A tragic movie for a tragic story. Guess it works. By Jewel

After being forced to read the play then watch the 1968 version of the classic Shakespearian play, ‘’Romeo & Juliet’’ I’m now supposed to write a critique on the movie. Well, the movie has many flaws, but it also has many good qualities. The movie, in my opinion, is a failure if it’s meant to capture the hearts of the viewers. Instead, I find it funnier than heart-warming and emotional. During the film, I laughed in moments when the director clearly didn’t have the intention of being comical.

Romeo, a Montague enemy of the Capulets finds himself in a sticky situation once he meets the daughter of Capulet. They end up in a twisted love story mixed with war between two families. The two get stuck between a rock and their prejudiced parents.

It’s very different from the play in many ways, some things were added in and others taken out. In the movie there was a wedding scene, but the play didn’t have one.  The scene in which Romeo got the vial of poison was removed and instead he conveniently had one in his pocket. His break into the Capulet catacomb was very cheesy and too dramatically executed. In the scene in which the newly weds woke up after a night of ‘fun’ there was a long unnecessary view of Romeos butt, while there was clearly a lot of effort put into covering Juliet’s chest when afterwards she simply flashed her boobs. The Capulet’s spurt of rage once Juliet expressed her refusal to marry Paris was exaggerated and looked ridiculous.

Overall I didn’t like the movie, and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you like bad acting and wasting your time on badly scripted old movies.

Two out of five Jewels.