DIFFERENCES ABOUT THE BOOK AND THE FILM

Question 1. SETTING: Places Where does the classical play and the new version take place?
Example: Verona VS Verona Beach. Where are they? Which country?

In the film the place they filmed the film it's in Verona Beach in United States, a hot neighbourhood decorated with 20th century style. However Verona from the book of Romeo and Juliet it's in Italy not in United States and in the 14th century not the 20th.

Question 2. IMAGERY: metaphors & images:
WATER and FIRE, LIGHT and DARKNESS,  the MOON... What do they  mean?

Generally the Water symbolism has a universal undertone of purity and fertility, it also symbolizes life, motion, renewal, blessing, intuition, reflection, subconscious, fertilization, purification and transformation. However the Fire symbolism allows you to hold the power and the passion of the Gods, right in the palm of your metaphorical hand. It also symbolizes energy, passion, power, action, sexuality, creativity, authority, consumption, the untamed, destruction...

The Light it's the spiritual and the divine, it's illumination and intelligence. Ligth is the source of goodness and the ultimate reality. Light is knowledge, purity and morality. However Darkness is  a symbol of evil or mystery of fear. The darkness is almost a monster waiting to swallow you whole.

The moon is a symbol of subtlety. It also means time, cycles, psyche, wonder, shadow, balance, renewal, mystery, emotion, intuition, passivity, influence, fertility, transition, femininity, perception, progression, receptivity, illumination...

The meaning of Lightning in the film it's all about Power, clarity, sacred, fertility, creativity, revelation, inspiration, destruction, enlightenment or announcement.

Question 3. LANGUAGE. Which characters speak in verse and which in prose? Who is the narrator?
All the characters that appear in the book and also appears in the film talk in verse because of original sentences of Shakespeare. Although in the film the narrator it's the News Woman and she speaks in prose.

Question 4. THE FANCY DRESS PARTY. What's the role of the costumes the characters wear?
In the film Juliet wears a costume of an Angel, meaning of purity and naivety. Tybalt is dressed with a Devil's costume, meaning of evilness, power, destruction...

Question 5. ELEMENTS. To make the new version, basic elements have been changed. Example: swords for gun. In the film the man who gaves poison to Romeo is a drugdealer and in the book  Romeo bought it in a shop. And Romeo brought a mask to the party not a suit of a knitght, furthermore Juliet was'nt dressed and in the film was disguised as an Angel. The Prince of Verona is actually a Prince not a Police Station Captain. The nurse in the book is the maid in the film. The tomb of Juliet is a cript not a tomb inside of a church, otherwise the church was over decorated. Juliet dies with a dagger in the book, not as in the film that she dies with a gunshot in her head.

Question 6. Other differences of the classical version and the film version. Verona It's a medieval city not a modern city with skyscrappers and policemen. Mantua was supposed to be a town not a moving group convoy.