Book contents
- Shakespeare on Screen: Romeo and Juliet
- Series page
- Shakespeare on Screen: Romeo and Juliet
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Series Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introduction – From Canon to Queer: Romeo and Juliet on Screen
- Part I Revisiting the Canon
- Part II Extending Genre
- Chapter 6 Romeo and Juliet and the Western
- Chapter 7 Pixarfication, Comedy and Earning the Happy Ending in Gnomeo & Juliet
- Chapter 8 Decentring the Hypotext with Denim and Zombies: Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies (2013) and David Lachapelle’s Romeo & Juliet (2005)
- Chapter 9 Guns, Rasa and Roses: Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram-Leela (2013), a ‘Desi’ Romeo and Juliet
- Chapter 10 Indian Romeo and Juliets and Their Uncommonly Tragic Endings
- Part III Serial and Queer Romeo and Juliets
- Index
- References
Chapter 6 - Romeo and Juliet and the Western
from Part II - Extending Genre
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 October 2023
- Shakespeare on Screen: Romeo and Juliet
- Series page
- Shakespeare on Screen: Romeo and Juliet
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Notes on Contributors
- Series Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introduction – From Canon to Queer: Romeo and Juliet on Screen
- Part I Revisiting the Canon
- Part II Extending Genre
- Chapter 6 Romeo and Juliet and the Western
- Chapter 7 Pixarfication, Comedy and Earning the Happy Ending in Gnomeo & Juliet
- Chapter 8 Decentring the Hypotext with Denim and Zombies: Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies (2013) and David Lachapelle’s Romeo & Juliet (2005)
- Chapter 9 Guns, Rasa and Roses: Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram-Leela (2013), a ‘Desi’ Romeo and Juliet
- Chapter 10 Indian Romeo and Juliets and Their Uncommonly Tragic Endings
- Part III Serial and Queer Romeo and Juliets
- Index
- References
Summary
Here I will be interested in points of resistance and incompatibility between Shakespeare and film genres, in particular the case of Romeo and Juliet and the Western. One might expect that Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s most bankable play, would be an obvious candidate for adaptation into a Western, one of cinema’s most popular genres. In theory, it is certainly possible to bend the play and the genre in each other’s direction. In practice, however, Romeo and Juliet has seemed difficult to adapt as a Western. Why this is so tells us something about the limits of Shakespeare’s adaptability within film genres.
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- Shakespeare on Screen: Romeo and Juliet , pp. 95 - 109Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023