Romeo and Juliet movie (NOT the Leonardo Dicaprio version) - Essay Example

Romeo and Juliet, An Analysis of the 1968 Film Adaptation Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous literary works by William Shakespeare about two young lovers who met a tragic end due to the conflict between their families. The paper is aimed to discuss and analyze the 1968 film adaptation of the movie by Franco Zeffirelli in different aspects. The focal points of the firm are the plot, the performance of the actors and actresses and the message of the film. The film featured the performance of Leonard Whiting as Romeo and Olivia Hussey as Juliet.

Upon watching the film, it can be considered as the best film adaptation of the movie. The freshness and youthfulness of the performance of the leading characters had brought a different light to the story. The plot of the original work by Shakespeare had been meant to be young, but other movie adaptations had failed to capture the said youthful character. The plot of the story was the best impression of the Shakespeare’s work. Capturing the essence of the plot can be considered as an important achievement of the film because it is very seldom that written literary works can be successfully adapted to film due to different factors such as limitations in the film genre and the subjectivity of the interpretation of the production team, especially the director and the script writer.

The most important focus of the paper though is the message of the film. The message of the story of Romeo and Juliet both in the written form and in the film is the power of love. Basically, the story showed the different types of love. Love of the family and love between the two lovers, Romeo and Juliet had been the force that stirred and moved the film. The love of the family can be observed in every member of each family. The conflict between the two families started due to the intention to protect their loved ones.

For Romeo and Juliet though, the main driving force had been the love they had for each other. In this case, it had been stronger that the love of Romeo for the Montagues and the love of Juliet for the Capulets. For that matter, they chose to be together regardless of the feud between the two families. Until the end, the overflowing love for each other became the basis of the decision to take their own lives. An element of tragedy had twisted their story though. This can be given importance and be labelled as miscommunication.

The importance of the lesson of proper communication had been presented in the story. But when the tragedy became the main reason for the unity of the two conflicting families, it can be considered that this may be the main lesson that Shakespeare had intended to present. That in every tragedy, there is an important lesson that is needed to be sought. The film then can be considered as an important mirror that made the lessons of the story written by Shakespeare visible in less than the time one could take to read the story.

This means that the plot of the film had been true to the original plot of literary work made by Shakespeare. In conclusion, the film thought the lessons of respect for the literary work thus presenting the original lessons of the story which is the power of love. Work Cited: Zeffirelli, Franco, dir. Romeo and Juliet. Paramount Pictures, 1968. Film.