With every review that I do I keep wondering if there ever be a movie that sees me, IMDb and the tomatoes in agreement and this one appears to be the closest yet with a 73% from me and IMDb with 6.7/10 (67% to me) and the rotten lot giving this a 72% that has to be the closest yet isn’t it?
This was released in 1996 and starred Leonardo DiCaprio & Claire Danes in the title roles along with Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino and Diane Venora. It was made with a budget of $14.5m and went on to make $147.5m at the global box office. Screenplay Written, produced and directed by Baz Luhrmann but he shared the screenplay with Craig Pearce and was co-produced with Gabriella Martinelli.
If you think I am going to give you a full plot run down here well I refuse. As this follows the same story of the legend that is William Shakespeare and not only that it is possible one of his most famous one at that. There are certain elements which are changed as it is set in America and the names of the families at war are now Montague and Capulet and they are both gangs with a legitimate frontage of a normal businesses. The swords are now guns and are named broadsword or dagger for example. The words are (not strictly) straight from Shakespeare scriptures. Which is why when this was release and I would have been in my early twenties and trying to avoid anything related to GSCE English and I would have avoided this movie like it had covid-19 and I think I did a pretty good job at the time.
It has taken me many years to come back to Shakespeare’s work full stop let alone work that offers a new modern twist on the subject so this has taken an absolute age for me to come around to this movie. Maybe not worth the twenty year wait but it very much worth a watch but more so is going back to the source material and enjoying the historical and classic stories of the true legend of Shakespeare’s works.
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