Romeo and Juliet Adaptations

I believe that the (1961)‘West Side Story’ film version of Romeo and Juliet is superior to the later version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ directed in 1968 by Franco Zeffirelli. Jerome Robbins, the director of ‘West Side Story’, having a different aim/ representation of Romeo and Juliet has used various effective techniques to produce his film – which I consider to be more successful. Robbins chose it to be a transformation of Romeo and Juliet & not the original play from Shakespeare, but that’s not the only reason, if it is one, to acknowledge it as superior to Zeffirelli’s film. Each director has used divergent ideas in their techniques, so different yet only to provoke from their audiences the same response. Therefore to determine which film is superior, you would have to consider those techniques. These range from visual techniques, such as theme, symbolism and colour, to auditory techniques which are just as significant as the filming techniques (types of camera shots and location of filming). Finally the most crucial factor shall be discussed – the audience response. It is the evaluation of the director’s success in achieving his purpose and the main reason why I have determined ‘West Side Story’ to be superior.
To elucidate my arguments I will be using three scenes from each film for easier comparison. Gathering a conclusion from any three scenes would be quite biased, therefore I have chosen the main scenes of Shakespeare’s story. These major scenes cannot be omitted, even in the film, because without them the story wouldn’t be able to advance. This makes sure that those scenes & comparison points were of equally high importance in both films (despite each director having a different theme or idea). The first scene would be the fated meeting of Romeo and Juliet (dance scene). The second would be ‘Mercutio’s death’ and the third is the ‘Crypt scene’. The techniques used in these three scenes of both films will be noted and compared to each other.