Today is the 403rd year since Shakespeare passed away and avid followers of Shakespearean books all over the world are marking this event. African readers are of course among the many he has left his mark on. Many of the books by the great writer, including Macbeth,
Twelfth Night and the adolescent love drama Romeo and Juliet were infused into West African high school literature in the 80s and 90s. But oddly, the first thing that comes to the minds of many African millennials is the 1996 movie adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Baz Luhrmann.
How The 1996 Movie ‘Romeo + Juliet’ Had African Millennials
The previous adaptations of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ were hardly accessible to African youths, as only a few had access to TV. High school students used the library instead, so all the scenarios in the book played out in their heads.
‘Romeo and Juliet’, both the book and all its movie adaptations, have always been adolescent magnets. However, movie adaptations always have a way of stripping core details from books, some of which we have also seen being done to this 428-year-old book.
The modernized movie adaptation, ‘Romeo + Juliet’ by Baz Luhrmann, kept the original story all the way. The movie maintained most of the epic goodness from the book but incorporated contemporary concepts.
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The fury between both families was more fierce, and the soundtracks were a mix of vicious RnB and disco. The movie is generally more ambiguous than what you see in the book. This version simply offered augmented pleasure to young viewers at that time.
Some of the lead actors might have stolen some of the spotlights from Shakespeare. Many girls around the world had posters of Leonardo DiCaprio plastered to their walls after the release of the movie. We imagine a lot fewer had posters of William Shakespeare hanging in their rooms.
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So the question now is – why is the movie the first thing that comes to the minds of millennials on a day the world remembers Shakespeare? Does the movie really have a more profound representation of the greatest love story ever told than the book?
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