Assignment 16-Eliot Smith

     In freshman year English, we watched Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet (yes, there actually is a plus sign in the title) during our Shakespeare unit and were asked to compare it to the original play.  Last year, in sophomore English, we read The Great Gatsby, and Baz Luhrmann's adaptation came out right after the unit. Because of this, I have chosen to compare these two adaptations.

     I think anyone who has seen his 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet can agree that Baz Luhrmann is not a normal guy.  His directional choices, including clothing choices (he chose to dress Mercutio as a woman for part of the film), shot angles, and dialogue, are certainly irregular, and border being referred to as weird.  Although some this interesting style is reflected in The Great Gatsby, it is definitely more clearly displayed in Romeo+Juliet.

     The two movies can be accurately described as nostalgically over the top.  Examining Romeo+Juliet, I thought that the idea of implementing a modern style to an old text was not a bad idea--many movies, such as O Brother Where Art Thou, directed by the Coen brothers, have used this style with great success.  Luhrmann's error, in my opinion, was the decision to use the original Shakespearean dialogue.  The diction simply seemed awkward and forced for the majority of the film.  On the other hand, the film was still appealing to serious Shakespeare fans, and, for them, offered a refreshing, although somewhat lacking, twist to the regular adaptation.

     I identify much more with The Great Gatsby rather than Romeo and Juliet, so I believe that my opinion on his interpretation of Fitzgerald's famous novel will be a bit more credible.

     The first thirty to forty five minutes were cringe-worthy.  I felt embarrassed to have the film playing on my television.  This overly-long introduction to the main plot completely blew out of proportion the bubbly and careless nature of the 1920's old money citizens.  While it wasn't "weird" like Luhrmann's Shakespearean adaptation, the first scenes of the movie completely missed the mark set by Fitzgerald in his first few chapters of character development, leaving Gatsby fanatics struggling to turn off the T.V. or walk out of the theater.

     But, as soon as the main conflict was brought up, the movie took a turn for the better.  It suddenly lost its ridiculously flashy and annoying guise and transformed into a fitting interpretation of the book.  The characters started to act real, and the deep identification of Jay Gatsby started to set in.  I wouldn't go as far as to say that the ending saved the movie in its entirety, but it certainly picked up the majority of the massive load of slack left by the awful beginning.

     Both movies offer a sadly over-the-top style but eventually save themselves through some form of audience relation, and, all in all, leave a nostalgic stamp on its viewers.