Popular reviews

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  Review by Silversaxophone ★★

  Poorly acted version, particularly Laurence Harvey’s dull, pouty Romeo (out acted by Susan Shentall as Juliet, a secretarial student who never followed up this performance), which sidelines most of the interesting supporting characters and whose interpretation appears to have an odd and dismal Catholic bent, is almost worth watching for its outdoor locations, luscious Technicolor photography and occasional directorial flourish. Advise viewing with the sound turned down.

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  Review by Meg

  walking out of quarantine dressing like Romeo in this for real !!!

  I know everyone hates Laurence Harvey's Romeo, but he did truly depict the fullness of Romeo's absolute grating emptiness--I can respect that.

  Actually inventive staging and I really loved the colors in this honestly.

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  Review by 🥀 e m m é ★★½

  So I’ve never actually ever read Romeo and Juliet, but been thinking about watching a version for a while and you know, now I’ve fallen into the abyss of Laurence Harvey films. (Absolutely should have gone with the Leslie Howard & Norma Shearer one—literally no idea what I was thinking?!) Shakespeare is so silly to me though; I can’t really ever take the dialogue seriously, especially when all the actors are doing dramatic, breathy whisper-acting. But this did have a stunningly beautiful depth of colour.

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  Review by Kailey ★★★★

  Unique and underrated version of Romeo and Juliet, with an emphasis on physical barriers representing the metaphorical ones that trap our star-cross'd lovers in an suffocating culture of violence.

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  Review by Gabriele Niola ★★★

  Never had i seen such and Amazing use of real location.
  Characters are furniture here, this Is a movie about lighting actual medieval palaces, Rooms and squares.
  Probably One of the finest film collaborations ever to happen between Italy and UK

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  Review by Zanderific ½

  I have never read a page of Shakespeare in my life. I’ve seen adaptations like Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. I’ve seen movies like West Side Story that was inspired by this play. But I had never seen a single adaptation of this play. I know how it ends because it’s such a famous and well known story that has been around for 425 years. My dad recorded it on the TiVo and decided to show me this movie tonight because we’re going to see & Juliet on Broadway over Thanksgiving break next week. We thought we had the 1968 version from Franco Zeffirelli on the TiVo because it said it did. Unfortunately, it recorded this version. This lifeless, bland,…

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  Review by Gabe Guarin ★★★

  Great gowns beautiful gowns.

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  Review by Glyn Parson ★★★

  Watched in school
  Many years ago wasn’t a bad film the 68 version is better though.

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  Review by David Pearce ★★

  "Is she a Capulet?"

  Even for its age Romeo and Juliet looks and feels markedly artificial. The high-key lighting, overly pristine costuming and the quality of the sets (conversely the on-location shooting is very nice), in most areas of production the movie isn't convincing. This artifice of the mise en scene further compounds with the often ridiculous performances to make for a movie which is hard to be drawn into from a dramatic perspective. This is only worsened by this being an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, not only a story most are very familiar with thus its dramatic turns are less thrilling, but just personally I find reciting Shakespeare a difficult hurdle to overcome when watching adaptations, even when…

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  Review by ivy ✨ ★★

  slow and the actors didn’t really sell it for me

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  Review by Sparks Lowry ★★★½

  Gorgeous-looking film with aspirations toward satire of this era of Catholicism with unfortunately stuffy delivery of the kind you think is synonymous with Shakespeare when you're like, a child.
  Mervyn Johns and John Gielgud the MVPs here, though.

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  Review by mary stratton ★★½

  Well done to the art department for their tasteful color coordination!

  Juliet was simple and sweet. Romeo was as soft as a feather. Together they were low on the chemistry/heat scale.

  Don’t think I’d revisit it, because it moved too slowly for me. Even though it was abridged to only the key dialogue, it felt painfully drawn out.

  List: Shakespeare Adaptations