3. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Luhrmann's modern day re-telling of one of Shakespeare's most famous works became one of the most ground breaking films of the 1990s. A brazen attempt to make the writing of Shakespeare accessible to the MTV generation came off as a resounding success as Luhrmann takes the classic story of the fateful young lovers (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes) and pits them in modern day situations. Using Shakespeare's original text with a few choice updates to plots and characters, Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet was his own crystallized interpretation of what kind of film Shakespeare would have made had he still been alive. The film was celebrated for its highly stylized production design as well as opening up a new form of adapting century old material for new audiences to discover, influencing new modern film adaptations of other classic works- Great Expectations (1998), Hamlet (2000) and O (2001). Add a killer best selling soundtrack to the mix and Romeo + Juliet was a smash hit and more importantly, Luhrmann put his name on the short list as one of the most talented directors to come out of the 1990's. The film succeeds in large part to his confident and masterful approach. He seems to be honing in on his storytelling voice with this film, one that would continue to grow as he moves half way through his now classic "Red Curtain Trilogy".