10 Best William Shakespeare Film Adaptations
4. Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996)
I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for Baz Luhrmann. I love the manic, often insane energy of his films, the ideas they raise about cultural values, the ravishing cinematography and the wonderful music. But I'll also admit that Romeo + Juliet left me cold the first time around. In hindsight this was due to my initial disdain for Leonardo di Caprio: by the time I saw this film, Titanic had been in cinemas for months and I was sick of him playing the pretty boy.
Looking at the film now, it's a really remarkable artistic vision. In case you have been living under a rock (for over 400 years), Romeo and Juliet is the classic story of two "star-cross'd lovers", whose families (the Montagues and Capulets) are bitter enemies. Drawn together by fate when Romeo infiltrates a masked ball, their romance blossoms in secret as their families continue to murder each other. After Romeo is banished from the city of Verona, Juliet plots with a priest so they can be reunited but being a tragedy, things don't quite go to plan...
The influence of Romeo and Juliet is so wide-ranging that I could have put any number of adaptations on here, but Luhrmann's version is perhaps the best introduction to it for young audiences. Like Branagh, he goes out of his way to make the play accessible, wringing the most out of both the present-day settling and the young performers (Claire Danes is especially good as Juliet). It's not the most stately Shakespeare film you'll ever see, but it does have a great, youthful spirit which makes the central romance resonate and the comic moments sparkle all the more.