Amazon.com video review:
Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and
Juliet was unique in its day for casting kids in the play's pivotal
roles of, well, kids. Seventeen-year-old Leonard Whiting and 15-year-old
Olivia Hussey play the titular pair, the Bard's star-crossed lovers who
defy a running feud between their families in order to be together in love.
Typically played on stage and in previous film productions by adult actors,
the innocent look and rawness of Whiting and Hussey resonated at the time
with a burgeoning youth movement from San Francisco to Prague. The tragic
romance at the center of the story also clicked with anti-authority
sentiments, but even without that, Zeffirelli scores points by validating
the ideals and passions of strong-willed adolescents. Less successful are
scenes requiring the actors to have a fuller grasp of the text, though the
best thing going remains the unambiguous duel between Romeo and Tybalt
(Michael York). Lavishly photographed by Pasquale de Santis on location in
Italy, this Romeo and Juliet brought a different tone and dimension
to a story that had become tiresome in reverential presentations. --Tom
Keogh
