litlover12

Good grief, how many versions of this story have there been done by Hollywood?!

I love Shakespeare, but I admit that I loathe this story. This nonsense of exalting romance - especially TEENAGE romance! - to the point where you live for nothing else but one other person, to the point where suicide is portrayed as romantic - ugh, I find it abhorrent.

It's such a part of our culture that I wonder how many people have done just that. Oh, not consciously, but just because it's so well known that it's become part of our cultural DNA.

Edited Date: 2013-04-12 09:46 pm (UTC)

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msantimacassar.livejournal.com

Y'know, I've never understood the obsession with this as a love story either. To me, it's a story about the destruction hate causes rather than about love.

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That's how I've always thought of it as well. But then, I can't stand any sort of sappy romantic stuff, so I figured it was just me!

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Yeah, but Shakespeare is saying that it's stupid! Blame the culture, not him.

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I guess that's a point. Maybe there's been a version that highlights this aspect. I simply stay away entirely, it drives me so nuts.

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I have always been convinced that the Zeffirelli version is trying to make that point.

I occasionally tell myself that the only explanation for the Lurhmann version is that he's doing that. But this is probably unjustified altruism on my part. :-P

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I'm trying to recall if I've seen a full version of it. Not sure if I ever have!

Ah, well. There's plenty of other Shakespeare to go around, so I can just pretend this one does not exist.

(Except for Hollywood shoving it at me every few years. LOL!!)

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The Zeffirelli version is worth watching just for the visuals. and the soundtrack.

I've never made it through the Lurhmann version, though. I just can't.

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I have heard that first version is gorgeous. I think it won a zillion awards too? Who knows, maybe I'll give it a try sometime. I do try to be open minded when it comes to artsy stuff!

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Let me guess . . . Juliet dies in childbirth just as Romeo gets run over by a truck.

See, I could go for that.

*runs*

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msantimacassar.livejournal.com

ROFL! You make a very good point. :P

I am seriously questioning why we need another version of this but I must say - it does look pretty!

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I approve of this commercial.

(Well, except for the fact that it says "the greatest love story ever told." I'm always confused that people don't get the part where Shakespeare was showing them to be complete idiots . . . I'm guessing no one read the Rosalind part in the beginning. :-P )

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allisnow.livejournal.com

I'm loving the cast, but I think I would find it hard to sit through ANOTHER R&J.

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victoria-tonks.livejournal.com

Oh, Douglas Booth! He was Pip in the latest GE adaptation, right? And Fellowes!

And I know it's a silly question, but I don't know Shakespeare's lines as well as you do (we always read it in translation here and I read the original only once) - but are the lines lifted straight from the play?

Very interesting discussion in the comments, btw.

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litlover12.livejournal.com

As a matter of fact, I know far less Shakespeare than any good English major should. Nineteenth- and 20th-century literature has always been my thing. So while I'm pretty sure that all of those lines were from the play, I'm not the best person to ask!

And yes, that's Pip! HI PIP! :-)

Edited Date: 2013-04-13 02:45 pm (UTC)

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Okay, so, I love this play fiercely and have an entire tag devoted to it and all, partly because *everyone* gets it wrong all the time (no, it is not glorifying suicide, but equally, no, Romeo and Juliet are NOT just "stupid teenagers"!). But I am kind of surprised by people saying that there have been soooo many Hollywood versions of this play, since there...are only two? Three if you count Shakespeare in Love? And the Lurhmann version was fifteen years ago? Which means that there's an entire generation for whom that film has no cultural relevance unless they've had to watch it in school?

That has nothing to do with the trailer, since I haven't actually watched it yet, but it's not like the last version of this play came out last week or something.

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litlover12.livejournal.com

I wonder if perhaps the play is so well-known that people think there are more movie versions than there are.

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Very possibly! It's just funny to me, because I don't care for either of the film versions, and it's a real problem when teaching the play. :)

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valancy-s.livejournal.com

You know, it's funny to think there are only two big Hollywood film adaptations, because... that's only sort of true, right? I mean, other than Cinderella, R&J is probably the most iterated story in Hollywood. Even if it's not an explicit take-off like Gnomeo and Juliet, film and TV and books are always riffing on this story all the time (*coughTwilightcough*). So even with only two straightforward films of the play, the cultural saturation is crazy high.

Edited Date: 2013-04-14 01:04 am (UTC)

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Sure, but that doesn't mean that the *original* is overdone. It's sort of like saying that Austen adaptations are off-limits because there are already a lot of romantic comedies out there. And as with Austen, it hardly seems fair to blame the original for stuff in the adaptations and riffs that isn't there in the original: R&J is pretty explicit about the fact that we're dealing with "a story of...woe," even if, say, Twilight totally ignores that fact or Taylor Swift uses the eponymous characters positively in a song lyric. :)

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valancy-s.livejournal.com

Sorry, I wasn't conscious of implying that the original was "overdone" or "to blame" for anything. I was simply pondering why we feel like it's been filmed frequently, when it actually hasn't.

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