YouTube Postings of scenes from Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Film: William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet

Below are links to YouTube postings of scenes from a movie, done without the permission of the rights holders to that movie. From time to time the rights holders of a movie inform YouTube (a video file-sharing service by Google, Inc.) that a particular posting(s) violate their copyright and that they request YouTube to "take down" the specified illegal postings(s). This process takes time, but ultimately YouTube does comply with such a request, provided the copyright holder establishes (in writing) its ownership of the material that was posted.

In many cases, the copyright holders of a movie that has been posted in its entirety request that only some of its segments be taken down, often the first or last part of the movie. While it is impossible to know for certain why they would do this, it seems reasonable that the movie companies believe that having some of their movie shown (even most of it) acts as free advertising, keeping the movie in people's minds long after it leaves the theaters, and may actually lead to sales of DVDs or other media versions.

Thus, there are numerous legal, financial, and ethical implications involved in the posting of copyrighted work and, perhaps in linking to such unauthorized posts, and even viewing them. (See Digital Media Literacy Discussion Group on Property Rights and Permissions in a Digital World.)

The following YouTube postings were taken from Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film: William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.

You can buy this movie from the CyberClassics Store as a DVD or to view as Video-on-Demand 

YouTube Postings

Note: To help the viewer move back and forth between the movie postings below and a written version of the play, for each posting we have provided Act, Scene, and Line numbers (from the 1597 Quarto of the play) to approximately identify the corresponding start and end points in Shakespeare's text . However, because this movie is an adaptation of Shakesepeare's play, it often deviates from his original script by eliminating or moving dialogue even entire scenes. Thus, the dialogue and action in a given posting will not correspond exactly to that contained between the provided start and end points of Shakespeare's text.

The Prologue

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Part 1
From The Prologue, Line 1 through roughly half of Act I, Scene 1
(Taken down)

The opening credits and first scene (the initial violent confrontation between the Monagues and the Capulets) of this movie, alone, are worth the price of buying it! You can read customer reviews and purchase William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet on DVD, VHS, or On-Demand-Video from the CyberClassics Store.

Part 2
From Act I, Scene 1, Line 116 to end of Act I, Scene 3

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Part 3
From Act I, Scene 4, Line 13 to Act I, Scene 5, Line 81

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Part 4
From Act I, Scene 5, Line 94 to Act II, Scene, Line 77

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Part 5
From Act II, Scene 2, Line 60 to Act II, Scene 3, Line 92

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Part 6
From Act II, Scene 4, Line 89 to Act III, Scene 1, Line 43

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Part 7
From Act III, Scene 1, Line 44 to Act III, Scene 1, Line 130 and Act III, Scene 2, Line 20-31

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Part 8
From Act III, Scene 1, Line 131 to Act III, Scene 5, Line 17

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Part 9
From Act III, Scene 5, Line 23 to Act IV, Scene 3, Line 14


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Part 10
From the end of Act IV, Scene 3 to Act V, Scene 3, Line 42

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Part 11
Act V, Scene 3, Line 91-170

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Part 12
From Act V, Scene 3, Line 171 to end of play.

Taken Down