Compare and contrast the opening scenes of Romeo and Juliet (Baz Luhrmann) and Westside story (Robert Wise)

At the start of the enterprise rank to Romeo and Juliet, a short description of the story is t aging by a news reader who is within the concealment in a sm every(prenominal), old television. The desire of the television being used is to immediately inform the audience that the story has been modernized. The oldness of the TV could signify that it is the modernization of and old story. A abject ring is displayed in the top right hand corner of the gusset plate TV. This signifies the hatred between the cardinal families but also the eternal distinguish between Romeo and Juliet which they be trying to break.As the explanation of the story commences the TV becomes larger, the camera zooms in on it, and thusly the real panoramas from the spread sequence ar shown.The writing in fair Verona is displayed in white writing, suggesting it is a nice, calm city where everybody lives happily. The writing being in white backs this up as white has the intension of being angelic. In the background though there is dramatic opera symphony being played. Opera harmony is associated with tragedy and from the following scenes we see why this medicine is played. The euphony hence holds on a few long notes and a deep governmental voice speaks. This suggest few thing serious is happening or about to happening.The screen the flashes to a helicopter patrolling a city which looks to be in chaos, a statue of Jesus is shown accordingly a mixture of images displaying wipeout and violence, such as house on fire and gun fights, is intertwined with images of religion and holiness. This signifies the two familys insincere view of religion. They claim to live their lives with God but hypocritically go against every one of his commandments throughout their daily lives. The religious images could also epitomize the two people within the family who are religious and who are in love with each other and are willing to give up everything to be with each other.The qualitys of eac h of the families are then shown. They are all shown to be hiding in the shadows or darkness. This may imply that they are hiding from each other or from the police because they are committing crime. It may also be used to create a sense of mystery, we dont last what the two families plan to do to each other, so by presentation them in the shadows, it hides it from us as well as themselves.The quickness of the ever-changing between scenes is used to show us that this story is an action jammed roller coaster. It also signifies the different attitudes and emotions we discover in this film.The opening scene to Westside Story simply uses a variety of colours and medicament to describe the events we may encounter in the film. It begins with the whistling of a songbird which we associate with the break of a new day although it could signify anytime of day. The music begins as chasey music perhaps signifying the pursuit of something. The background colour is well-off orange which, i s quite neutral and does not necessarily signify anything. The music then calms down into peaceful joyous music, perhaps signifying the retrieval or capture of the thing that was being pursued. This music continues for a while because the enjoyment is lasting, slowly the background colour changes into a light red and then a dark red. The music dies into slow, sad, tragic music which could signify the exhalation or separation from the thing. It could also entertain a death in the story because red has the connotation of death and also the connotation of romance. Perhaps a romance has been ended and the primary(prenominal) character is piteous because of this.The background colour then changes from red through to pink, purple and then blue. This could signify a lonely sad period where the main character spent time alone to mourn/miss the loss of this thing.The music suddenly then changes to intense battle like music whilst the background colour changes to a blood red colour. Thi s could imply some kind of revenge that results in a death, or perhaps a murder travail on the main character. We are informed of the force of these possible events. The music becomes a victorious war-like tune which informs us that the main character must have been the one who was successful in the attempt of revenge/murder.The music then calms down and the background changes to white this could mean that the actions that caused the possible death were justifiable. The background then changes again to a purple victorious blue. This could symbolize that the main character has resolved his/her problem and is happy again whilst still in the background missing that thing.These two opening scenes are very different in the way they represent the plot of the film. Westside story does not use images to inform us of the narrative, it just uses colours and music, whereas Romeo and Juliet uses images, voiceovers and music to inform us of the emotions incurred. These two methods are both useful because they do not give too ofttimes of the story away but inform us of the command idea of the film. Romeo is possibly more effective to the untrained eye which is not analyzing the opening scenes because it visually shows us the idea of the film without having to think too lots about whats being shown too us. Westside story is very effective in its description of the plot and narrative. The changes of music and colour clearly outliner the general consensus of the film whilst still leaving the viewer wondering what is actually happening.