Romeo and Juliet Review

Glorious or Coward?

What would you do if you find out that your lover is the enemy of your family? Will you sustain the relationship regardless of anything else? Will you give up your love in order to prevent a further conflict? Most people say that they would sacrifice their lives for their love, but not everyone did so. Such a dramatic thing does not really happen anymore. However, in the play written by Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, the children of two families that see each other as their biggest enemy in the world, sacrificed their lives for their love. In the movie version of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Erik Bauer, the death of Romeo and Juliet was glorified.

In the movie, Romeo and Juliet met at a Capulet party and fell in love at first sight. They decided to get married the next day. Right after their marriage, Juliet’s cousin came to find Romeo to insult him for being a villain and asked Romeo to fight with him. Romeo refused to fight with him because he wants to remain peaceful with the Capulet. However, Romeo’s friend, Mercutio fought with Tybalt for Romeo and was killed by Tybalt when Romeo interrupted them and held Mercutio. Mercutio blames Romeo for letting him die for the conflicts between the Capulet and Montague families. Romeo was very sad and angry. He went to find Tybalt and killed Tybalt to revenge for Mercutio. After that, Romeo was banished from Verona. He went to meet Juliet and comforted her before he leaves Verona. After Romeo leaves, Juliet was told by her mom that she is going to marry Paris in two days. Juliet went to Frair Lawrence and asked him for help. With she saying if he does not help her, she will kill herself, Friar gave Juliet a poison that she can take to let people think that she is dead. Friar told Juliet to wait for Romeo and he will deliver the message to Romeo. Nevertheless, Romeo did not get the message and only knew that Juliet was dead. He then went to the church where Juliet’s body is placed and killed himself in front of Juliet’s body. Juliet weaks up and saw Romeo drink the poison. After confirming Romeo is dead, Juliet used the gun that he left to kill herself.

Both Romeo and Juliet was performed to be deeply in love. Such a couple would do anything to maintain their relationship and even made their actions that are not logical seemed so reasonable. For example, when Juliet heard about Tybalt’s death, she was sad only for a moment and then turned to worry about where her husband is and if he is doing alright. She did not even ask more about Tybalt. All she wanted was to see Romeo and make their marriage “real”. She says to the nurse:”O, find him! Give this ring to my true knight, and bid him come to take his last farewell.”  She was so blindly in love that, in her mind, her three-hour husband was thousand times more important than her cousin who had accompanied her for more than ten years. However, the nurse did not say anything about it or blame Juliet for being so cruel to Tybalt. She just went to find Romeo for Juliet so that she could feel better. Tybalt was barely mentioned after that. His death was easily covered by Romeo’s banishment. Clearly, this glorious love had become the excuse for everything.

The Music and the lights that the director used made the love seemed pure and glorious too. In the movie, Juliet was always wearing a white dress. With her beautiful face, she looks just like an angel. Romeo is always looking good too. When they talk to each other, they look into each other’s eyes like if there is nothing else that they care about in the earth. Such type of love would make people feel so charming and not want to judge it at all. In addition to that, when Romeo and Juliet both killed themselves, the lights that surrounded them made the scene so bright like if the death is the best solution for this young couple. Throughout the movie, no one blamed Romeo and Juliet for getting married secretly most of them even provided help and support to them. The way that the movie was shown just make the audience thinks that this is was a true love is like and it’s good for them that they died for their love, which is not true.

The character that I like the most was Juliet. The actor acted out the purity of a young girl and her passion towards love when she meets Romeo. Juliet seemed brave when she stood to fight against his father and told him that she does not want to marry Paris. In the movie, Juliet was crying and yelling to her father about how much she disagreed with the marriage. She physically fought with her father. At that moment, I saw how strong her spirit is, within such a small body she had. This scene made me truly feel the love she had towards Romeo. It is more direct than the scenes where she and Romeo just kept on talking about how they love each other and all those romantic sentences.

In conclusion, the movie was really successful of showing the love between Romeo and Juliet. However, the love is too strong that it blocked people’s eyes and made them lose the ability to think logically. In the end, the movie glorified the death of Romeo and Juliet too much that it could even make the audience think that dying for your lover is a good way to prove your love towards he/she. This wrong method should not be practiced or learned by people.