In this performance together, the two share great onscreen chemistry that transcends their mixed careers and I still think that they were the most suitable and believable pair to perform Romeo and Juliet at the time despite how their individual performances were not the best, though their incredibly young age must be taken into consideration in this respect. Although Olivia Hussey’s career is still strong now, Leonard Whiting’s didn’t enjoy the same popularity – it reached its peak in the 70s but he is no longer seen in any major new roles. Zeffirelli purposefully chose among a new, talented and still unknown generation of actors. The cast members were almost the same age as the young lovers in the play: Olivia Hussey was 15 at the time and Leonard Whiting was 17. Although the dialogue was cut or trimmed in parts, this version stayed as loyal to the original stage play as possible. This version is the more ‘realistic’ or ‘accurate’ of the two films, not only because of how it is in accordance with Shakespeare’s text, and how it is also set in Verona during the Renaissance, but also because of how the costumes designed by Danilo Donati – which earned the film an Academy Award along with Best Cinematography – were extremely accurate when compared to the original play and were true to the time the story is set in. The most awarded and perhaps the most well-known rendition of the story of the two star-crossed lovers is Zeffirelli’s 1968 ‘ Romeo and Juliet’. Romeo and Juliet (1968) by Franco Zeffirelli Leonard Whiting as Romeo and Olivia Hussey as Juliet in Zeffirelli’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1968) In this article I will try to analyse as many points as possible in order to give you a panoramic view of these two film adaptations.

Having watched the two most famous versions of Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘ Romeo and Juliet’, I decided to compare the two and say which one, at least in my opinion, is the best of the two.

Romeo and juliet movie online 1996