Romeo and Juliet: Luhrmann or Zeffirelli for the win?

Two movies. One winner. Which one is it? The classic Zeffirelli, or the modern Luhrmann? This movies focus on the greatest tragedy of all time. You guessed it. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. This movies play Shakespearean word for word how the two teens fell in love, and tragically died. But what are the differences between the two, and which one is actually better?

Zeffirelli's 1968 movie, is just a classic, accurate representation of the book. Scene to scene, you couldn't find any difference between the movie, or the written play. The setting is in a medieval town with stone walls, just like you'd have imagined from reading the play. The music during the scenes is classical, nothing older than the time before Shakespeare wrote the play, and without a beat. The clothes match the characters, the servants in mostly rags, and the rich in posh clothes. Some characters really fit with their personalities. One example is the Nurse. In the play, the Nurse is a caring, but an extremely talkative woman, often repeating herself, and making sexual references to everything she talks about. The Nurse in the movie, is exactly how you would imagine her appearance, both physically and her personality. Another example is the Friar, who is both more priestly and nature loving than in the modern movie (where he is shirtless). However, there are a few little twists the audience don't neccesarily notice, such as the 'fight' between the Nurse and Romeo's friends, and the characters not really acting the way they do in the play, like Mercutio fooling around way to much in the movie (taking a bath in a fountain) and Tybalt being pretty calm.

Luhrmann's 1996 movie, is a completely different talk. The set is in a modern 90s Italian town, with the homes of the Capulets and Montagues being apartment buildings, the guys carrying around guns, and shooting each other in petrol stations, and a mafia going on between the two business households. Romeo, played by Leonardo di Caprio, is displayed as a poetic loner, while Juliet is a little 13 year old, believing everything she sees. The movie has happy past generation music, and includes a beat to it. The clothes, are, also, casual, and beachlike, since they live in a town called Verona Beach. The scenes are not what Shakespeare wrote, for example, Romeo killing Tybalt by crashing a car into him, and shooting him, as Tybalt falls into a fountain. Another one would be Mercutio's dress up to the party, for which I am not even going to comment on. :| When Romeo gets banished, Mantua, is just a small part of the desert, with a bunch of caravans where a lot of other banished people live. One very funny part would be how the movie decided to play Romeo leaving to kill himself, just as his letter arrives saying that Juliet isn't actually dead.

As for the ratings, I would give Zeffirelli's movie a 6.5/10, because it matched the play, and was basically what Shakespeare wrote, but the movie doesn't include a tiny bit of thrill and action which makes it quite boring and forceful to watch. However, the Luhrmann movie, which I would give a rating 7.5/10 has a lot of action, and makes R&J entertaining to watch for me. It throws a lot of funny scenes, excitement and suspense (like the part where Juliet was waking up). Also, I think it is more authentic, because it takes a lot of time to create it, rather than doing it exactly how it was written. Overall, I liked the creative Luhrmann movie more than Zeffirelli's. LUHRMANN FTW! Comment what you think :)