Romeo and Juliet’s vast influence on the present can be seen by its pervasiveness in film, music, and media. The fact that a work over 400 years old is not only extant, but alive and vivid in the present attests to its status as a classic. Below you can see how Shakespeare’s drama continues to live on in our lives today…
- Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”
This is one of my favorite soft songs of all time, and I especially like acoustic versions of it. It was actually one of the first songs that I personally learned to play on the guitar and still play it occasionally. Much, much different than Jory’s “Romeo y Julieta” (on main page), but yet another song based on Shakespeare’s classic drama.
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E[/embedyt]
2. Romeo and Juliet film (1996)
I remember watching this movie when I was in middle school. The acting isn’t the greatest, although it does have Leonardo DiCaprio. Nonetheless, it is pretty good compared to the other Romeo and Juliet films.
3. West Side Story
This famous Broadway musical is an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that is set in New York city around the mid 1950s and continues to be staged to this day. It was also adapted to film in 1961, becoming the second highest grossing film during that year. The play is centered on the rivalry between a Puerto Rican gang in New York and a white American gang, which bears semblance to the plot of my own transadaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy6wo2wpT2k[/embedyt]
*For more recent, modern adaptations of Romeo and Juliet please see the three transadaptations that I have posted links to under “Reviews of Transadaptations.” The South African transadaptation is particularly bold with its usage of Hip-Hop in Shakespeare’s classic. Additionally, Jory’s “Romeo y Julieta” – posted on the main page – is another modern example of Romeo and Juliet‘s influence in popular culture.