Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo & Juliet is a very successful appropriation of Shakespeare's tragedy. Luhrmann remains faithful to the play's original text, retaining the same values and ideas. However, by changing some high-culture elements of the play and incorporating modern/contemporary and pop-culture elements into his film, as well as through using a wide range of cinematic techniques, the audience is able to appreciate more fully Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet, whereas the high-culture elements of Shakespeare's canonical text may alienate some audiences. Luhrmann sees his film as `readdressing' Shakespeare, pointing out that when Shakespeare first wrote it, it was `for the masses'. It was not revered and played as a British classic, as theatres and drama companies tend to do nowadays. So, gone is the reverential treatment of Shakespeare's play. Instead, Luhrmann uses a range of youth and popular culture elements to translate the power of Shakespeare's tragic tale to...