In studying Shakespeare, it is valuable to supplement his works by seeing them performed. I have compared several movie versions of plays like Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. In Shakespearean Theatre class, it came time to read and watch Romeo and Juliet. There are two fantastic film versions of this play, a modern take starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, and a more traditional version with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. There is also a third version of Romeo and Juliet that is far less known. This movie is called “Tromeo and Juliet,” and I believe that if Shakespeare were alive today to see this version, he might lose his will to live.
There were too many signs that I never should have taken this movie home to watch. When presented with this movie in class, my professor said that he lent it to a student before and that she could not get through it because it was so filthy. Rather than let this scare me, I took it as a challenge. I thought that what some might consider filthy, I might see as hilarious.
Looking back, I was so wrong.
Looking back, I was so wrong.
I also should have known from the trailers shown before the movie that this was not going to be the level of Shakespeare interpretations I had seen in the past. There was a movie about slutty female pilots that looked like soft core porn, and another film about a police officer who transforms into a samurai warrior.
In an interview with the director that was shown before the movie, he states that the samurai movie was another Shakespeare interpretation of Coriolanus. Then, he said that it really put the “anus” in Coriolanus.
All of these were signs that this movie should not ever be viewed. And yet, I carried on with hope that it would get better.
The movie opens with a homeless man giving the classic “Two households” speech, then goes to show all of the main characters by flashing their names across the screen. The first appearance of Tromeo is not on the pleasant streets of Verona, but rather in a tattoo parlor where he is watching a female friend get her nipple pierced.
Casually, the camera pans down to her chest. In spite of other dialogue happening in the scene, the camera remains there and the audience sees everything. I never thought that I would see something so inappropriate and disgusting in a movie. For five minutes, I watched clamping, pulling, needle threading, and pain, all the while thinking: How would Shakespeare feel about this?
I was ready to turn the movie off after 10 minutes, but I wanted to defeat the person who had only made it halfway through. I forged on into a scene that showed Mercutio, Tromeo’s friend, at a rave. Mercutio gets in a fight with some Capulet boys, and they take him into another room to beat each other. Mercutio apparently gave the Capulet’s “the finger,” but he claims that this was never given because he still has all of his fingers.
Because of this, the Capulet’s quickly slice off two of his fingers with a paper cutter…and everything is shown in great detail.
When Juliet is finally introduced, she is angelically sitting on her four poster bed glancing out to the moon. She is upset because her father never lets her leave the house and also that she is having disgusting and disturbing sexual nightmares. In order to relieve her stresses, the “Nurse” character come in to comfort her. Rather than being an older woman who has been caring for Juliet since she was born, the Nurse is a very young house cook who is in love with Juliet. In this version, the way that the Nurse comforts Juliet is to ferociously make out on her bed.
The creepiest part of this movie is the relationship between Juliet and her father. Whenever Juliet has nightmares and screams in her sleep, her father happens to be lying beside her when she wakes up. He punishes her whenever this happens by dressing her in a hot pink pleather underwear set and locking her in a glass box. She is chained at her wrists and ankles, and he leaves her there in the dark.
It is in this box that Tromeo finds Juliet and they act out the balcony scene. After professing their love in poorly spoken Shakespearean English, the two indulge in some pre-marital bliss.
After this scene, I gave up. I finally understood why others could not finish the movie and why I had never heard of it before. I was upset to see Shakespeare at his interpretive worst.
I know that Shakespeare had a mind that was full of the human experience, which includes sexuality, but the presentation of this movie is not discreet or hidden at all.
This movie is not even one of those “because I know it is bad it is entertaining and hilarious” types of movies. I could not find even one redeeming quality as to why someone would watch this.
The movie was made in 1996, which could be an excuse for the poor production value. However, in 1996 movies like “Fargo”, “Trainspotting”, and “Independence Day” were released. In that year, several good movies were released that did not involve scenes with a pregnant belly expanding and filling with freshly popped popcorn.
After quitting the movie, I felt the need to apologize to Shakespeare not only for the creation of the film but for having seen it at all.
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