Common Sense Note
Four centuries haven't diminished the relevance of this tragic and brilliantly worded story, in which the examples of two feuding families drive home a fatal point. Still, teens may see the story as a glamorization of suicide and the subject is well worth discussing with them.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Scott G. Mignola
Franco Zeffirelli brought Shakespeare to the masses in 1968. He did it not by dumbing the play down, but by casting two talented unknowns, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey (ages seventeen and fifteen, respectively) as the leads in his ambitious production of Romeo and Juliet.
Much like Titanic would thirty years later, the movie struck a chord with teenagers, who found its beautiful young stars' urgency and tragic plight irresistible. When Romeo first spies Juliet, you believe--even before he speaks--that he's irreparably in love. Their balcony scene is wonderfully passionate, and the finale all the more potent for Laurence Olivier's uncredited narration. (But a cautionary note to parents: Teens may see the story as a glamorization of suicide and the subject is well worth discussing with them.)
Unlike the peculiar travesty William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, in which Leonardo DiCaprio and others spew Shakespeare's lines without understanding them, Zefirelli's performers breathe understanding into every ornate phrase, translating the sixteenth- century prose into something fresh and modern.
For more great Shakespeare, see Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Keyed up for more romance? Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, adapted by Emma Thompson from the book by Jane Austen, is another great one for teens.
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Sexual ContentNude male posterior and a glimpse of breasts in a tasteful bed scene. |
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ViolenceBitter quarreling leads to murder and suicide. Some deadly swordplay. Two young people take their own lives. |
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