In all fairness, this movie is 36 years old and yes, the teen stars would be in their 50s by now. This means some aspects of the film are unavoidably dated...how couldn't they be? It was intended to be a Romeo and Juliet for the hip baby boom teenagers of the 60s! Visually, it exploited the similarity in "hippie" clothes and Beatle hairstyles to very real styles of the late 15th century, right down to the girls with their hair parted in the center and worn long and straight. (Check out ANY high school year book from the late sixties and early seventies!) At the time it came out, this was a revolutionary and remarkable idea; also casting real teenagers in the parts.

Franco Zeffirelli originally produced this kind of a Romeo and Juliet on stage in '62, casting Judy Dench (yes, the "M" from the newer Bond movies...she was a young hottie 40 years ago), and using the same kind of pseudo real Renaissance setting. This '68 film followed his highly successful version of Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

The costumes and location filming in R&J are still gorgeous and hold up very well. Few movies set in this Renaissance period even today are so accurate. Danilo Donati's costumes are just amazingly beautiful. (A whole generation of brides were married in high-wasted dresses after seeing this.) Nino Rota's musical score is lush and beautiful, slightly resembling his score for the Godfather. You still catch the theme from R&J on the radio sometimes (or in elevators); it's the ultimate in romatic scores.

Olivia Hussey, 16 at the time of filming, is radiantly beautiful and has a wonderful, husky voice. She does a remarkable job despite her youth and lack of acting experience. I think she has influenced the way Juliet's have been cast and acted for the last 30+ years -- even Baz Luhrman has obviously seen and been affected by her. There is a BBC version of the play in which the actress virtually mimicks her line readings. Sadly, I think she was typecast from this role and never went anywhere careerwise. The last things I saw her in were pathetic horror films, like Pscho 4. I don't think Hollywood knew what to do with her lush, delicate beauty.

Leonard Whiting is much less successful. Franco Zeffirelli is gay, and his intepretation of Romeo is clearly meant to be homosexual or at least bisexual. Leonard Whiting was a handsome, but slightly effeminate boy and he's not got nearly the grasp of the material or the acting ability of Olivia Hussey -- they seem mismatched. There is a subplot interpretation of Mercutio as having some kind of sexual attraction or relationship with Romeo. It is interesting, but unbalances the story a bit.( I didn't notice this when I was a teen, but as an adult viewing the film it is absolutely glaringly obvious.)

I notice a lot of debate as to whether THIS or the Baz Luhrman film of '96 is the definitive version...I think that's stupid. Shakespeare has been around a long time. This is his most produced play. There is room for LOTS of difference interpretations. I have seen many others on the stage. And there will be billions more in the future. I like Baz Luhrman's version, although I think his creative inventiveness (which is wonderful) flys out of control by the end of the film; however it's good and interesting, a visionary treatment and it's very worthwhile to view BOTH of these films to get a sense of what it is to try and film Shakespeare.

Zeffirelli's version offers a very pared down script, lots of authentic looking visuals and very exciting and well-staged fight sequences; plus gorgeous costumes and music. Olivia Hussey's Juliet is absolutely a classic, moving interpretation that I have never seen performed better on stage or in film.

In short -- anyone who loves Shakespeare, or Romeo and Juliet, or lush period flicks, will totally be absorbed in this beautiful film. It's also a wonderful, easy-to-take, never-boring, introduction to Shakespeare and from there, his other works. Would I have become a Shakespeare buff at such an early age without having been introduced to the material this way? I doubt it!


Romeo And Juliet: Movie Review   December 20, 1999
 46 out of 50 found this review helpful

Franco Zeffirelli's Oscar winning 1968 Romeo And Juliet is a revolutionary masterpiece! This is a flamboyant and very popular adaptation of the famous Shakespearean tragedy, in which actual teenagers play the leads. Two young lovers, who come from feuding families, desperately wish to stay together. They go to a gentle friar for help, and, in hopes their wedding will end the conflict, he comes up with an ingenious plot to unite them. However, when a miscommunication destroys their plans, they make a tragic decision - a decision that brings peace, but too late to help the lovers themselves.

Olivia Hussey is the heartbreakingly beautiful, vulnerable, and courageous woman, who shines as sweet Juliet. Leonard Whiting's poetic good looks, sensitivity, and cleverness, make his portrayal of young Romeo seem unparalleled. In addition, Michael York is outstanding as the feisty Tybalt, John McEnery is brilliant as lively punster Mercutio, and Milo O'Shea is absolutely wonderful as the ever so bright, Friar Lawrence.

Zeffirelli's career as an opera director is put to spectacular use here. Each scene is meticulously crafted to be an exact replica of the Renaissance with stunningly beautiful clothing, jewels, furniture, food, glass, and sculpture - it is an overwhelming feast for the eyes. The preserved medieval towns of Tuscany, and the lovely Borghese palace where the balcony scene is set, give the film the look of an animated Renaissance painting. Zeffirelli took some liberties with Shakespeare's original script for the sake of brevity, but unless you are a die-hard purist, this is a minor flaw.

The true shining star in this film is the delightful, Ms. Pat Heywood who steals the screen with each moment she graces it. She plays Juliet's Nurse and does so with such power, whimsy, and conviction that you simply must love her. Pat Heywood gave the commonly droll Nurse character life and vibrancy I have yet to see in a performance of this play live of filmed. In either case, the characters in this film play extraordinary parts and they do it with such poignancy!


A sumptuous Renaissance feast!   September 23, 1998
 38 out of 41 found this review helpful

Franco Zefirrelli's 1967 film was revolutionary in using teenaged actors to play the two most famous lovers of all literature. Olivia Hussey is heartbreakingly beautiful, a vulnerable and courageous Juliet, while Leonard Whiting's poetic good looks make him a sensitive and appealing Romeo. Zefirrelli's career as an opera director is put to spectacular use here--each scene is meticulously crafted to be an exact replica of the Renaissance. Stunningly beautiful clothing, jewels, furniture, food, glass, sculpture--it is an overwhelming feast for the eyes. The preserved medieval towns of Tuscany, and the lovely Borghese palace where the balcony scene is set, give the film the look of an animated Renaissance painting. Zefirrelli took some liberties with Shakespeare's original script for the sake of brevity, but unless you are a die-hard purist, this is a minor flaw. I saw this film a dozen times in the theater, and never without the sound of girls weeping by the end--I was often one of them. Leslie Howard was a better actor, and Leonardo DiCaprio/Clare Danes more modern, but if you love beauty, this is THE quintessential Romeo and Juliet on film. END


A beautiful movie with some serious flaws   July 15, 2001
 33 out of 35 found this review helpful

I first saw Romeo and Juliet when it was released in 1968 - I had just turned 13. It ushered me into an uneasy adolescence, and it remains the only movie that has ever broken my heart. No other film has ever had so strong an impact on me, so perhaps I can't give an unbiased account. I later became a Shakespeare lover, and was forced to admit that this film is very flawed, but I owe even this revelation to Zeffirelli: his film introduced me to Shakespeare, and that's quite a gift. None of the significant critics of the time had a kind word to say about Romeo and Juliet. John Simon took Zeffirelli to task for his butchery of the text, and Stanley Kauffmann considered the acting, particularly of the title roles, abysmally amateur. They both made good points: Zeffirelli's cuts are sometimes baffling (he allows Romeo the line, "Thy wit is very bitter sweeting, it is most sharp sauce" which is the punchline to a page and a half of punning humour, EVERY WORD of which is omitted. He removes Romeo's murder of Paris, yet allows the Prince to say "And for winking at your discord too/I have lost a brace of kinsmen." [Brace means two, yet the Prince has now only lost one kinsman] Every word of Juliet's glorious potion speech is omitted: instead we hear only four words, borrowed from her earlier scene with Friar Laurence: "Love, give me strength.") And the young actors playing these star-crossed lovers don't always seem to know what their lines mean. In fact, there are only two performances that could successfully be transposed into a Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare film today: Pat Heywood's Nurse and Natasha Parry's Lady Capulet. Milo O'Shea (Friar Laurence) and Paul Hardwicke (Lord Capulet) are impossibly over-the-top (as was Jack Lemmon in Branagh's Hamlet ;-). John McEnery plays Mercutio interestingly but too often like someone who's smoked one joint too many at a Dead concert. But the principals are not bad. It's a centuries-old cliche that an actress isn't wise enough to play Juliet until she's old enough to play the Nurse. I guess the same could be said of Romeo, even if he doesn't mature during the course of the play as Juliet does. But who among us wants to see a couple of middle-aged actors impersonating a pair of teenagers? The line readings of Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting may at times seem naive, but they are beautiful, young, and believably in love, and they both have supremely expressive faces. They are also very talented, and Mr. Whiting in particular rises to tragic heights in both his "Oh, I am fortune's fool" reading and in his death scene. I'll never understand why the gifted Ms. Hussey, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Catherine Zeta-Jones (except with more expressive eyes), didn't have a major career. This movie also features expert (and Oscar-winning) cinematography and costumes, by Pasqualino de Santis and Danilo Donati. I mentioned critics above (Pauline Kael called Romeo and Juliet the "dustiest" movie ever made). In all fairness, and with all due respect to critics everywhere, I must add that every actor I've ever met has LOVED this movie. If you have a friend who is wary about Shakespeare, this is probably both the best play and movie. The play makes its points very quickly ("two-hour traffic") yet with great poetry. The movie leaves out some of the poetry, but it is SO very beautiful....