SHAKSPER 2002: Baz Luhrmann's R + J

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@shaksper.net)
Date: 02/21/02 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.0514  Thursday, 21 February 2002

From:           Martin Steward <MSteward@mds1974.freeserve.co.uk>
Date:           Wednesday, 20 Feb 2002 17:18:45 -0000
Subject:        Baz Luhrmann's R + J

For me, Luhrmann's film "clicked", as Bill Arnold puts it, with the
close up of the revolver, revealing it to be the model, "Sword 9mm".
This typifies the film's (and indeed the play's) wonderful exploration
of the potential confluence of word and image - "rose by any other
name", "revolver by any other name"? -  even when those words and images
would seem, on the face of it, to be irreconcilable.

What a shame that, in Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann revealed this to be a
fluke, or rather, a gift from WS which transcended his ability to screw
it up. In the latter, mind-numbingly plodding and criminally lazy movie,
words and images are forced together under such pressure and with so
little consequence. I have rarely been so disappointed at a film.

m

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