Roberto Bisacco (Count Paris): Count Paris wishes to marry Juliet.

Synopsis

The film opens at a market place where a fight broke out between members of the Montague's and Capulet's. As they were fighting with their swords they were also talking, oddly enough at the end of each sentence the shouted "Sir". Whilst they were fighting they were also laughing and joking about which let me to believe that they must have had a lot of fights between each other that they just don't care anymore. The fight is later broken up by the Prince who orders them to stop and drop their weapons, then threatens them with death next time as this is not the first time the Prince has had to stop the fight. I also noticed that they were wearing jerkins and pantaloons, these were clothing that was worn during William Shakespeare's time, so I'm guessing the director was trying to keep most of the original story the same. You may have noticed that the cut scenes are much longer than films we see nowadays. I find it kind of boring having to wait longer before we see the next scene but during the time this film was produced people were used to this.

Romeo who is not easily provoked completely lost himself after seeing his friends state and rushed after Tybalt. He caught Tybalt up then says "Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him". Which means either Romeo or Tybalt will also be in the same state as Mercutio. This portrays Romeo as a forgotten soul who does not care of his own well being, his only intent is to avenge for his friend. They fight vigorously and in the end Romeo is the successor as Tybalt is lying on the ground dead. Romeo exits the scene then appears in front of Friar Laurence where he explains what had happened. Friar Laurence holds Romeo's hand forgiving him for his sins. Here the director is trying to show the good side of Romeo so that the viewers feel pity for him and make them feel some emotion towards him. At this point the Director wants the Viewers to ask questions like: Will Romeo tells Juliet that he murdered her cousin Tybalt? Will she still accept him?

This film is the closest to the original play written by William Shakespeare. I found that in this film the characters used more dialogue which made it less interesting for me to watch; therefore the story was much slower compared to films nowadays including the Luhrmann version. One of the differences I noticed between the film and the play is that, in the play Tybalt stabs Mercutio deliberately unlike in the film where he is stabbed accidently. I think that the director made the right decision to change it because when Romeo killed Tybalt we felt more pity towards him knowing that he did not stab Mercutio on purpose. I think that there was more chemistry between the actors from this film compared to the Luhrmann film which made me feel into the movie. I may add that it is hard to understand what they are saying at times because of the english that was used during the time of Shakespeare. I would recommend this film to anyone as I loved this film, one of the best romance films I have seen. I also recommend Romeo + Juliet for those of you who are not so keen on watching an old film. First time I watched this film was during school years when I was doing GCSE's, I was asked to do a comparison between the two films for my english coursework.

The film was once rated G in the United States, but was later re-rated PG, in 1968 the only rating below R, primarily because of a nude scene featuring Whiting and Hussey. Zeffirelli had to get special permission for Hussey to appear nude in the film as she was only 15 years old at the time. Hussey later amusingly recalled that she was not permitted to view the film because it contained her own nudity.