Rant: We need to talk about about the cars in the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet

This has bothered me for years, and I recently saw it again, so it's stuck on my mind again. I need to know what the berk is going on with the cars in the 1996 movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. First of all, if you haven't seen this movie, I greatly envy you, because it is terrible. I know, that's just my opinion, but man, it is a word-for-word reading of the original Shakespeare text overlayed on some futuristic dystopian gangland setting. It is very strange.

And especially the cars - they are SO STRANGE. I've never seen anything like them before, either in person at shows or online. To a normie there is probably nothing in particular to remember about the cars, but to car enthusiasts like us, it would be like if in the art museum scene of Ferris Bueller, they wander around an exhibit of a historical movement of art that only exists in that movie, only exists in the Ferris Bueller universe and no where else.

That is what's bothering me here. These cars were built for this movie, in a very particular style, that simply doesn't exist outside this movie. And it's never talked about. Does anyone put there have any explanation for me? Any input into what could have inspired these creations? Why they chose this creative direction with the film? The closest I can see is maybe some influences from the 1990's Mini Truck scene meets Bosozuko, but otherwise these cars stand alone in their genre. I'm just gonna dump some pictures here now.

It's called a "repressed memory" for a reason....

I'm convinced that if Baz Luhrman made a movie of nothing but a leaf shaking on a tree, I would watch it and be deeply moved.

Great film.  Questionable cars.

I actually kind of liked that movie.  But then, it had Pete Postlethwaite in it and I think he's pretty awesome.

I remember watching it in highschool but I don't recall the cars.. I'll have to watch it again with my wife who I know hasn't seen it. 

All that sticks out is, "give me my longsword, ho!"

I had to watch this movie for 9th grade English class. Painful. Somehow, I managed to repress all memories of the cars, though. 
 

Not gonna lie though, I'd rock the Baronet 

It's my favorite Shakespeare adaptation. Watched it a few weeks ago for family movie night. The music, scenery, way it was shot,everything about it.

Snd I berkeleying LOVE the cars. 

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Have you seen Kenneth Branagh's Henry V?

There's no cars but there's also no Leonardo Dicaprio.

The Capulets drove cars?  Huh...

They all look like something is missing. 80's vintage cars with something missing. 

I honestly enjoy Shakespeare enough that I found this movie to be kinda painful but will admit it had its moments of artistry.

Love the cars, pretty much universally. Definitely memorable for me, I'll take the pilgrim.

I had the soundtrack back in the day, pretty good one. The movie was so-so to me at the time, but I was in love with Claire Danes so it didn't matter (huge My So-Called Life fan). 
 

Looks like if Baz Lurman created cars to me. Which is probably what it is.

In reply to maschinenbau :

I love you brother, but you're Wrong.  It's an awesome movie.

Gives off a cool, 90's version of Miami Vice vibe and actually makes Shakespeare watch-able.

The cars are Characters in and of themselves too and I really Love 'em 👍

I don't remember ever hearing of this movie before.  It does have a page on the movie car database:  https://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=117509

SV reX said:

They all look like something is missing. 80's vintage cars with something missing. 

They look like the 6000 SUX's bastard offspring. Whatever. I like this movie.

I want to rewatch it now. 

In reply to maschinenbau :

Never saw the movie but, yeah, I can see the Mini Truckin’/Bosozuko influence. It’s like the cars all existed in their own parallel universe. 

I liked it way back when I watched it. Somehow I didn't pay attention to the cars. Seeing stills of them now I'm pretty sure I tried to erase them from my memory.

SV reX said:

They all look like something is missing. 80's vintage cars with something missing. 

90s vintage too.

They're just (mostly) Chevys that the art department had fun with.

I made my family watch this only a few months ago....

I have a "that's an ODD movie" reputation to uphold.

The whole idea was to the spin the story and make the Montagues and Capulets into something akin to competing drug cartels.

I think the direction and art direction were intentionally done to contrast against the dialogue as much as possible.

The cars were an obsene/satirical display of wealth and extravagance/opulence centered around the 90's lowrider/gang culture. (That's why everyone else has normal cars.) Much the same way the wealthy have been satirized before and since. (IE Running Man, Hunger Games)

I wonder sometimes if Shakespeare himself wouldn't be amused by the adaptation with the added visual commentary. 

i forgot, he's the "Everybody's free to wear sunscreen" guy

I hadn't heard of the movie until my ex mentioned it.  We watched it & I loved the concept of a modern era movie set to Shakespearean language.  And as mentioned, Claire Danes.

Haven't seen the movie, but I appreciate the (presumed) intent behind the R+J cars.

Slight threadjack, this stuff bothers me way more:

FvF went to so much trouble to get so many cars right — so whenever this Daytona rep showed up in the background, its period-incorrect wheels poked me in the brain.

One of my favorite things about Shakespeare is those works ability to be recontextualized with zero dialogue changes and still work really, really well. The only time I've ever actually performed Shakespeare was actually a sketch comedy show we did where we took several famous dramatic scenes, performed right out of the books, and played them for laughs. It was ridiculously easy to just change some of the rhythms of the words and add some physical beats and everything just worked perfectly.

Anyway, that's really my favorite thing about R+J. I'm not really a fan of much of the aesthetic, but I applaud the production designers for creating their own aesthetic from scratch that was recognizable but also unique. The cars are... meh. But they did a great job creating a design language that works across all the vehicles. They're clearly from the same universe.