Artistic meddling of classic stories doesn't have to be painful. When the story and setting are rewritten, as in Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" the result can be a masterpiece.
Now, in 1996, director Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet gives us another fine example of adaptation's bad side.
In "modernizing" Romeo and Juliet, Luhrmann tinkers with many aspects of the time period and setting that made the traditional story the timeless art that it is.
The most irritating change in the story itself is that Romeo pops a little ecstasy just before meeting Juliet. Sorry Buz, but recreational drug use didn't come into Shakespeare's mind when he illustrated love at first sight.
Corruptions of setting and mood further distract from Shakespeare's love story. In the original setting, 14th Century Italy was occupied by the Spanish, who ruled over all the city-states. Families and communities had to maintain honor to preserve their national pride.
In this setting, however, the city becomes a Los Angeles-meets-Vegas Sleazeville. The honor code so essential to the original story is lost. I wouldn't be proud of a crime-ridden ghetto, which is exactly what modern Verona "Beach" is.
Because the script isn't changed, characterization is altered but never explained. The intentions of the characters and SKS-toting 10-year-olds in the background are clouded because the story wasn't written with them in mind.
With pride gone and the city streets dangerous, strange character actions, such as those of Mercutio the transvestite, serve to confuse. Too many of Shakespeare's words are unintelligible in the alteration of time and landscape. The story and new setting would have been better off if the directors had rewritten the play, a la "West Side Story."
Yet even this distraction couldn't ruin the story itself. Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes as Juliet both portray the growth from confused children to mature adults that William Shakespeare intended, although DiCaprio adapts to Shakespeare like Strom Thurmand would adapt to jive talk. If anything, this movie proves overblown urban glamorization cannot warp Romeo and Juliet's true love.
First the Olympics, now commercialization hits Shakespeare.
But maybe, just maybe, all those angst-ridden teenagers to whom the film is directed, will see through all the Die Hard meets Forrest Gump confusion, and recognize a beautiful love story for what it really is.
Simply put, the story is a masterpiece, and the movie does it no justice. This feat shines through as a tribute to its author.
William Shakespeare strikes again.