Comparison of the Settings and the Moods in the Play and the Movie Versions of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Comparison of the Settings and the Moods in the Play and the Movie Versions of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Plays often get converted to movies. As the media changes, many of the elements of the play changes as well. Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, was turned into a movie in 1996. The movie mondenizes the theme play to adapt to the change. Specifically, it changes some settings and creates new moods for the original work. The changes of the settings, the time and the place, make the movie more modern than the play, which also offers more excitement and twists for the audience. The original play happens around 1500s in Italy. It was a time when people still fought with swords and lived in old decorated buildings. For instance, said, “What I mean is, if they make us angry we’ll pull out our swords” by Sampson (Act I , Scene I).Thus people living that era still used ancient weapons. The movie, in contrast, is set in 1900s in America Florida when people using guns and driving cars. Skyscrapers are full of the city with huge screens rolling the news and advertisements again and again seen from the movie. There is an intense fight with guns and grenades that takes place at a gas station between Capulets and Montagues at the beginning of the movie. It even triggers an explosion, something that could never happen in the original play. Although the plots do not change fundamentally, as both the movie and the play have a fight at the beginning, the movie is not only more modern, but also more exciting and more appeals to contemporary audience. The movie creates a modern mood without losing the main storyline also shows in another famous scene, the party, which is held for Juliet to meet Paris; however, Romeo and Juliet meet at this feast and fall in love with each other. This scene appears in both the movie and the play. The movie’s plots change a little in this part. In the movie, the Capulets invites people with high reputation to the