Romeo & Juliet (film in 1996): urgh :P
It isn't often that I get angry when i see a list of "best films of (insert whatever here)" but seeing this film rated as the 14th best film of the 90's.... pfft! pfft I say!
I will admit that a large part of my disdain for this film stems from the fact that I think that Leo is one of the most over-rated actors of the past 20 years. I feel as though his films are blockbusters because of the correct directors and publicity, rather than because of him. I think that most of his films are great in spite of him, not because of him. I will admit there are exceptions to this such as Blood Diamond (where he was excellent and the only award that he was nominated for that I feel he deserved.)
However, while this movie was well-received, It was not well received by me and that's my story and I am sticking to it. I am not any sort of a purist when it comes to Shakespeare, I am pretty indifferent to it just like anyone who was ever force-fed his tragedies in high-school and told that we had to admire it when we couldn't even understand it. I am not upset that they took the story and then turned it into a modern day mess of metaphors from the original script. I don't care about any of that. I understand that the director and writers were trying to incorporate as much of the original Shakespearean wording into the lines in the film. Some people though it was cunning, I thought it was dumb.
source
They knew the second they put baby-face Leo and young starlet Claire Danes into this movie that it was gonna be a hit and while i am the naysayer in this, the box office success of making TEN TIMES your $14 million dollar budget is hard to argue with. It doesn't mean i have to like it.
source
I was happy with Brian Dennehy's performance in the movie because he is a fantastic actor and I would like him in almost anything. I think as much as I genuinely like most of the cast Harold Perrineau is just insufferable as Mercutio as well as everything else he has been in. This is long before Lost but after he was on that show (which i otherwise liked) i was determined to never watch anything else he is in.
source
I only made it through this film because my GF at the time was in love with Leo
I can only imagine that so many people at the time rated this film so highly because Leo had (and continues to have ) real super-star power and because it was Shakespearean without losing the original lines, which everyone just LOVES in the critic world. Except for possibly the most important critic Roger Ebert, had this to say.
I couldn't even watch all of that trailer. Hearing Leo read Shakespeare and even seeing Harold Perrineau briefly in it makes me feel like I need to go get a bottle of whisky and talk about literally anything else for a while. If you liked this movie, remember, it is not my objective to insult anyone. The only opinion i have access to is the voice in my own head.
I guess I'll submit myself to this film's defense. I should make it clear that I was totally the target age and target audience for this film: I was a teenage guy who took his teenage girlfriend to see it, and it was exactly what we were expecting: a romantic drama featuring characters we could easily connect with, which contrasted modern-day settings with old English dialog. It's was artsy-phartsy, targeted at our core demographic, and we ate it up. Pretty sure my girlfriend (who later became my wife) and I saw this a couple times in the theater, and we've watched it countless times on our 'date days' ever since.
It reminds us both of being younger, of a time when emotions and passions were more fiery, and when we were both still children ourselves (she was 16, I was 17) but looking at the prospect of entering adulthood very soon.
Baz Luhrmann did with this movie exactly what he accomplished with The Great Gatsby twenty years later: he made something boring which kids were introduced to in high school into something fun and exciting which exploded off the screen. I never cared for stage productions of Romeo & Juliet, nor for Fitzgerald's novel, but I've watched the shit out of both those films and enjoyed it every time. DiCaprio and Danes share great screen chemistry, and my god, watching it today it's like playing a game of 'Spot That Guy' with the supporting cast. You mention Brian Dennehy and Harold Perrineau, but let's not forget Dash Mihok, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Rudd, M. Emmet Walsh, Jamie Kennedy, and Paul Sorvino were also in this. :)
It's very much a product of its time, and if you're looking for the best artistic cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's play, it's hard to top the 1968 Zeffirelli production. But for a guy seeing it as a date movie with the love of his life, this (and may other films from the same time) will always hold a special place in my heart.
Despite all that, I certainly don't begrudge you your opinion. Lacking my specific circumstances, I could easily see myself falling into your camp. But there are just too many memories, good memories, of that time in my life for me to see it as anything but magical. Even now, twenty-two years later, it speaks to me to remind me of a younger, more innocent time in my life. :)
awesome response. It would be a boring world if everyone agreed and yes, your specific circumstances certainly warrant a much different experience than my own. I think I tend to be judgemental of things when people try to be strangely artistic like using old English in modern day settings. I really like the way you write and am going to dig into your blogs this afternoon. Thanks for contributing.
My pleasure, @gooddream. I've been delighted to find and follow your film reviews. Honestly, your stuff is so well written that I often feel like you hit all the points I would have made with films I recognize, and I learn much of the material with which I am not familiar.
Be it said that perhaps today I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I do bite my thumb, sir! :D
ha! brilliant! Hey man, you just made my night. Thank you for that.
Hey gooddream. I try and watch decent movies and anything that is rated is normally crap. I confess this never hit the radar as it is not something I would watch. Understand why you watched it and hope your girlfriend realized the sacrifice you made at the time.
hey man i think you are better off having never seent it so this is great news because i actually like you. you get 1000% upvote for being honest and great!
Lol. Thank you. I have added you to the steem auto vote as I get peeved every time I miss your posts. We live in different parts of the world so with time differences I tend to miss them. That has now been fixed.
thanks for that pal.
hahahah! The title told the entire story already!
Anyways, I have not seen much of leo's movies except the two- Shutter island and titanic(off-course) and no offence to you, but I love his work.
keep up with honest content:)
yeah, that is something i totally missed in the review of this film - the fact that the story was understood already by anyone who ever had any exposure to K-12 education - which at least during my time was everyone! super upvote for you sir!
Thank you sir:)
Hahahaha. I remember I loved this movie the first time I saw it. But I think it's because I'm a Leo fan! This movie has become a classic and is cult to some critics when they talk about the crazy and creative versions of some directors. Now that you say it, the language and some characters were implausible and very ostentatious. Maybe, in the end, I should review this film again. Maybe I won't be so good. Greetings
i love your use of complicated words. I almost didn't understand your response but I thought about it really hard and YES... I understand and also agree with you. Thank you for taking part and I am happy to award you a 500,000% upvote for your participation. ! Thank you!
Hehe. Nice review, man. I never watched this when it came out. Mostly because I found Leo kind of annoying back then.
To be honest I feel like he has been getting better as he has gotten older.
@gooddream I confess I didn't see this movie, it didn't attract my attention at all. I should see it to be able to give some opinion, but I'm not sure I want to waste my time right now. The score you gave her is nefarious hahaha.
that's not really the correct context to use nefarious but yeah. This movie is not my favorite. i mean if you believe what i say. I spoke to several people tonight (IRL) that say that they "LOVE" this film but then failed to mention anything about it... so they are faker-dakers! They love this movie because they were told to love this movie. I will have to watch them more closely in the future because i think they might be robots.
"Hearing Leo read Shakespeare"
My poor ears. I understand my friend. Leo looks like a little kid in this movie. Too young, not enough experience.
As i see it,his movie 'The Revenant'(2015) was awesome for him!!XD
i suppose it is always going to be regarded as awesome to win the "best actor" award... but did you see the Revenant? was he the best actor? I think the CGI bear that kicked the shit out of him was the best actor.
hahahahah On second thought,cg bear beat Dicaprio by a score of 9-1.The power of cg is really amazing!
i'm replying to my own stuff because i had the bottle of whisky and I still feel the same way. This film, and especially Harold Perrinnnawhatever are just so horrible! ok. nite nite.
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.