After watching both Baz Luhrmann's and Franco Zeffirelli's versions of Shakespeare's tragedy, "Romeo and Juliet," one would not be hard pressed to find contrasting differences. Franco Zeffirelli's is set in the Renaissance era and Baz Luhrmann's in modern times. We will embark on a voyage through the anomalies in setting, costume and omission in both versions and contrast and compare the two. We will also distinguish the difference in depictions of Mercutio and Friar Lawrence in both movies.
In Franco Zeffirelli's account of "Romeo and Juliet", a good amount of the story is inference, left up to the viewer to figure out by watching closely. In Baz Luhrmann's, everything is spelled out quite plainly for all to see. For instance, Luhrmann's translation show's the conclusion of the story when Romeo and his friends are on the way to the Capulet's party. In Romeo's last words in Act I Scene 4, he says:
I fear too early, for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night's revels, and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
Mass-produced colour photolithography on paper for...
Romeo and Juliet, Act I-Scene_3. Lady Capulet and ...
Rosaline in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, one of ...But he that hath the steerage of my course
Direct my sail. On lusty gentlemen. 1.4.113-120
While he is speaking we see flashes of Romeo's thoughts, where he is walking through a church looking miserable and then his death. Now Romeo in Zeffirelli's form is left alone, speaking and looking fearful. We see the premonition in one version and in the other, are left to imagine what he is speaking, feeling it instead of seeing it.
A more detailed account of differences in these movies is in their costuming and setting. We can take both of these into account during the...