Baz Luhrmann's choice of imagery, style, location and characterisation makes his interpretation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet accessible and engaging for contemporary audiences. The movie uses modern ideas, settings and filming techniques to develop the story supported with a contemporary soundtrack. However, Baz uses strictly Shakespearian language but occasionally changes the meanings of particular sentences to give them a modern twist.

We see Verona Beach as a bleak city controlled by corporate greed and gang violence. The dark colours, flashy symbols and decaying scenery reflect the destruction that the excesses of the modern world have caused on this city. Also with the gang violence Baz changes the old sword-carrying society into a gun carrying society and turning the names of the swords in the text into the name of guns, and placing plays or quotations in place of a commercial product. Baz creatively makes the story clear by...