Romeo and Juliet

            The 1996 move version of Romeo and Juliet is much like the original Shakespeare version but with a twist. The major difference is the setting for the movie is modern time. The movie depicts the struggle if two young lovers. It is Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet who have fallen in love. The difficulty these two lovers face is that their families the Montagues and Capulets are rival crime families. Each family has a deep-seated hatred for one another. The Montagues and the Capulets both have a gang of young hooligans that rides around the city looking for trouble. During one occasion, a fight breaks out between Tybalt Capulet and Romeo Montague. During this fight Romeo refuses to fight back because he does not hate the Capulets anymore. Romeo's friend and fellow gang member Mercutio steps in to protect Romeo. Unfortunately in doing this Mercutio is killed by Tybalt Capulet. His dieing proclamation is a curse on both the Montagues and the Capulets. To avenge the death of Mercutio, Romeo hunts down Tybalt and kills him. Meanwhile Juliet is being forced into marriage with a man whom she does not love. To avoid this marriage Juliet takes a special poison meant to make her body look like she is dead while she is really alive. The curse becomes reality when Romeo mistakenly believes that Juliet is dead, and decides to take his own life. It is only in his dieing moments that he realizes that his love is not dead. Juliet regains consciousness only to find her lover dieing by her side. She is so distraught by Romeo's suicide decides to kill herself so that the two of them can be at peace together.
             I have never been much of a fan of drama. I tell you this because my opinion is likely to be biased. I first saw Romeo and Juliet when I was in middle school. The 8th grade students performed it in our school gymnasium. I did not like the play then and I don't like the movie now. Romeo and Juliet is a sappy sorry hopeless love story.