The Plays of William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet (1983)

The clearest and most understandable Shakespeare productions ever made. Staged as seen in the 16th Century, featuring award-winning performers. The tragic tale of young love thwarted by a family feud. Starring Alex Hyde-White, Blanche Baker, Esther Rolle, Dan Hamilton and Frederic Hehne. 165 minutes.

Bad examples are valuable, too!

This has got to be THE worst R&J ever produced anywhere. The staging is clumsy, the costumes embarrassing, the acting turgid. The voices are a cacophony of mixed bad British, grating American, and others never actually used anywhere. Although if you like cod-pieces, this is the production for you.
The formidable Esther Rolle's subtext seems to be that she can't wait to go home and take a shower. The director has relegated her to the demanding task of standing there looking African, presumably in a desperate bid to add visual interest to the crowd scenes.
The producers used the phrase "staged as seen in the 16th century;" in my opinion only the first five minutes would have been seen, after which the actors would have been pelted with rotting vegetables by a disgusted audience uttering earnest calls for getting their money back and/or burning down the theatre.
This DVD could, however, be useful for encouraging folks to try their hand at acting. Once they see this they should be thinking "Hey, I could do better than that!" A splendid bad example-- acting teachers can say "See? This is what I want you to avoid." This R&J is a fine collection of the very worst acting habits and traits.
The only high points: there is one good actor in the cast, in a minor role (Try and find him, like 'Where's Waldo!') and the sword fights, which do show some of the modern improvements in fight choreography. Perhaps they only seem so good because they prevent the actors from speaking while they fight.
Personally, I'd rather watch dogs play poker. September 11, 2003

More reviews at Amazon.com ...