The opening scenes of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film and Zeffirelli's 1968 film are treated very differently. The settings, props, costumes, cinematography and music have many similarities but are manly different due to the views of the directors/ writer. The settings for the opening scenes in both movies are very important because they give the audience an understanding on what era it is set in and where the movie will be set. Shakespeare's original play did not include a description about the setting, so when it was preformed there was no set used. There was so set for the directors to work off so the story could be adapted in many different ways. Zeffirelli didn't stray to far from the original era the play was wrote in, keeping it quite traditional and historically correct. The set include old market stalls and a old brick castle with crenellations. Luhrmann completely took a different turn by modernizing the setting. He set his movie in the busy city of New York and Verona beach. The twist on the setting gives a new look on the popular romeo and Juliet. Luhrmann also included the Christ statue which is located in Brazil. The directors had very different views of what they wanted and because there was no limitation on the setting due to there not being an original setting, both directors took completely different paths while still sticking strongly to the script. .
Costume in both movies are quite similar in some aspects. Shakespeare gave the two different house two different colors so you could identify each house. The directors suck with this idea they both had yellow for Montague and blue for Capulet. Through the costumes used Luhrmann was able to create the illusion that the Capulets had more power than the Montague's, where in Zeffirelli's movie both family's were equal and wore the same costumes but in different colors. Zeffirelli kept to the script using swords, his movie was set in the same era as the play meaning swords where the only weapon that could be used.