“Account for the degree to which Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet, has appropriated Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet”
...ehind Lurhmann dressing of Mercutio in this manner, it becomes clear Lurhmann is portraying various ideas on masculinity and femininity in modern society. The dressing of Mercutio in feminine attire clearly says something about Mercutio’s character- he is extremely masculine. Thus, Mercutio’s confidence in himself as a man becomes apparent to the responder. Mercutio’s personal traits also become evident in this scene. Breaking out into dance to the Disco Song “Young Hearts” while in a woman’s clothes clearly says something about Mercutio’s personality as an extremely confident young man. In Shakespeare’s play, the Characterisation through attire is little or non-existent. The characters also dress in the attire appropriate to society at the time; however do not display Shake spears values and views on society. Therefore, the Characterisation through attire in Lurhmann's film can be considered to contain appropriatory elements- the attire from the original text is altered to make a comment on the social values and ideology of the culture in which it has been appropriated into. However, this is only one instance. Many of the characters attire, as stated previously, is merely modernized, a technique not considered to be appropriatory. Using the above evidence, it relevant conclusion could be that the films characterisation through attire could be considered to a small-to-medium degree appropriatory of the original text. The setting of the film can is another appropriatory element which can be argued to be either “modernized” or “appropriated”. The part of the film, specifically the scene displaying Verona beach, its foreground and the city centre can be deconstructed as substance for the subject. This scene starts by showing various views around Verona. A helicopter fly’s through the sky giving the responder a number of camera angles (jump cuts, panning, dollying, zoom, freeze frames) of the city, particularly the Capulet and Montague sky scrapers outsizing the statue of Jesus and the Church in the centre. Here the camera angles privilege the objects of consumerism in the scene: the two large corporate buildings, over the Jesus statue. When looking at the reasoning behind this technique, it becomes clear Lurhmann could be portraying the sense that the western world has moved away from the Church and God, to materialism and greed. Just a few scenes later, the responder drawn to a sideways view of a particular Verona street. The street contains a female prostitute dancing for a lower class citizen. The scene is rather slow and emotive- it almost seams to be in slow motion. By contrasting this to the earlier scene depicting a wealthy, high order society (the grand buildings that could well be commenting on societies accomplishments) Lurhmann could quite well be drawing the responders attention to the various class still evident within society. The belief that these scenes contain appropriatory elements by most would not be questioned. The incorporation of these two scenes, both irrelevant and inappropriate to the storyline show Lurhmann’s willingness to make comments about the political /social /gender /environment that the text it is born from. It therefore can be considered appropriatory. In this illustration the setting of various parts of the film and the underlying messages behind their incorporation accounts to a high degree to which Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet, has appropriated Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. The films dialogue and the substitution of lexis with music is one technique that cannot be considered to appropriative elements. Many genres of music compose the films soundtrack, including opera, symphonies, and cabaret songs. The film features appearances from Leontyne Prince singing Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, a classical orchestra performing Mozart’s Symphony No.25 and Faure’s Requiem, Des’ree singing “Kissing You”, and a performance of Princes song, “When Doves Cry”. It can be said that these musical selections reveal Lurhmann’s attempt to recreate the feeling the plays original audiences would have experienced in an Elizabethan theatre of 1597. The sole purpose of this substitution is to merely to create the dramatic effect in entertainment aimed at by Lurhmann- something marketing exploited by releasing the soundtrack in conjunction with the film’s opening. The disco song entitled “Young Hearts” is used variously to signal a change in scene, a change in tone, and a change in pace. Such changes contribute to the audience’s experience of the film as one that, like the original play, challenges definitions of tragedy and comedy. Instantaneous to the songs introduction, the camera focuses on Juliet peering over her balcony. It is a contemplated and quiet moment, emphasized by the tune of a soft, nondescript, beat-less music. Suddenly, the scene shifts to Mercutio, Romeo and friends preparing to attend the Capulet party, while the disco rhymes of “Young Hearts” blare forth and announce the radical change in tone. Just as abruptly, the scene then shifts to Mercutio, Romeo and friends celebrating at the party with costumed aquatinters. In both scenes Mercutio performs a drag queen act and becomes the focus of the audience’s attention. Although the performance could be interpreted in a number of ways, the utilizing of music in the film serves the same purpose of that in the play- to entertain. In this way, the substitution of dialogue with music contains no elements associated with an appropriated text. On this occurrence, the degree to which Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet, has appropriated Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is little or non-existent. Many themes evident throughout the film contain both appropriatory and non-appropriatory elements. Lurhmann’s film contains reflexivity to separate the world of Rome...