Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2637 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-02-07
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Subtitled in: English, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Hungarian, Polish, Icelandic, Finnish, Czech
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom) takes a shot at reinventing Shakespeare's story of star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet as a visual pastiche inspired by MTV imagery, Hong Kong action-picture clichés, and Luhrmann's own taste for deliberate, gaudy excess. The result is explosive chaos, both in terms of bullets and visual sensibility, which some may find impossible to stick with for more than a few minutes. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes play the leads, though not with much distinction, while Pete Postlethwaite makes a huge impression as this movie's version of Friar Laurence. The film is successful in spots, but overall its fever-dream game plan is difficult to ride out. --Tom Keogh

Video Description
DVD Special Features

Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Multiple Language Subtitles
Original Theatrical Trailer
Language: English
Subtitles: Swedish/Norweigan/Danish/Finnish/Poruguese/Hebrew/Polish/Czech/Hungarian/Icelandic/English for the hearing impaired

Synopsis
This ambitious undertaking, adapting William Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed lovers and setting the story in a glossy music-video style in 1990s Florida. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes play the famous lovers kept apart by rival industrialist families. Bookended by newscastsers reciting Shakespeare's prose as their copy, this clever glam updating of ROMEO AND JULIET is one of the most unusual adaptations of the Bard's work in the history of cinema. The stylish and colourful sets earned the film an Oscar nomination for art direction. John Leguizamo gives a memorable performance as a devilish Tybalt.

Customer Reviews

Accent on worldliness
The opening sequence of this film includes arial shots of an American city in which a church spire is dominated by two much taller skyscrapers belonging to the chief businesses there. Visually, this sums up one of the important themes of the play, how material values in Verona have become more important than spiritual ones. There are many more ways in which this film intelligently translates Shakespeare's words into pictures. Particularly enjoyable is the way in which, at the Capulet's party, all the major characters play a symbol of themselves: Tybalt is a devil, Lady Capulet is Cleopatra, Mercutio is a transvestite, Juliet is an angel, and though Romeo begins as an astronaut, he ends up looking far more like a knight in shinning armour. The text is very much shorter than we might expect and few of the actors speak the text with much lyricism but anyone who has to teach this play might do a lot worse than ask students to compare and contrast this with Zeffirelli's version, but beware, your discussion could go on for several sessions.

Wow!!
I'm gonna keep this brief But oh my God could this film get an better?? it's amazing seriously Buy it now, you'll love it!!

Perfect!
One of the best films of our time! certainly the best Shakespeare adaptation on film. The acting, sets and props are stunning. A movie to move you. You must see this before you die!