Zefferelli is a sporadic master. Here he is in his prime. See how he understands how to direct groups, how to continue a motion from one frame to the next, how to use color to punctuate.
What has happened here is that he has hit on a formula that works toward the problem of moving Shakespeare (a verbal, intellectual event) into film (a matter of motion and image).
It works because the play can be cast largely in terms of crowds, sometimes mobs. Never have I seen this done so well.
Much of the verbal poetry is cut, and image poetry replaced in sufficient measure to satisfy. Mercutio is rightly seen as the heart of the play, balanced by the Nurse. Both are terrific.
Oh how I wish we could combine the cinematic skills of young Zefferelli with the Shakespearian insights of Branagh and the imagination of Greenaway to do, say a Lear. Bliss in the imagining.
