I apologize for my blog, which jumps between the two topics of fate, and camera angles! :)

Watching the slide show that Ms. Robbins so kindly posted online, I was intrigued by a point that had been made. During the first quarter of the movie, you see a lot of shots with the characters underwater, or made as if to look like they are under water. The first shot that you see of Juliet, is her underwater...looking dead...almost. Then, at the Capulet house, when Romeo and Mercutio and all those other people go to the party, Romeo is shown in a shot very similar to the one of Juliet (when he's in the bathroom trying to get rid of the effects of the drugs).
As was said on the director thingy that was given to us, "The Capulets became Hispanic, adorned with very Catholic cultural icons. For the Montegues, they wanted something far more Angelo; hence the GI Joe imagery of the Hawaiian shirts. With such distinctly different wardrobes, the two opposing gangs became easy to  understand and follow."
So, there were choices made to distinguish the two gangs, yet there were things in the movie that kind of drew the two families/characters together.

Those two shots also made me think of something. As I said before, when we first saw the shot of Juliet, it looked kind of like she was dead. Next, Romeo was given a similar shot. Interesting. Maybe another point of having the two lovers in a similar shot, was to suggest that they were coming together or similar in death.

Now, it is time for me to move on the the greatly discussed topic of fate.
In this movie, as well as the play, Romeo discusses fate a lot. Obviously he believes that there is someone or something up there, guiding us along the way.
I feel...well, I'm actually not sure how I feel about this kind of thing. I would love to believe that there is something helping us out...and I do agree with the idea, that the choices we make affect the things that come next. For example: last year, while going out to lunch, my friend started choking. If we hadn't gone to that restaurant, that never would have happened. But then- is there really a set path for everyone. How will we ever know.

Oh, and something I just remembered (going back to my camera angle thing), Romeo is not the only person that believes in fate int this movie, I'm guessing. In the very end, just as Juliet is about to kill herself, you notice that she looks up (the camera is angled down, so it is like someone/thing is looking down on her.). to suggest that she is saying to fate, "Okay, this is what is meant to be. I am meant to be with Romeo, in life and death."

So, what are your idea? Do you believe that fate is what drives us along? Or do you think that it is all our doing?

P.S once again, I apologize for my jumpy blog.