Smart Changes Are the Best

“If thou wilt not, be my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” (Page 2201) Romeo and Juliet was one of the most famous tragedies of Shakespeare; it showed the purest love between a young couple. The nearest movie version was directed by Carlo Carlei in 2013.(IMDb) The director kept part of the original scripts, but most of the dialogues were modern language. Also, they set the scenes in late Middle Ages in Verona. I like this adaption, because I think the director adapted the scripts, characters and scenes wisely. 

This version gave me an extremely deep impression, because it kept most of the Shakespeare’s original contents, but they were not all the same. First of all, the director modernized most of the dialogues, nevertheless, he also kept the poetic parts. For instance, almost every normal dialogue was modern language, such as “Good morning” or “Good night”. However, they kept the most significant parts. In the movie, they still used “thee”, “thou” and some other words instead of modernizing them all. Also, they did not change the most poetic dialogues, such as the sentences they said in the garden. I like this kind of partial changes, because they would not be so difficult to understand, but they also showed the essential parts of this famous story. Secondly, in this version, the castings were closer to the reality. For example, Juliet was a little bit fat in the movie. Some people think this Juliet is not as beautiful as other versions’. However, as far as I am concerned, this Juliet was the most realistic Juliet. According to the book, Juliet was a sixteen-year-old girl, so she should be at puberty. When girls are at puberty, they are always fatter than usual. Thus, this Juliet was more logical, and I like this logical setting. Thirdly, the director changed and added scenes wisely, and this made the movie more logical and interesting. For example, at the beginning of the movie, Mercutio was competing with Tybalt, and Mercutio won. Then, the two servants fought for the result of this competition. Instead of fighting for nothing, the competition made this scene more logical. Also, because this movie was filmed in 2013, the technology was much better than before. Therefore, in this version, the settings were extremely fancy. For instance, the house of Capulets was big and luxurious. Also, when Tybalt and Mercutio fought, the dust was floating, which was impressive. The director used advanced technology in the film, and this allowed the movie to be more interesting and enjoyable. Consequently, the partial change of the scripts, realistic actors and the fancy scenes of this version made the movie so distinguishable from others, and it impressed me. 

In conclusion, the team tried their best to make this 2013 version different but brilliant. This movie showed how poetic Shakespeare’s words were, and partial change made it easier to understand. Everything was logical but fancy in this movie, such as realistic actors, revised scenes and beautiful settings. There were numerous versions of Romeo and Juliet, but in my opinion, the 2013 version was the best. 

Citation: 

1. Shakespeare, William (2014-10-15). Romeo and Juliet (Folger Shakespeare Library) (Kindle Locations 2207-2208). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. 
2. "Romeo & Juliet (2013)." IMDb.com. IMDb, n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2015.
3. Picture: Romeo and Juliet 2013. 2013. Fanpop.com. Fanpop.com. Web. 4 Oct. 2015. <http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/35800000/Romeo-and-Juliet-2013-romeo-and-juliet-2013-35804022-3000-2000.jpg>.