Review of Romeo and Juliet (1968) by Stephanie A — 06 Jul 2008

My uncle once told me about a time when his High school class went on a field trip to see this movie during it's theatrical run. He and his friends were excite because it reportedly had a tit shot, and that was apparently a very exciting thing for teenagers in 1968.

He remembers being disappointed as hell by the extremely brief flash the movie offered. Seen for more intellectual reasons the film stands up a lot better, and may be the definitive filmed version of the play.

I'm always interesting in seeing a variety of cinematic interpretations of Shakespeare plays, particularly ones that used the play's original dialog. The film boldly casts very young actors in the rolls of Romeo and Juliet, which I think is important because one needs to remember that this is about young and impulsive characters.

The film is very well crafted; although I do take issue with the film's costumes as it's very hard to take the whole thing seriously when everyone's wearing colorful tights.