Romeo and Juliet (1968)

Cast, Etc.
Dir. Franco Zeffirelli, Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, John McEnery, Milo O'Shea, Pat Heywood, Michael York, Bruce Robinson, Robert Stephens, Paul Hardwick, Natasha Perry, Antonio Pierfederici, Esmerelda Ruspoli, Laurence Olivier, score by Nino Rota, rated PG, 1968

Synopsis
A boy and girl from feuding families fall in love.

Review
If you don't know the story of Romeo and Juliet by now, shame on you. Go read the play, then go see a version of it. You can go see this 1968 version, if you like, but be prepared for an unbalanced film that nonetheless does a good job with the greatest love story ever written. It is late 1500s in Verona, Italy. The two powerful families, Montague and Capulet, are once again feuding, this time leading to an all-out brawl in the streets before the prince (Stephens) comes in an issues some ultimatums about not fighting anymore. At Lord Capulet's (Hardwick) annual semi-masked ball (semi, because not everyone was wearing a mask), Romeo (Whiting), from the house of Montague, sees from across the room Juliet (Hussey), from the house of Capulet, and they both fall in love at first sight. What follows is a visually stunning and mostly well-acted version of Shakespeare's great love story. Filmed in Italy, this is probably the most accurate version in terms of costuming, location, and overall look. The locations add a great deal of veracity to the action. Unfortunately, the lead actors aren't that great; they're not horrible, but they just don't bring the right oomph to the story. I never felt they really loved each other or were that passionate for each other. At other times, I felt they were doing a good job, just not when it came to each other, which is really a bad thing for a love story. Leonard Whiting is adequate as Romeo, although he got rather annoying after a while. Olivia Hussey is better as Juliet (quite attractive and wide-eyed), but, like Whiting (both of whom were newcomers at the time), she just didn't quite have the acting chops to do Juliet justice. The rest of the cast is also adequate, with a few exceptions that are quite good: Michael York is very good as Juliet's cousin Tybalt, Pat Heywood is great as the nurse, and Milo O'Shea is very good as the Friar. One interesting portrayal was of Mercutio by John McEnery, making him more wisecracking than I remembered. As with most adaptations of Shakespeare plays, the text was edited a bit, but it mostly doesn't detract from the film. One edit does: Romeo suddenly has something in his possession near the end of the film that we don't see him get, leading us to believe he carries it around all the time (just in case). With this item, I don't think so; it's a small detail, but comes at a crucial moment in the play and detracted from that scene. One of the big problems with the film is that the dialogue was quite obviously re-recorded and they don't quite get it right on many occassions. This is bad for a movie relying heavily on the lines. The re-dubbing also extends to other noises, such as weeping or laughing (both of which are prominent) that just sound fake, for the prior reason and because the actors doing the weeping and laughing aren't that good at it. It's interesting that this film got a PG rating, even though it's got a fair amount of violence and even some nudity, but that was at a time before there was a PG-13 rating, so it was either PG or go straight to R, which it doesn't deserve.

Highlights
the scenery and cinematography; the friar; the Capulet party; the balcony scene

Rating
I give this film a wine cooler rating; it's mostly good, but falls short of some other very good versions of this play. As a Shakespeare movie, it's average. The villains of the feuding families and their respective quarrelers is very good. The score by Rota is a lush, classical-inspired one that works very well in the film.