Romeo and Juliet Essay Example for Free

Romeo and Juliet Essay Baz Luhrmann is the director of the modernised film Romeo and Juliet- written by Shakespeare in the 1700s. Luhrmen uses cinematic techniques to help make Shakespearian dialogue understandable to a modern audience. He uses techniques such as camera work, appearance and props to convey the idea of a higher power creating an unchangeable destiny for Romeo and Juliet. The director also uses slow motion shots, low angle shots and close ups to help put across the meaning of Shakespeare dialogue. He also employs symbolism to convey the idea of Romeo and Juliet’s chaotic lives. By the end of this essay I will have shown how well Baz Luhrmann made this Shakespearian play understandable for a modern audience through his use of cinematic techniques. From beginning to end Baz Luhrmann uses modern film techniques to create Shakespeare’s 17th century play into something visually captivating for a modern audience. Baz Luhrman wanted to exploit the crucial beginning of the film by using a montage to help them understand the prologue. One example of montage in use is whilst the narrator speaks of â€Å"the break to new mutiny† he uses violent images to convey its meaning. The director uses images from newspaper headlines (Montagues vs Capulets) to suggest a tension between the two households. The use of special effects and a visually captivating montage help to bring a better understanding of what the prologue means. The idea of Romeo falling in love with a young girl at first site and to be willing to die for his love would be difficult for a modern audience to relate to. Baz Luhrmann had to make sure of two things, to make sure that his audience could easily accept that Romeo is a desperate hope for love and Juliet being so naive and innocent she could fall in love with Romeo so easily. The director illustrates these believable characteristics when we first see Romeo or Juliet in the film. When Romeo first emerges he is seen depressed. He smokes a cigarette whilst writing poetry wandering aimlessly on a grey clouded day. The cameras zoom on face of Romeo’s melancholic expressions. Baz Luhrmann uses these shots to bring impressions of a man who is lost and upset. Not long after this point in the film Juliet is introduced as being a young girl with an innocent personality. Her father’s face is zoomed into when he speaks of Juliet being still a stranger to the world- which implies that she is naive and could be easily seduced. This is done to emphasis the dialogue. In other scenes close-ups are done on her makeupless face an aspect that makes her more innocent. By using modern media techniques Baz Luhrmann could allow for his audience to believe that love at first site between these two people was possible. At the point of meeting, Romeo and Juliet are separated by a large blue fish tank; it is calm and peaceful. Deep blue water, soft pastel colours of pink and blue all give the effect of romance. Both Romeo and Juliet’s faces are zoomed into to help the audience acquire an understanding of the deep love both characters have fallen into. Capulet and Montagues had been historically in anger and fear of each other- meaning Romeo and Juliet’s love almost impossible to last without being torn apart by their families. A crucial point that sparks this anger is finding out of the secret marriage. This is soon found out by Tybalt (Juliet’s brother) who in his rage looks for Romeo but is only met by a fight with Mercutio (a close friend of Romeo’s). He brings the audience’s attention through uses of cinematic techniques. He uses fast moving cameras, low angle shots, special effects, close-ups, slow motion camera shots, music and pathetic fallacy to make his audience feel a sense of suspense and thrill from the action scenes. Tybalt disliked Romeo and takes his rage out through violence. At the crucial point of engagement he is confronted by Mercutio. The director chooses to have the camera move quickly between the two foes to create almost a blurred vision effect. This gives the audience confusion amongst the scuffle to mimic the experience the characters feel. The camera closes up to show. Tybalt responds by stabbing Mercutio with a shard of glass. This critical moment is slowed down to dramatize the seriousness of Tybalt’s actions. Low angle shots are quickly met by Mercutio falling to the floor and shouting:† a plague on both your houses† Baz Luhrmann uses low angle shots to underline the significance of Mercutio’s words. At this point a thunder storm comes about, and the camera angles changed to high above the heads of the men below. The use of pathetic fallacy and the suggestion that these actions are being judged by a higher power, both combine to help the audience understand the Shakespearian language. By using the weather to mimic the characters emotions the significance of his words are amplified. Romeo is met with feeling of vengeance and anger which lead to Tybalt’s death soon to come. Bazz Luhrmann opens this scene with a setting in dark streets with fast music to set the pace of the fight between Romeo and Tybalt. Focus is put on the faces of both Tybalt and Romeo to give more understanding of the rage being felt by both characters. Noises of car engines, loud bangs, shouting and thunder make the scene thrilling and exiting. Just before Tybalt is shot, the cameras zoom onto the gun to highlight its importance in the fight. A crescendo in the music is employed to build up to the climatic death of Tybalt. The gun fire is very loud and startling to underline the crucial moment when Tybalt dies. a close up on Romeo’s face of realization which adds even more unhappiness to the scene is used to emphasize his depressing thoughts. The camera slowing down and zooming on Romeo’s falling gun is the final cinematic technique used to imply the wrongness of Romeo’s actions. Every technique used by Baz Luhrmann used in both these fight scenes were all specific to helping his audience understand Shakespear’s sometimes confusing word. This made the director successful at keeping the audience’s attention and understanding. The final crucial point that Baz uses many techniques to help understanding is the final scene. Baz Luhrmann intended to make destiny a believable reason for Romeo and Juliet’s death. He sets the scene at a church filled with lit candles and large crosses. To symbolise a higher power is in play. High angle shots are used to amplify this idea. As if to say that this was an evitable ending between Romeo and Juliet he uses those. The fact that the director brought religious aspects to his use of props and high angle shots creates a believable ending that could not be avoided for it was their destiny. Death seemed believable and inevitable at this point. In conclusion Baz Luhrmann had clearly made his film approachable and understood by a modern audience. He clearly used a vast amount of cinematic techniques at points where the meaning of character dialogue was crucial to be understandable by his viewers. His ability to create two believable characters that could fall in love so easily was outstanding. Even though it would usually seem absurd to a modern audience Baz Luhrmann still manage to create the believability, by using techniques such as a use of props (Romeo smoking and writing poetry about love) or even a use of close up angle shots to emphasize the importance of dialogue speaking of Juliet being still a stranger to this world. In my opinion Baz Luhrmann did a perfect job of emphasizing important points, creating symbolic meanings, creating believable characters and enrolling a religious aspect to the film without losing audience acceptability.

Duty and Change in Melville’s Bartleby Essay -- Philosophy, Rousseau

Natural philosophers of every century of human existence have asked what we owe to each other, society or government. In The Origin of Civil Society, Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that the only natural form of duty is to one’s family, and all other obligations are based on agreement (57). Henry David Thoreau, in 1849, wrote in Resistance to Civil Government (sometimes known as Civil Disobedience), â€Å"it is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support† (143). This sort of conflict, which has accompanied all men at the great changes in society, is what drives conflict in Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener. Melville, like the Byzantine architects, crafts a work of art that studies a microcosm of the macrocosm. That is to say, by looking at the relationship between two people, Melville is able to explore the larger context around them, specifically the radical change of society in the mid-19th century. Like Thoreau, Bartleby’s famous word, â€Å"I would prefer not to,† send a shockwave through contemporary expectations and give rise to how a person approaches a situation. Bartleby and Thoreau are both transcendentalists, and look to return to a Rousseauian state of nature. They have both arrived there after a journey of self-examination – most definitely in Thoreau’s case, and most probably in Bartleby’s – and their non-conformist attitudes raise questions of what is expected of people with regard to their duty to society and each other. Bartleby in particular makes the nameless... ...say that Bartleby did nothing, but passive resistance is a powerful tool, whereby laws have been changed and governments have topped. Thoreau wrote â€Å"[a] man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong [emphasis in original]† (145). Bartleby, by following in the transcendentalist’s footsteps, does nothing, and makes a profound statement by it. Perhaps it was fated that Bartleby must die in the manner he did. After all, the narrator consulted the eminent pre-destination theologians Priestley and Edwards, and admits to believing that Bartleby’s presence â€Å"had been all predestinated from eternity† and that â€Å"it was not for a mere mortal like [the narrator] to fathom† (167). Accepting the idea that Bartleby is a microcosm of the macrocosm, this would imply that change is inevitable.

Geography and Culture Essay

The speech of Chief Seattle talked about the decline of the race of American Indians in the United States as long as the land that they used to till and call their own. The Whites have taken over their society and their culture is on the decline. Yet, he does not blame the Whites alone for their predicament; the chief also blames their young men and pointed out that change is very much present in the world. The Red men no longer seem to have rights and the need for country. California is a very dynamic society in the world today. If it became an independent country, it would be the fifth largest economy all over the world. Furthermore, it would also become the most populous State with the largest number of ethnicities present. It has the potential to become a cultural hub and exchange where various cultures and attitudes come together. The migration of different ethnic groups to California contributes to its prosperity. When ethnic groups go there, they also bring with them their contacts and their connections. In the process, these ethnic groups can connect with the rest of the world, enhancing the economic and cultural life of California. Through this backdrop of multiculturalism, the import and export trade of California is also enhanced. In this highly globalized world, connection with other nations and economies all over the world is highly desirable and can help enhance the economic prosperity of a nation.

Analysis Of John Dewey s Democracy And Education

John Dewey in Democracy and Education, stresses the importance of formal education and how the mass media has manipulated the uneducated in our society. However, Dewey explains how manipulation is prevented through formal education. Not only will society become intelligent, they will be better-educated, informed citizens with knowledge about serving others. Therefore, creating citizens that want to help each other and make a successful democracy. Dewey is still speaking to us today, about the mass media and technology and that the educated will use it from connecting on a global level for the betterment of society and grow culturally into globalism. Based on my understanding of Dewey’s argument on the process by which education realizes in each individual, and on the importance of democracy for the betterment of humanity; the role formal schooling has in creating better, more democratic citizens. They are communicating with different cultures of people in society, they have in dividual freedoms and use them, and useful communication through technology and improving democracy for all citizens. Dewey describes, that the social aspect of education and communication of experience sharing is how knowledge is shared and how it is passed on from generation to generation by raising others before us. According to Democracy and Education, Dewey states, â€Å"the very idea of education as a freeing of individual capacity in a progressive growth directed to social aims.†(Dewey, p. 95, 1916)Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of John Dewey s Democracy And Education1819 Words   |  8 Pages John Dewey in Democracy and Education, stresses the importance of formal education and how the mass media has manipulated the uneducated in our society. However, Dewey explains how manipulation is prevented through formal education. 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