In Act I, scene i of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, a fight breaks out between the Montagues and the Capulets. Both Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann use this first scene to comment on and set the tone for their films.
My original thoughts after viewing and comparing both directors' versions of the scene was that both directors chose to depict this first scene as a kind of 'bravado gone bad,' but for each director, this means something different.
For Zeffirelli, whether it be the skirmishes between the young men of lower ranks or the battle between Tybalt and Mercutio, the actors bait each other half-kiddingly, each trying to out-macho the other. It is victory by humiliation, and Zeffirelli's boys have no real intention to kill. They use their swords to tease, and do not appear to have a bloody conflict in mind. …
