Notes on Romeo and Juliet (York Notes)

Award-winning director Baz Luhrmann ( Strictly Ballroom ) has updated Shakespeare's classic tragedy of young love and teen suicide in a unique new film, in which the warring Capulets and Montagues are gangsters who carry guns instead of swords. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio ( What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Basketball Diaries ) and Claire Danes ( My So-Called Life, Little Women ) as the doomed lovers, the film is set in a modern city. The actors speak Shakespeare's words--but with their own American accents.\nReaders can now experience this new vision of Shakespeare's violent, tragic play alongside the Bard's original text, in a special single volume that features an introduction by the film's director.