Romeo + Juliet - vs.- Romeo and Juliet

We read an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in class, and then we saw a film of the modern version of Romeo and Juliet (with cars, guns, cities...). Now we have to compare both versions and see the differences.

    1.  The firs differece is the sitting: in the original version the action takes place in Verona, Italy. In the version of the film, Romeo and Juliet they both live in Verona Beach, in the United States of America. The story of the film is moved up four centuries in the time-line, from the 16th century to the 20th century.

    2. In the film there is an important symbolism. I have noticed the importance of the water and the fire. The water appears often when Juliet and Romeo are toghether, for example in the aquarium, when they speak for the firs time. The aquarium isolates them of the rest of the guests of the party, giving them privacy. In the swimming pool of Juliet's house they play in the water, and Romeo falls on it too more times. The last time when we can see water in the film is when Romeo goes to the beach when Tybalt murders Mercutio, in the turning point of the story. So I say that the water represents the peace, the lovely part of the film. The fire symbolizes the violence, the hate between the two families, the reason of the tragedy, I saw it since the first scene of the film in the petron station. The place where Romeo lives while he is banished from Verona Beach is related with the fire too: dust, dryness, a hard sun.
    There is a lot of religious symolism. I think the screenwriters have been very truthful to the original version here. I could think it is just because the story changes too much if there's no religion, but I think there are more reasons, because there are a lot of useless "religious advertisments", like the Virgin on a gun. Maybe they are a reminder that the film is based in a story of four centurys ago. Anyway, this is like out of place.

    3. The narrator is the News: at the end the film uses the news to explain what happens after the death of Juliet and Romeo. I find that when the characters speak in verse is pretty nice. Juliet, Romeo, the Friar...

    4. Here is easy to see the meaning of the costumes: every costume is the representation of the character who wears it, it gaves a notion of what role is going to perform each character.

• Tybalt wears the costume of a demon as the demon who is he. In fact, in the party he wants to murder Romeo.
•  Romeo goes like a knight because of his honesty and kindness.
•  Juliet wears a costume of an angel because of her purity.
• Mercutio wears what he wears (I don't have an idea of what he wears) because of his personality in the film.

5. To make the new version, some important objects or places have been changed. 

• The swords have been changed for guns or for other weapons.
• There is no nobility, so the prince of the city has been changed for the police man and the noble families have been changed for rich families.
• The place of the dead of Romeo and juliet has been changed for thechurch, because now the people has to be buried or burned.
• All the problems between the Montagues and the Capuletshave been changed for problems of nowadays.
• The horses have been changed by cars.
• The plague that blocks friar Laurence's message in the book is changed for a post office problem.

There are more differences that I've noticed, for example in the film version all the facts are more public, more things happen on public places, like the church where the final act takes place, the chases in the city or the las scene (the news). Another difference is that in the film they've added tension, in a lot of moments the tragedy could be stopped by few seconds or few meters. Watching the film, even if I knew how it ends, I suffered more.
I preffer the book, basically because of one thing: imagining the story on the present i find ir more false, however imagining it in the past I find it more real.