Written by: William Shakespeare
Directed by: Baz Luhrmann
Starring: John Leguizamo (Tybalt), Vondie Curtis-Hall (Captain Prince), Miriam Margolyes (Juliet’s Nurse), Harold Perrineau (Mercutio), Pete Postlethwaite (Friar Laurence), some parental figures, and Claire Danes (Juliet), Leonardo DiCaprio (Romeo)
Dear Democrats and Republicans,
I have the perfect solution to our nation’s divides!
We shall all watch Shakespeare plays performed on stage, in public places, on screen, and ESPECIALLY in the White House.
When you have a king take back the white house, and begin to institute the monarchical codes of England, you MUST have Shakespeare!
And Shakespeare…he teaches us things. His word and words are so facile and malleable, and full of life and breath and energy. He may be insulting a man just at the same moment that the man falls in love with his language! It may take a day or two for the words to sink in but ohhh. Mmm. Ahhhh. We drool. The actors fall, or don’t fall. No matter. The show MUST GO ON!
All the world’s a stage, Shakespeare says. And so it is.
Now, let me help you pay special attention to Romeo + Juliet, the film adaptation of this tragedy by director Baz Luhrmann in 1996. (I just love the 90s.)
As an English teacher, I lamented for many years the distance between the canonical texts given to teenagers and what teenagers could actually enjoy and grapple with, so that teens might grow to love literature. But I was wrong in thinking that Romeo + Juliet was inappropriate for 14-year-olds! It is all in the presentation, Baz Luhrmann’s film reveals. Our world now, more than ever, can benefit from heart-hitting stories about gangs and rivalries, of seeing how tragedy continues to occur if we do not make peace. Love may even rise up in the midst of all this baggage, but is lost. This was Shakespeare’s message.
I say “now, more than ever,” but every era has its demons and its angels, its gods and its devils. There is a constant tug of dark and light. How would we know one without the other? And let’s not suggest the dark is wrong, and light is right. Perhaps the dark is right sometimes, and the light is wrong. Who the heck knows? We dance and we feast, and we watch Leonardo DiCaprio cry and croon and swoon as the years pass. Isn’t this what richness and luxury is made of?
It is not just Leonardo DiCaprio who shimmers as Romeo in this Luhrmann adaptation, of course. (He is just so adorable and his face so soft. ) (Was he able to grow a beard in 1996? It doesn’t look possible.) No, Ds and Rs, let us also look at the fabulous performance of John Leguizamo as Tybalt, with such dark eyes of despair, anger, confusion. The acting in this film is phenomenal, and what I love so much about Luhrmann’s work is that with all the pomp and galore-ness he brings to the screen, the perfect artistry of contrast and color and pounding vibration, he also brings out the depth and breadth of the actors. Watching them is like savoring a steak dinner after days of hunger, on a cold dark night. And I don’t even eat steak.
Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend, played by Harold Perrinau, also soars in this film. It is the work of a visionary to cast and direct this way—with Mercutio being at once masculine and feminine, bawdy and sane, a friend and a witch who curses the two houses that continue to bicker and fight and kill and take his life. It is children who suffer in the midst of all this, we learn. Take warning. The victims are the teenagers. They are caught in the middle of the pain and the gore, and cannot see a way forward when all the adults are full of ire and enmity. Who is caring for them, who is looking out for them, when everyone is so busy with their mind-games and their deal-making?
The teenagers are looking out for themselves, actually. We see how well that goes.
Juliet, played by Claire Danes, is so soft, so trusting. Who would not fall in love with the dove that she is? Yet the house of Capulet seems so docile compared to the vicious masculine gang mentality of the Montagues. Tender does not mean weak—tenderness, in fact, is what is needed to heal and bring balance. But when people are holding guns all the time, tender is the touch that goes down first, it would appear.
The sensual, shamanic, stalwart priest, Father Laurence (played by Pete Postlethwaite), is a sight to behold, too, in this film. Ever Romeo’s friend. Yet Romeo is a rich kid, and perhaps his impulsive and reactionary desires hold too much sway. . He just needs to go on a long drive and live in a camper and learn how to cook with fresh foods. Instead, he gets married prematurely.
Luhrmann’s film allows the story of Romeo + Juliet to shine. The bigness of its message and meaning. The film lacks intimidatory tactics, and allows us in. We are so caught up in the love—the utter and pure romance and chemistry that Leo D and Claire Danes, as Romeo and Juliet, have. The simplicity. The beauty. The teenagery-ness. We see the way gang-life and violence distorts and distracts from what matters—which is a healthier future for everyone.
In the end of Romeo + Juliet—and I don’t think I’m giving anything away here, if you haven’t seen this film—no one wins. That is Shakespeare’s point. People die. People keep dying. Even those who live may never recover from the pain and trauma. What does it take to wake up and try a different way?
The solution is left to the audience. Captain Prince, played by Vondie Curtis-Hall, demonstrates this in his admonishment to the parties of rivals. We, as the audience, are meant to feel the sadness of this tragedy in our hearts. We are meant to feel the loss, viscerally, so that we can transform and find an end to the conflict we face in our own daily lives. While we may not be able to change entire systems, we can see with clear eyes what that system is doing, can we not? And when we see, we can begin to go into our hearts, and act with kindness and mercy, even if our acts seem small. It can be as simple as a civil conversation with someone we don’t like.
The New Testament (Jesus of True Love) says, “Love your enemies.”
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)
In any translation, the message is the same. How many who talk of God, and their desire to do God’s will, actually listen? Or is religion being used, again and again, as a mode of power and domination, with vicious ends?
Those who have ears to hear, will hear.
(Baz Luhrmann’s film may help.)
Let the band play on….
Namaste,
Ms. Wonderful
A book, and a podcast, in which you can hear my voice! The latest episode is “Brilliant Barbie”, read from this blog and with some extra thoughts.
And Rose Woods TV, for petals and thorns and woodsiness.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’
Doesn't make any sense. —Rumi, 13th century poet