R+J 4EVAH!

It's all good whether you go with Luhrmann and watch it as old love, new way:

Here

or prefer Zefirelli's and see it as new love, old way.
(I suggest watching the whole thing; was there ever a face more beguiling than Olivia Hussey's as she looks around? Don't miss the most excellent eye diss ever at 1:32 or thereabouts.)



I'm not sure there is anything to be gained from comparing these two versions. Olivia Hussey's Juliet is both precocious and naive, with happy wilfulness percolating and ready to brim over, while Claire Danes' Juliet is keenly insightful, with a slight air of weariness that's masking that youthful desire for something more (okay, so I prefer Olivia). Both Di Caprio's and Whiting's Romeo are gullible with their faith in friends, in family, and, ultimately, in the power of love (not to mention both are very pretty boys--a draw, in my eyes). The 1968 score is almost inseparable from the movie itself, since Nino Rota's theme is as famous as the movie (some may say it eclipses it). In turn, the soundtrack to the 1996 version is one of the best to come out of the '90s, and certainly one of the best movie soundtracks ever.

(Possibly the only clear winner in one over the other is Richard York's Tybalt over John Leguizamo's. Leguizamo does a nice job, rawly portraying Tybalt's anger as being for anger's sake, in a way, fueled by pointless inner demons. York, though, does a far more effective job with that petulant face that goes for spoiled displeasure stemming from a sense of being owed the world, for no reason other than just being.)

***

And while we are at the topic of old ways versus new with respect to Romeo and Juliet...well, the "old" obviously scores points for being the original in the first place, but the "new" does breath a different life into it, no?

Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits




Romeo and Juliet (cover) - The Indigo Girls (Amy Ray)



And talking of breathing new breath, and in keeping with the R+J theme:
(with much less cowbell...)
Don't Fear The Reaper (cover) - Gus