Shakespeare with the flame-thrower: Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes set teenagerhearts on fire
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents’ strife."- That's good old Shakespeare all over. But the pictures and sounds accompanying it, in a insane pace brought to the screen, speak another language. Gangs, violence and big calibers rule the opening scene and right in the middle a crowd of hip boys with appropriate gestures and American cars. Sheer hatred is written into their faces, but instead of big-mouthed sayings like "Motherf..." the bad lads have Shakespeare’s original texts on the lips, while around them hell breaks loose. "And civil blood makes civil hands unclean", says it with Shakespeare, but what you see is an urban massacre. Wrong world? Betrayal of culture? And the question of all questions: Is that actually allowed? Disregarding the objections of some Purists, the answer can only
be: YES! "Romeo and Juliet"
cries almost for a pop-production. After all, it is about the big
love and everything that goes with it: romance, being high,
despair, death. Passion at first sight. The magic of the moment,
the aura of the instant, hysteria right now, at the very present,
all this explodes in the key-scene in which Romeo and Juliet meet
for the first time. Separated by an aquarium, filled with
colorful fish, their looks meet, looks that make two persons be
one. Looks that promise all and that can’t let from each
other until death divorces them violently. This true love that is
worth to die for is pure pop. Shakespeare supplies only the
scaffolding for the picture-delirium through which Leonardo
DiCaprio (Romeo) and Claire Danes (Juliet) stagger like two
drowning persons in an ocean of hatred and violence. Director Baz
Luhrmann, an Australian, has made "Romeo and Juliet" a
flame-thrower who sets teenagerhearts on fire without wasting any
thought of putting a fire extinguisher into action. Shakespeare
would truly enjoy this.