Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was written in the late 1500's. Critics tended to disparage this play in comparison to the four great tragedies Shakespeare wrote in the first decade of the seventeenth century (Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Othello). Assessed next to the Bard's mature works, Romeo and Juliet appears to lack the psychological depth and the structural complexity of Shakespeare's later tragedies. But over the past three decades or so, many scholars have altered this assessment, effectively upgrading its status within Shakespeare's canon. They have done this by discarding comparative evaluation and judging Romeo and Juliet as a work of art in its own right. Viewed from this fresh perspective, Shakespeare's tragic drama of the "star-crossed" young lovers is seen to be an extraordinary work. Indeed, Romeo and

Juliet was an experimental stage piece at the time of its composition, featuring several radical departures from long-standing conventions. These innovative aspects of the play, moreover, reinforce and embellish its principal themes. The latter include the antithesis between love and hate, the correlative use of a light/dark

Overall, this movie was enjoyable. As far as it being comparable to the works of the great William Shakespeare, I would not give it that much credit. I do own the movie Romeo and Juliet, and watch it from time to time, but I feel it is better to read the play, and use your own imagination to form your own opinions on what characters look like, how they sound, what they wear, and how they carry themselves. I think that this is just a totally different way of looking at a masterpiece.

Critics seemed to be very up and down when they reviewed this movie. Either they loved or hated it. Thinking that the movie was all right was few and far between. Gene Siskel gave the movie a thumb up, while Roger Ebert gave it a thumb down. Laura Lipshitz from M.T.V. stated, '"Eeek, this movie is just too noisy, the dialogue's the thing and it's not made more accessible by being intelligible. " William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet" tries so hard to be hip that it loses the basis of the story. It does succeed in a few ways though, and maintained my interest" She liked the Capulet ball, and the pool scene. Also, she found comfort in a few small scenes in the movie. She enjoyed Friar Lawrence sending Romeo the letter Federal Express, and the little boy singing the Prince song, "When doves Cry." Robin Quivers, co-host of the Howard Stern radio show believed that this Romeo and Juliet was a real "hepcat" way of telling the original story. She said, "it starts out flashy, with near comic book action in the opening scenes." She continued to make mention of the differences that I mentioned previously. She said, "Unfortunately, slick, stylish sets and fast, cutting camera work do not lend themselves to this story, especially with the awkward effort to preserve the Bards dialogue." She feels that the interesting parts of the story are not interesting enough to salvage the story. "One of Luhrmann's coolest conceits is in translating Shakespeare's characters into modern archetypes easy to recognize. The flamboyant Mercutio becomes RuPaul, the clean-cut "Dave'' Paris (Paul Rudd) is a ringer for JFK Jr., Lady Capulet (Diane Venora) is a dithering Blanche DuBois, the herb-loving Father Laurence (Pete Postlethwaite) is a take on Timothy Leary. But they all stay 100% true to Shakespeare." stated Sean Means, a twentieth century Fox film critic. He continued by saying, "What Luhrmann has trashed is the tight corsets that have literally and symbolically stifled Shakespeare's passion and fire. If this Shakespeare guy is so great, Luhrmann seems to be saying, let's throw him in the deep end of the pool and see if he can swim. In Luhrmann's dizzying version, Shakespeare does the 400-meter medley." A writer in A Curtain up London Review, Lizzie Loveridge, had much to say about Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. She noted that since his movie, it has brought much success in bringing in a different type of audience. She has seen a play, where the characters are copied more off of the movie than the actual Shakespeare script. Shakespeare online had this to offer when dealing with Baz Luhrmann's remake, "The opening sequence also invites us to read the film in the idiom of contemporary television drama, Verona Beach 90210 or Montague Place, as it were. This is most obvious when the action freezes for a strap-caption introducing characters: 'The Montague Boys', 'Benvolio, Romeo's friend', 'Tybalt, Prince of Cats and a Capulet, and so on. Further, we register that the story is present-day and urban; the rival houses are now competing corporations, while the dominant statue of an ineffectual Christ is a frequently repeated reminder of the power religion still has in the lives of these characters. The site also mentioned, "he setting, though familiar and believable, is not by any means realistic. That is inhibited by the art direction, which is gaudy to the point of becoming high camp. There is a blatant reveling in kitsch, tawdry, and vulgarity. The col

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