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William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (12th December 2010). |
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The Film
 “Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene. From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life…” Arguably the Bard’s most famous work – at least to the masses as a whole (isn’t it required that we all read the tale of Juliet and her fair Romeo at some point in high school?) – William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” has been adapted onto film many, many times. And while Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 version may be more faithful (and in my experience, the preferred version of overworked English teachers everywhere), Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 update is certainly a very unique take on the near five hundred year old story and it’s probably the one I’d choose to watch given the option. Discussing the plot of something like “Romeo + Juliet” seems a bit uncalled-for, if only because it’s such a well-known story and frankly not that complex. However, Luhrmann’s version does divert from the play in many ways, and noting those differences is probably important. For instance, although the entire cast still speaks Shakespearian English, the film is set in modern times. Verona is now Verona Beach – a cross between Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami and Rio de Janeiro – a city ruled by two warring crime bosses: Ted Montague (Brian Dennehy) and Fulgencio Capulet (Paul Sorvino). It’s Captain Prince of the Verona Beach PD (played by Vondie Curtis-Hall), and “Dave” Paris (Paul Rudd) is the Governor’s nephew. The various men and boys of the Capulet and Montague houses brandish 9mm pistols called “swords” and “daggers” instead of, well, real swords and daggers. Cars are commonplace. Our narrator opens and closes the film through a TV set while delivering the nightly news. Modern flourishes for a modern world. Luhrmann’s style is wholly contemporary as well. His production design is entirely unsubtle as he populates the film with loud, in you face colors, over the top costumes, and sets which seem simultaneously overly theatrical and yet not the least bit stagey and fake (no doubt, the use of real locations both in Miami and Mexico City supplies this opposed grandiose pragmatism to the look of the sets). The director uses abrasive jump cuts and other kinds of near incoherent editing to stitch the film together. Almost all of the quick-cut dialog exchanges are shot with a handheld camera and use of steadicam is common too. This adaptation of “Romeo + Juliet” is far removed from the overly romantic crane shots and static long-takes that litter the earlier, more classic films based on Shakespeare. But, for all that is changed, the core of the original text lives on. Not only does the entire cast of “Romeo + Juliet” speak Old English (Peter Postlethwaite, as Father Laurence, even delivers his lines in the correct iambic pentameter) – often line for line from the original text – but moments such as the Balcony Scene remain in the film almost completely unaltered (interpreted to an extent, but validly interpreted it should be said). I think it’s Luhrmann’s style – which is in stark contrast with what we expect to see when we hear the name William Shakespeare – that is off-putting for some viewers. It offends them somehow to hear the literary genius of the words butting up against such harsh, frenzied visuals. But, I actually quite like the juxtaposition, simply because watching Shakespeare through such a lens is so completely strange. The reason why the film works is exactly because of the polarized nature of the two styles. The main cast is excellent, and the supporting cast even more so. Leonardo DiCaprio (our fair Romeo) was at the exact time in his career to be the perfect choice to play the male lead. At 20, but passable for the 17 year old he’s supposed to be in the film, DiCaprio had yet to be sullied by “Titanic” (1997) and “The Beach” (2000). As he’s been reborn again in recent years, young DiCaprio was a talented actor and he’s close to the top of his game here. Claire Danes, coming off her short-lived TV series “My So Called Life” (1994-1995), is less impressive than her co-star (who shows a veritable range of emotion) but still suitable for the part of Juliet. I’ve always chocked up her middling turn as more a fault of the Juliet character. She’s just kind of flat and one-dimensional, but that’s the young Capulet even as she’s written in the original text. For the most part the charcacter is dreadfully hollow; her love for Romeo is really the only thing that defines her. John Leguizamo, with all the snarling villainy we expect, is a fairly decent Tybalt, but at times seems like he’s just a frame or two away from transforming into a mustache twirling silent movie baddie. Leguizamo camps it up, but perhaps not as much as Harold Perrineau playing Mercutio as an over-the-top drag queen who sweeps in, psychedelic drugs in hand, to push the plot and fortunes of our titular star-crossed lovers towards their ultimately suicidal end. The film’s real standouts have to be papa Capulet (Paul Sorvino), Miriam Margolyes (standing in as the “nurse” of the Capulet’s only daughter), and the supremely underrated Peter Postlethwaite. His Father Laurence is domineering, powerful and just damn creepy with that gigantic crucifix tattoo on his back – and as I mentioned, Postlethwaite is pretty dang awesome with his line delivery. Margolyes, serving as a gigantic prop of comic relief is intentionally grating but also a great laugh (some of the looks that she gives say more than they need to and should get a good chuckle). Paul Sorvino just relishes in his role completely commanding the screen whenever he’s present. As the patriarch of the Capulet clan, Sorvino chews up his lines as if he depended on them for sustenance. Of course, as good as I think the film is, it’s not without it’s problems. Certain aspects just don’t sit right with me. The repetitiveness of some of the dialogue (scenes which do not feature the repetition as written in the text, but have been adapted as such to fit the film) just seems needless. The best example of this is obviously the opening narration, which is repeated twice in as many minutes, but it occurs at other moments too. The fact that the unfunny Jamie Kennedy is one of the first faces and voices seen in the film – poorly delivering his lines, in a horribly unnatural way – makes the introduction even more unstable. And while I do mostly love Baz Luhrmann’s unconventional editing, and think it works quite well in a certain context – like when Romeo is hallucinating at the masquerade ball – even I start to find it a little too odd towards the middle, especially his repeated use of shots seen earlier in the film. It just starts to feels cheap. And, unfortunately, one of the film’s greatest strengths – the modern setting – also proves to be one of its biggest flaws. Certain aspects of the plot just don’t hold up in modern times. Sure, placing the blame for the final downfall of both families’ children squarely on an undelivered letter is a nice little jab at the bureaucratic incompetence of the current postal service. But for every well-handled element like that we must endure something like the illogical fake death of Juliet. A pretend poisoning may have flown in the 1600's when autopsies weren’t even a thing, but in the nineties? At the very least, as the daughter of a mob boss, Juliet would have been examined because of her father’s standing (who’s to say the girl didn’t meet her end at the hands of foul play). And are you telling me that neither the C.S.I. team or the presumed coroner – both of whom we see via brief flashes in the film – is able to detect that Juliet is in fact not dead just by looking through the crime scene? At the very least, they would have found the bottle of poison (and put two-and-two together) before they buried her in the ground. (I know, suspension of disbelief and all that…) Still, even with few minor quibbles I have, I think, overall, that “Romeo + Juliet” is a good film. I tend to agree with Baz Luhrmann that if Shakespeare were still alive and making film he really would be producing something like this update. After all – and people tend to forget this because, well, it’s “Shakespeare” and that name means haughty literary brilliance – in the time that he was writing his works, the man was mostly just trying to please the drunk, illiterate masses. He was creating easily digestible, entertaining, pop culture. It may still be exceptionally well written, but it was intended to be pop nonetheless. How different is that compared to this film, and the audience that Luhrmann is trying to reach? I mean, the current TV viewer and moviegoer who has an attention span of—ooooh ‘splosions. But seriously, this is a pretty decent update, and despite it’s faults, Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” is something that I recommend you try at least once. I’m not saying you’ll love it, but you might. Right?
Video
Fox has really been hitting it out of the park with their day and date and especially their catalog releases in 2010. Sourced from an all new remastered transfer supervised by director Baz Luhrmann, the 2.40:1 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 widescreen high definition image is both incredibly detailed and impossibly lush. With it’s super-saturated color palette and theatrically over the top production design I always expected “Romeo + Juliet” to look quite good on Blu-ray, but I honestly never expected it to look this good. With fine, natural film grain, excellent contrast, a satisfyingly deep black level (that doesn’t crush shadow information), exceedingly rich and intricate costume and facial details, and a print that features nary a speck of dirt or grime (the source is as clean, if not cleaner than it must have been in theaters), the film has to be one of the finest examples on the format of a major studio catalog release from the mid-nineties. The new rendering often tricks you into thinking that “Romeo + Juliet” was shot a year or two ago, and not fifteen years ago like it actually was. Save for a few moments shot on low-resolution videotape (meant to mimic news footage), the film exhibits excellent color reproduction, great depth, and an astounding level of clarity. From the day-glow colors of the opening gas station fight, to the rich reds in the drapery seen at the Capulet mansion, and the warm yellows and ambers cast by the candlelit climax, the film is gorgeously hued. There isn’t a single moment of the film that feels flat, and instead every frame has a near-tangible depth, which is achieved in part because of the transfer stable black level, which never turns milky or untrue. Even in medium and wide-shots you can see the individual bits of Mail in the armor that Romeo wears to the costume party. The film looks positively breathtaking, showing no signs of artificial sharpening or unwanted DNR. In fact the new Blu-ray is so true to the look of the original film that during some of the more chaotic handheld scenes – especially the close ups during long stretches of dialog at the beach scene – you can now see subtle shifts in focus, where it often dips in and out leaving some shots ups a little softer. Some viewers may see this as a weakness – and I admit that the occasional momentary soft spot is a little distracting, if only for the second that it occurs – but I think it actually speaks to a disc’s strength when it’s able to reveal these types of small “flaws” in the original photography. Now, despite my previous pontifications seemingly to the contrary, the new transfer isn’t absolutely one-hundred-percent perfect. I spotted a few minor moments of aliasing (most notably in the power lines that pass across the screen during a helicopter shot at about 45 minutes into the film), at least one case of a very slight flicker (the grain seems to pulse in a low angle daylight shot of the Church), a few scenes suffering from mild chromatic aberration (an outline of Leguizamo during his introduction and on the right side of DiCaprio’s face during the infamous fish tank scene, mostly) and a couple of times where the film’s grain structure looked more like noise to me. But, this is still a very, very, very nice looking disc and I’m sure those without the trained eye to pick up these sort of flaws will be positively astounded by Fox’s handling of Luhrmann’s film. I kind of have to think so, because, even with the dreaded “reviewers eye” I was still taken aback more often than not with this disc’s video presentation.
Audio
Fox has included an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) surround mix, multi-channel dubs in Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (both 48kHz/640kbps) and a French Dolby Digital 2.0 surround offering. Subtitles are available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. English, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish subtitles are also available on the audio commentary. Try as I might, I just can’t find a fault in the film’s lossless mix. Aurally speaking “Romeo + Juliet” has got pretty much everything you’d want. Dialogue is always intelligible, sound effects, although loud, never overpower other elements in the mix, and the film makes excellent use of the full 360-degree soundscape. There is even subtle silence and excellent acoustics in the church scenes, seem at odds with a film that is often so brash and in your face, but add to the brilliance of the mix. From gunfights and explosions to huge LSD-induced musical numbers at the masquerade ball, the films powerful, immersive and crystal clear soundtrack is full of music by 90's-era artists like Garbage, Everclear, Butthole Surfers and Radiohead, but also a full orchestral score by Craig Armstrong that provides classical juxtaposition to the more modern tunes. Sometimes music and soundtrack producers Marius de Vries, Nellee Hooper and Nigel Godrich, even mix the three distinct types of sound together, layering the action effects with a pop song, which itself is a remix of one of Armstrong’s themes. Their work often adds to the films polarized nature even further, which I think is a good thing because it makes the film unique. It’s excessive, it’s over the top, but “Romeo + Juliet” also sounds oh-so-good.
Extras
Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” was released on DVD quite a few times in various packages. In 2002 Fox prepared a Special Edition that replaced an old barebones disc from 1997. The SE finally gave fans the supplemental package that they’d been craving for very nearly half a decade. Then, in 2007, the distributor re-issued the film again in a Deluxe “Music Edition” which contained then-new bonus material. It, unfortunately, dropped a significant amount of features found on the Special Edition DVD. Now for it’s Blu-ray bow, the studio has outfit “Romeo + Juliet” with a smattering of material from both the Special Edition and Music Edition – although, most of the content comes from the latter disc – including an audio commentary, featurettes, a documentary and the theatrical trailer. The distributor has even gone through the trouble of creating some all-new Blu-ray exclusive supplements including a splendid picture-in-picture commentary and compiling previously unreleased featurettes not found anywhere else. They’ve even made use of the format’s BD-LIVE connectivity to offer a few extras. A note on how these extras are presented on Blu-ray. Fox has taken the unusual route of encoding all of the standard definition material inside of an ornate 1080p high definition picture frame. What this means is that the content is shrunken down into a small 4x3 square in the center of your display surrounded by a detailed boarder on all four sides. I imagine that the effect is pretty irritating on smaller screens – like a postage stamp. Any supplements presented in this way will be denoted as (480p) in my review. Any content that is denoted as either (1080i) or (1080p) is true high definition. An audio commentary by co-screenwriter/director Baz Luhrmann, production designer Catherine Martin, director of photography Donald M. McAlpine and co-screenwriter Craig Pearce headlines the supplemental package. Recorded in 2002 for the Special Edition DVD, this commentary covers a ton of ground, allowing the director and crew to dissect literally every single aspect of the production, often very fairly rationalizing their deviations from the original play. The team spends their time offering interesting anecdote after fascinating technical detail at a rapid-fire pace. There isn’t a dull moment in this discussion and thanks to a new Blu-ray exclusives feature below; this already excellent commentary suddenly becomes extraordinary. “Shaking Up Shakespeare” is an extension of the audio commentary outlined above, adding an all-new picture-in-picture video commentary and graphics track to the mix. While Luhrmann, Martin, McAlpine and Pearce offer their thoughts on the film via the commentary, photos, behind-the-scenes footage, pop-up trivia and a even the occasional note on the piece of music that’s playing in the soundtrack at the time populate the screen. Occasionally branching video pods will also present themselves, and, if you wish, the disc will pause the film and divert into a short interview or clip, then resume the film when the segment has been exhausted. This feature is incredibly well put together, with all of the material on screen – and in the optional branching segments – perfectly timed with what’s being covered in the commentary. Most of the video that appears in this section is pulled elsewhere from the rest of the disc, although some of it does seem to be unique to the “Shaking Up Shakespeare” experience. Also, it should be noted that this picture-in-picture feature requires the viewer to have a Profile 1.1 BonusView enabled Blu-ray player to access it. “From the Bazmark Vault” is a collection of 4 previously un-released featurettes of behind-the-scenes footage: - “First Kiss” (480p, 2minutes 20 seconds) is a short montage of photos and un-narrated behind-the-scenes footage from the shooting of the kissing scene, set to a piece of the film’s score. - Next, Luhrmann directs the fight between Tybalt, Romeo and Mercutio in the not-so-cleverly titled “Beach Scene” (480p, 4 minutes 17 seconds) clip. - “Uncut Rehearsal” (480p, 4 minutes 40 seconds) is exactly that – an uncut rehearsal between Paul Sorvino and Claire Danes during their pivotal father daughter fight, with Baz making adjustments where he deems necessary. The featurette provides an inside look at the formation of a scene, and shows viewers what it is exactly a director does on set. - Finally, “Outside the Church” (480p, 2 minutes 40 seconds) is just random, un-narrated BTS footage of the staging and shooting of Romeo’s confrontation with Verona PD on the church steps. “Romeo + Juliet: The Music” includes a documentary and 3 additional featurettes: “‘Romeo + Juliet’: The Music – Documentary” (1080i, 49 minutes 18 seconds) is a 2006 documentary directed by Anton Monsted (who was Luhrmann’s assistant on the film) about the making of the film’s soundtrack – seriously. Surprisingly thorough and incredibly informative, this making of, which has been completely remastered in HD for it’s Blu-ray debut, features a ton of BTS footage from the production, including candid scenes of Luhrmann directing the actors and later collaborating on the soundtrack with the film’s massive music department. Composers Craig Armstrong and Marius de Vries talk about creating themes, while a few former executives from 20th Century Fox and Capitol Records talk about the business end of the soundtrack. Luhrmann offers thoughts on the operatic nature of the film and the deliberate structure of the soundtrack. I’m always a sucker for bits about film scores, so to have this much time devoted to music is a delight. Also in this section are three shorter featurettes, which elaborate on subjects discussed in the documentary. “‘Everybody's Free’ – The Journey of the Song” (1080p, 1 minute 46 seconds) is a featurette that looks at the young Texan boy who sings “Everybody’s Fine” in the film, and Luhrmann’s reaction to finding him. “The London Music Mix” (1080p, 4 minutes 20 seconds) is another featurette. The music crew talks about the unique way that the film’s score was mixed, not in a studio, but in cathedrals and warehouses, sometimes across oceans, and months apart. Lastly, “Temp Music – The Journey of the Song” (1080i, 2 minutes 6 seconds) is a featurette that gives Luhrmann the chance to talk about choosing the right music for a scene and how the process is often important in communicating the tone and subtext of a scene. The “Director's Gallery” includes 6 production featurettes. Unfortunately, like the rest of these sub-sections no “play all” option is offered. A shame because working through the individual segments is often tediously laborious. “Impact” (480p, 4 minutes 18 seconds) is a featurette that focuses on the critical and commercial response to the film after it’s release; it’s standing as a “modern masterpiece” in some circles today, and the impact that it’s had on both Shakespearian theatre and movie making. The best part of this featurette is without a doubt the mid-nineties news segments and TV reviews about the film – most people just seem so insulted. “Why Shakespeare” (480p, 2 minutes 56 seconds) is a featurette containing a speech recorded in 1998, Luhrmann discusses why he chose to make a film based on one of Shakespeare’s most famous works. “Pitching Shakespeare” (480p, 10 minutes 5 seconds) featurette continuing from the same 1998 speech above, the director talks about his botched pitch for a modern Shakespearian film to Fox execs. It’s a very, very funny story, and his animated retelling of the event makes it all the more easy to sit through for ten minutes. Clips from Luhrmann’s post-pitch concept video, featuring Dicaprio – which he shot for a few thousand dollars in a last ditch attempt to get the Fox guys to sign on to the film – is also included in this clip. The next featurette titled “Directing the Gas Station” (480p, 7 minutes 2 seconds) Luhrmann stages, directs and shoots the opening Phoenix gas station fight. Rehearsal footage is also included. “Directing the Pool Scene” (480p, 5 minutes 18 seconds) is a featurette focusing on the rehearsal, staging, directing and shooting of the pivotal pool scene. Finally, “Tybalt's Execution” (480p, 4 minutes 21 seconds) is the last featurette in this section, and like the two previous segments this focuses on the rehearsal, staging, directing and shooting of Romeo’s murder of Tybalt at the fountain. The “Director of Photography Gallery” (480p) includes 5 featurettes with DP Donald M. McAlpine, in which the cinematographer discusses how he captured the look of a few of the film’s more elaborate scenes, including: - “A Hole in the Wall” (49 seconds) - “The Fish Tank Scene” (1 minute 31 seconds) - “Filming the Lift Scene” (2 minutes 25 seconds) - “One Light” (1 minute 10 seconds) - “Filming the Church Scene” (1 minute 2 seconds) An “Interview Gallery” (480p) contains 8 featurettes highlighting cast and crew interviews from the film’s original Electronic Press Kit. These include: - Leonardo DiCaprio (1 minute 53 seconds) - Claire Danes (2 minutes 28 seconds) - John Leguizamo (1 minute 52 seconds) - Production Designer Catherine Martin (2 minutes 33 seconds) - Co-writer Craig Armstrong (1 minute 47 seconds) - Editor Jil Bilcock (1 minute 47 seconds) - Choreographer John O'Connell (1 minute 9 seconds) - Costume Designer Kym Barrett (2 minutes 3 seconds) The “Marketing” section includes just one extra – the film’s International theatrical trailer (480p, 1 minute 31 seconds) Finally, “Romeo + Juliet” is BD-LIVE enabled, allowing users to access Fox’s “Live Lookup” feature, which works with IMDB, streaming information such as actors filmographies as well as trivia about the production. “Live Look Up” runs in conjunction with the film like a trivia track. A “What’s New” tab also houses a few trailers for other 20th Century Fox blu-ray discs.
Packaging
The film arrives on a single BD-50 disc from 20th Century Fox and is packaged inside an atrocious eco-case. Early pressings also come with a cardboard slipcover that replicates the actual case artwork; how long the slip will be in print I don’t know, but I’ve already seen slip-less copies of “Romeo + Juliet” on the shelves of local retailers. Despite a logo in the rear specs box stating otherwise the Blu-ray is confirmed to be Region Free.
Overall
Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” is certainly a film that divides audiences. I have to say that I sit closer to the side who loves it – the film is incredibly creative, weaving modernity into a centuries old story better than you might imagine – although it’s not a perfect film. This new Blu-ray release is pretty grand though, and fans will be incredibly happy to learn that the film looks and sounds fantastic (and the extras are pretty sweet too). A Must Own for Fans.
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