The parody wouldn't work nearly as well set in any other setting. There's something about the seventies - the clothes, the cars, the music, the pop psychology, that lends itself to satire. The movie received mixed reviews when it was initially released. Those who panned it, however, come across sounding like English majors who take themselves too seriously. (One reviewer called it a "comedy for those who couldn't make it through the Cliff's Notes.") It isn't by any means a "deep" movie, but as Shakespeare adaptations go, it's at least entertaining. And it has good company. Orson Welles did much the same with his Voodoo Macbeth.