nanny) and Friar Laurence, the
man who weds the two star-crossed lovers. The film is full of spirituality, mainly of the Catholic
worldview, which might be offensive to some Christians that view this denomination as an un-
Biblical perspective. People make mention of “going to shrift,” or meeting with a cleric for
confession of sins. Characters like Friar Laurence and Juliet’s nurse “cross” themselves as a way
of prayer. What’s good about this film is that Romeo and Juliet don’t go to bed together until
after they have been married. Friar Laurence explains to Romeo that marriage is more than just
making love, kissing, and whispering sweet nothings and that marriage takes work, but his words
fall upon deaf ears.

They didn't merely look their parts, they embodied them in the freshness of their personalities,
and although neither was a trained actor, they were equal to Shakespeare's dialogue for them;
Anthony Holden's new book William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius contrasts "the
beautiful simplicity with which the lovers speak at their moments of uncomplicated happiness,"
with "the ornate rhetorical flourishes which fuel so much else in the play" flourishes that
Zeffirelli severely cropped, trimming about half the play. He was criticized for his edits, but
much that needs describing on the stage can simply be shown onscreen, as when Benvolio is
shown witnessing Juliet's funeral and thus does not need to evoke it in a description to the
displacement of Romeo. Shakespeare, who took such wholesale liberties with his own sources,
might have understood

It also might be question to some due to the nudity in the film, which is a shot of Romeo and
Juliet in bed after their wedding night. Sexual comments are made by Juliet’s nurse and Romeo’s
crude-minded friend, Mercutio. During the balcony scene, Romeo and Juliet engage in some
rather passionate kissing. In the same scene, Juliet slips on a dress that reveals quite a lot of
cleavage. Violence is not as rampant but not appropriate for kids under 13. Profanity is rare and
people use what we would call “Shakespearean insults.”

Recommendations
 Overall, the film is useful in terms of making it easier for the ordinary person to understand a
deep and great literary piece such as Romeo and Juliet, It packs in 2 hours what could be several
months of difficult reading.

However, it is recommended that explicit contents in this film should be removed. Romeo and
Juliet (1968) film was based on Shakespeare’s novel, so it needs to be suitable or qualified for
children and teenagers. The actors and actresses should have done their acting a lot better than
what they did in the actual film. The cinematography should be clearer so that small details in the
movie would be easily seen.