What? You were expecting the Baz Luhrmann version? THAT "Pulp Fiction" meets "West Side Story" travesty? Hardly. No, the definitive screen version of the Shakespeare play is this 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film. It may not exactly mirror the text, but what the film does get right, it does so perfectly.

A plot synopsis would probably be redundant, but so as to introduce the characters, it might be a good idea. Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, play the doomed lovers Romeo and Juliet. Both actors were unknowns (and Whiting still is to this day), and in a then-controversial move, Zeffirelli (who gave the film a suitable Italian flavour, unlike the Californian-looking MTV-ised version of the 90s-he is ably backed by an Italian composer, costumer and cinematographer, giving an air of authenticity) cast a 16 year-old Hussey and 17 year-old Whiting in the roles. They were both inexperienced as actors, with Hussey even screwing up the 'Where For Art Thou?' line by amusingly emphasising the 'For' part, but what they lack in acting expertise and experience...well, they simply ARE Romeo and Juliet. They inhabit the roles completely, and in their youthful fire and passion, and body language, they offer us the most compelling screen lovers the cinema has ever seen (A big call? Scarlett and Rhett you say? Phooey!).
Their love scenes together are amusing, passionate, and tragic all at the same time, as they fumble and look like their exuberance is going to cause one or both of them serious harm (I seem reminded by my mother's cries of 'You'll put your eye out with that!'), and yet we know that this energetic puppy love isn't going to last. The fact that we are enraptured in their quick love affair makes the finale all the more shocking, despite the fact that everyone knows how it ends. Whiting and Hussey, wise beyond their years, gives us young love as it is fondly remembered- it is often over-the-top and exaggerated in our memories. Or maybe with age, we simply forget how to love with such passion...and therefore perhaps it is for the best that Romeo and Juliet never venture into adulthood, and why the play is still so popular today; Romeo and Juliet may die, but we can be safe in knowing that their love will never die, never get old or lacking in fire.

Then we have two of the screen's best interpretations of Tybalt and Mercutio. Michael York, never regarded as a particularly lively actor, gives the most engagingly over-the-top performance of his career as the rather hateful Tybalt. Meanwhile, John McEnery's lively, court jester-like Mercutio succeeds where most other interpretations of the character fail, he does not make him into a mincing gay stereotype (or a drag queen, ala the Luhrmann version). He is, in fact, the most memorable and entertaining person on screen, and his final scene is particularly memorable, even kind of eerie. Also memorable are the always wonderful Milo O'Shea's conflicted Friar Lawrence, and scene-stealing Pat Heywood as Juliet's over-the-top nurse, also a benchmark for that character.

The film also looks great, thanks to beautiful use of colour in the Danilo Donati (a Fellini regular) costumes, cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis (who won an Oscar, the balcony scene alone is stunning), and sets by Christine Edzard (also a director and screenwriter). The score by Nino Rota is superlative, particularly in the ball sequence (which is also gorgeously photographed and choreographed.

This is the one Romeo and Juliet where all the elements come together, with few glitches (the aforementioned liberties taken with the source being an exception), and is easily the best version of the play to be shown in schools. Just because there is a NEWER version available with hot young stars (John Leguizamo wasn't too bad, I have to confess), doesn't mean we need to show that one in schools.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older