Hatfields & McCoys: Five Classic Feuds

Montagues vs. Capulets

By DAVID WEINER

Whether depicted as the Sharks vs. the Jets in West Side Story or as rival gangs in Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (interestingly titled; did the studio execs think people might confuse this Romeo + Juliet with someone else's version?), the Montagues and Capulets have been waging war on each other onscreen and onstage ever since Shakespeare penned the classic tragedy in the 16th century. The story of the feuding clans dates back even further to a poem in Dante's Divine Comedy more than 250 years earlier, but there has never been a clear-cut explanation behind their rivalry.