Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet at 30: The Ultimate Teenage Shakespeare Adaptation

Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, which reimagined Shakespeare’s 16th-century tragedy as a tropical gang war defined by 1990s tabloid culture and pop music, was released 30 years ago this week. The maximalist interpretation of the play retains Elizabethan verse while setting the scene in fair Verona beach via a news anchor on a TV set relaying clips of civil strife, mapping the medieval story onto 90s tabloid fixations like grainy street violence, magazine headlines of capos, and helicopter views of car chases and riots recalling the OJ Simpson chase.

Verona Beach and the 90s Aesthetic

Fresh off his 1992 breakout success Strictly Ballroom, Australian director Baz Luhrmann and his wife, costume designer Catherine Martin, reimagined Verona as a sun-scorched beach city using real locations including Mexico City’s Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Chapultepec Palace, and Veracruz’s Boca del Río. The Montagues wore open Hawaiian shirts and the Capulets appeared as urban cowboys in Cuban-heeled boots, brandishing guns marked by Catholic iconography. Luhrmann cut, spliced, and twirled the camera in a manic energy that featured raucous shootouts, parties, ecstasy use, and souped-up cars.

Box Office and Cultural Legacy

Although critics dismissed the film as vulgar and garish upon its release, audiences turned out en masse to make Romeo + Juliet a massive success that grossed over $147m against a $14.5m budget. The movie was further boosted by a period-defining soundtrack featuring needle drops from The Cardigans, Everclear, Radiohead, Garbage, and Des’ree’s track I’m Kissing You. The performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes sparked a million teenage obsessions and cemented the film as a frequent fixture in high school English classes to get students invested in Shakespeare.