One of the most widely recognized versions of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is the 1968 movie, Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet the director, Franco Zeffirelli, contributes many aspects of the movie that develop it as a whole. The main characters are named Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. They are played by two very young actors. Juliet is played by Olivia Hussey, and Romeo is played by Leonard Whiting. One of the most prominent features of this movie is how young the director chose the actors for the two lead roles to be. Leonard Whiting was seventeen and Olivia Hussey was only fifteen! At the time of this movie, that was nearly unheard of for such young and inexperienced actors to be cast in adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, despite the young age of the actual characters. The film itself has won many awards, including but not limited to two Oscars and three Golden Globes. Both Hussey and Whiting won "Most Promising Newcomer" from their debut in this movie. …show more content…
Romeo unconventionally attends a Capulet ball in disguise, and the two fall madly in love with each other, despite their family's advice to hate each other. They elope in secret, but, unfortunately, Juliet is already set to marry Count Paris by her dad who is unaware of her marriage to Romeo. The costumes throughout the movie are very medieval and well done. The setting of the movie in the streets is also very medieval and has lots of brick and stone. The background music adds to the emotions of all the scenes, especially the sad ones. The mise en scène of the window scene and how far apart they are shows the inevitable distance between Romeo and Juliet that creates conflict when they want to be together. The actors or very dramatic and extreme throughout the whole film which really adds to the formal and medieval feel of the