Doomed to Die - Tybalt vs Mercutio Across the Decades

Mercutio and Tybalt cross swords 8 different times. (Romeo and Juliet, Act 3 Scene 1)
High School English class should love this one!

There have been 8 high-budget filmed adaptations of Romeo and Juliet in 85 years. Never even 20 years between them. Some are filmed stage plays with big stars, and some big budget films with actors early in their career.

Look for Alan Rickman as Tybalt in the BBC's 1978 version
Or a baby Leonardo Dicaprio in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 escapade
The classic Zeffirelli in 1968 was actually the third major adaptation I could find, but you can see why it's still so beloved.

Watch how different directors and eras of Hollywood handle 3 pages of dialogue with very little stage direction and stretch 2 minutes into 7-10 with the dashing swordplay and fight choreography of the time. 1936 has fencing, while 1996 opted for gunplay. Interestingly the way they choose to stretch and express the fight tells us something different about who's at fault for the fallout that follows in Verona's streets -- Romeo likes to clutz his way into the middle, but sometimes Mercutio is so stuffed with bravado he's toying with his opponent.


CHAPTERS
0:00 O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
0:40 1936 Romeo and Juliet
2:18 1954 Romeo and Juliet
4:09 1968 Romeo and Juliet
8:19 1978 BBC Television Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet
9:29 1996 William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
11:05 2013 Romeo & Juliet
12:49 2014 Romeo and Juliet
14:13 2021 Romeo & Juliet

Romeo and Juliet Act 3, Scene 1
A public place.

MERCUTIO.
O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
[Draws.] Alla stoccata carries it away.
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?

TYBALT.
What wouldst thou have with me?

MERCUTIO.
Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives; that I mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out.

TYBALT.
[Drawing.] I am for you.

ROMEO.
Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.

MERCUTIO.
Come, sir, your passado.

[They fight.]

ROMEO.
Draw, Benvolio; beat down their weapons.
Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage,
Tybalt, Mercutio, the Prince expressly hath
Forbid this bandying in Verona streets.
Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!

[Exeunt Tybalt with his Partizans.]

MERCUTIO.
I am hurt.
A plague o’ both your houses. I am sped.
Is he gone, and hath nothing?

BENVOLIO.
What, art thou hurt?

MERCUTIO.
Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, ’tis enough.
Where is my page? Go villain, fetch a surgeon.



Romeo and Juliet 1936 George Cukor Leslie Howard Norma Shearer

Romeo and Juliet 1954 Renato Castellani Laurence Harvey Susan Shentall

Romeo and Juliet 1968 Franco Zeffirelli Leonard Whiting Olivia Hussey

BBC Television Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet 1978 Alvin Rakoff Patrick Ryecart Rebecca Saire

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet 1996 Baz Luhrmann Leonardo DiCaprio Claire Danes

Romeo & Juliet 2013 Carlo Carlei Douglas Booth Hailee Steinfeld

Romeo and Juliet 2014 Don Roy King Orlando Bloom Dola Rashad

Romeo & Juliet 2021 Simon Godwin Josh O'Connor Jessie Buckley

High School English, Shakespeare, Literature