Romeo + Juliet

"My only love sprung from my only hate."

1996 2h 0m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

🍅

75%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.7

IMDB

★6.8TMDB · 5,471🍅75%Rotten Tomatoes●60Metacritic★6.7IMDB · 257,554

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In this contemporary take on William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed. Though the film is visually modern, the bard's dialogue remains.

“My only love sprung from my only hate.”

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Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio
Romeo
Claire Danes
Juliet
Jesse Bradford
Balthasar
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Captain Prince
Brian Dennehy
Ted Montague
John Leguizamo
Tybalt
Miriam Margolyes
Nurse
Harold Perrineau
Mercutio

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce
Languages: English
Countries: Australia, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $147M — a 10.2× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

30 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Australia, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Baz Luhrmann, shot by Donald McAlpine. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Nellee Hooper. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jill Bilcock shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes and Jesse Bradford carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "My only love sprung from my only hate.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Baz Luhrmann directs. Donald McAlpine behind the camera. Nellee Hooper scores. Jill Bilcock cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Australia, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $147M — a 10.2× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
230 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3International production across 2 countries: Australia, United States of America.
4Directed by Baz Luhrmann, shot by Donald McAlpine. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Nellee Hooper. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Jill Bilcock shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes and Jesse Bradford carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "My only love sprung from my only hate.".
9IMDB entry: tt0117509 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 15 themes, including "suicide", "gang war", "forbidden love", "based on play or musical".
11Released under 17 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Donald McAlpine
Original score: Nellee Hooper
Editing: Jill Bilcock
Production design: Catherine Martin
Costume design: Kym Barrett
Makeup / hair: Maurizio Silvi
VFX supervisor: Rebecca Marie
Sound: Gareth Vanderhope
Stunt coordinator: Brent Woolsey
Runtime: 120 min · 2h 0m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $14,500,000
Box office: $147,298,761
Return: 1016% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Rotten Tomatoes: 75% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 60/100
IMDB rating: 6.7/10 · 257,554 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 15 wins & 30 nominations total

Also by

Baz Luhrmann

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

r96sk2021-05-04
★ 8/10
Part 2 of Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy: <em>'Romeo + Juliet'</em>. I remember watching a little bit of this years and years back at high school and I seem to recall enjoying it a lot. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I might've on this viewing, but it is still a film I'd recommend for sure - it's very good. I'm yet to see a bad - heck, even a just mildly good - film from Leonardo DiCaprio, which remains the case after this. It's probably the weakest performance I've seen from DiCaprio so far, though that's just through process of elimination as he's still impressive here as Romeo. Claire Danes (Juliet) merits props, also. John Leguizamo (Tybalt) is the pick of the rest of the cast, which also includes the likes of Paul Sorvino, Miriam Margolyes and Paul Rudd. Speaking of the casting, apparently 14-year-old Natalie Portman was originally cast to star alongside DiCaprio (then 21... dodgy!). I love the modern day set up and how they bring this famous tale to life in it, though I do think the choice to use Shakespearean dialogue was perhaps the wrong call. It's not like I didn't appreciate it, but it does feel a bit forced and unnatural at times - still cool that they did it, mind.
GenerationofSwine2023-01-11
★ 1/10
Shakespeare is still getting work in Hollywood, and probably always will... ... but I like updated modern Shakespeare when it comes in the form of West Side Story, She's all That, Overboard (all the other million or so Rom-Coms based off of The Taming of the Shrew) and not when the film is modern day with Shakespearean English and... yeah. Too much of a Juxtaposition for me. The kind of WWII update of Richard III wasn't bad, but it wasn't really taking Richard II, putting it in a different time, and keeping almost everything else intact. I guess what I am saying is that it didn't mesh well for me.
CinemaSerf2023-06-18
★ 7/10
Baz Luhrmann has relocated this classic to modern day Verona Beach and introduced a contemporary sound track to complement much of the original dialogue from the bard's story of true love, revenge and, quite possibly, the greatest tragedy ever written in the English language. The families "Montague" and "Capulet" have been feuding since God was a boy. The uneasy truce between them is to be severely tested when "Romeo" (Leonardo DiCaprio) and "Juliet" (Clare Danes) fall in love. Being from each of these warring tribes, they must keep their love clandestine in order to avoid conflict. As their affection grows, that secret proves harder and harder to keep - especially as "Juliet" has been betrothed and her father is determined that she shall be in the church on Tuesday next! I'm sure you all know the story of the "star-crossed lovers" and I rather enjoyed this adaptation. Unlike "Carmen Jones" (1954) which I did not think worked well being relocated, this does. The eclectic contrast between the motor cars, the revolvers and the original old English text is quite effective. The effort from DiCaprio gets better as the film progresses and by the denouement neither he nor Danes are half bad. Harold Perrineau is also competent as the brave "Mercutio" and the conniving "Tybalt" is well covered by John Leguizamo. Purists may well not admire the abridging of this lengthy story though. It is quite heavily condensed and at times that does rob the film of much of the original nuance - not that Luhrmann ever really concentrates on nuance anyway - but I'd rather look on this as an evolution of the story for modern times rather than a straight retelling. For me it worked, and is watchable still.