When I was in high school, my English teacher assigned us to read Romeo and Juliet. 

After we read the play, we'd watch a movie adaptation of the play and compare the differences. I never really liked doing assignments like that. I always found it boring. But then again, I was 15. I was more worried about what other kids were thinking of me than what Romeo and Juliet thought about each other. That, and if school would be serving hot dogs for lunch.

The point is I thought Shakespeare was boring. No matter how the teacher told me of the importance or the significance his writing has for modern culture, I just never understood. After all this time, I still don’t get it that much. But I did grow to understand it after watching what would become one of the best movies I’ve ever watched.

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann, is a crime drama that takes everything about the historic play and modernized to an absurd degree. In this twisted adaptation, the Capulet and the Montague families are rival business empires, the swords that original characters used for their duels were now replaced with guns, and the inevitable tragedy of the titular couple is ramped up in ways that feel more like you’re reading a tabloid magazine from the early 2000s.

Though you’ll have to pay close attention because of special thing they do with the dialogue: nothing. And what I mean is that everything in this movie is modern, except the actual dialogue of the film. When the characters speak, they speak in pure Shakespearean dialogue.

It might come off as confusing for some people since most of the film would require the viewer to have some basic knowledge of Romeo and Juillet to understand the broader context as to who the characters are. 

But that’s the thing, I never fully read Romeo and Juliet, but following along with this movie helped me understand why Shakespeare was such an important writer. If anything, this movie dragged me down a rabbit hole of other modern adaptations and reinterpretations of his works. 10 Things I Hate About You is a modern teen adaptation of the Taming of the Shrew. She's the Man, the 2006 movie starting Amanda Bynes is a loose retelling of Twelfth Night. The Lion King animated movies took inspiration from Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet respectively. All these movies are heavily influenced by William Shakespeare’s plays.

I do wish my English teacher showed us those kinds of films and asked us what our interpretation to his work was and how it reflects our us in a personal way, since his plays tend to fall more into that category. His plays range from historical fiction to comedies, but there tends to be mostly about the deep human nature of love, power. and all the messiness that comes in between.

I can think of a lot of choices that I’ve made when I was a teenager that have rippled over the years, with some of them not ending well. Sometimes, I would be minding my own business and then a memory of my middle school life would creep up and around my mind. And I would cringe so hard that I would immediately forget what I was doing because not how old I get, those memories will still be there. However, there are other times that I would remember something I did back the day that were so funny that we would burst out laughing, or grinning ear-to-ear.

I guess that’s William Shakespeare work in nutshell: the good times, bad times, and everything in between. 

I really urge anyone to check out Romeo + Juliet and check out other works that are written by and inspired by Shakespeare. Make it a movie night with your friends or just yourself. It can be nostalgic.