Titus

Plot synopsis:
A boy eating lunch in a 1950s-style kitchen plays war with his surrounding toys. A bomb blast outside the window frightens him under the table from where he is rescued and taken to an Amphitheatre, where an invisible audience cheers. An army resembling the Terracotta Army enters; Romans under the command of Titus Andronicus, the general at the center of the play, return victorious from war. They bring back as spoils Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her sons, and Aaron the Moor. Titus sacrifices Tamora's eldest son, Alarbus, so the spirits of his 21 dead sons might be appeased. Tamora eloquently begs for the life of Alarbus, but Titus refuses her plea.
Caesar, the Emperor of Rome, dies. His sons Saturninus and Bassianus squabble over who will succeed him. The Tribune of the People, Marcus Andronicus, announces the people's choice for new emperor is his brother, Titus. He refuses the throne and hands it to the late emperor's eldest son Saturninus, much to the latter's delight. The new emperor states he will take Lavinia, Titus' daughter, as his bride to honor and elevate the family. She is already betrothed to Saturninus' brother, Bassianus, who steals her away. Titus's surviving sons aid in the couple's run for the Pantheon, where they are to marry. Titus, angry with his sons because in his eyes they're being disloyal to Rome, kills his son Mutius as he defends the escape. The new emperor, Saturninus, dishonors Titus and marries Tamora instead. Tamora persuades the Emperor to feign forgiveness to Bassianus, Titus and his family and postpone punishment to a later day, thereby revealing her intention to avenge herself on all the Andronici.
During a hunting party the next day, Tamora's lover, Aaron the Moor, meets Tamora's sons Chiron and Demetrius. The two argue over which should take sexual advantage of the newly-wed Lavinia. Aaron easily persuades them to ambush Bassianus and kill him in the presence of Tamora and Lavinia, in order to have their way with her. Lavinia begs Tamora to stop her sons, but Tamora refuses. Chiron and Demetrius throw Bassianus's body in a pit, as Aaron directed them, then take Lavinia away and rape her. To keep her from revealing what she saw and endured, they cut out her tongue as well as her hands, replacing them with tree branches. When Marcus discovers her, he begs her to reveal the identity of her assailants; Lavinia leans towards the camera and opens her bloodied mouth in a silent scream.
Aaron brings Titus' sons Martius and Quintus and frames them for the murder of Bassianus with a forged letter outlining their plan to kill him. Angry, the Emperor arrests them. Later on, Marcus takes Lavinia to her father, who's overcome with grief. He and his remaining son Lucius begged for the lives of Martius and Quintus, but the two are found guilty and are marched off to execution. Aaron enters, and tells Titus, Lucius, and Marcus the emperor will spare the prisoners if one of the three sacrifices a hand. Each demands the right to do so. Titus has Aaron cut off his (Titus's) left hand and take it to the emperor. Aaron's story is revealed to have been false, as a messenger brings Titus the heads of his sons and his own severed hand. In Renaissance semiotics, the hand is a representation of political and personal agency. With his hand chopped off, Titus has truly lost power. Desperate for revenge, Titus orders Lucius to flee Rome and raise an army among their former enemy, the Goths.
Titus's grandson (Lucius's son and the boy from the opening), who helped Titus read to Lavinia, complains she will not leave his books alone. In the book, she indicates to Titus and Marcus the story of Philomela, in which a similarly mute victim "wrote" the name of her wrongdoer. Marcus gives her a stick to hold with her mouth and stumps. She writes the names of her attackers on the ground. Titus vows revenge. Feigning madness, he ties written prayers for justice to arrows and commands his kinsmen to aim them at the sky so they may reach the gods. Understanding the method in Titus's "madness", Marcus directs the arrows to land inside the palace of Saturninus, who is enraged by this added to the fact Lucius is at the gates of Rome with an army of Goths.
Tamora delivers a mixed-race child, fathered by Aaron. To hide his affair from the Emperor, Aaron kills the nurse and flees with the baby. Lucius, marching on Rome with an army of Goths, captures Aaron and threatens to hang the infant. To save the baby, Aaron reveals the entire plot to Lucius, relishing every murder, rape and dismemberment.
Tamora, convinced of Titus's madness, approaches him along with her two sons, dressed as the spirits of Revenge, Murder, and Rape. She tells Titus she (as a supernatural spirit) will grant him revenge if he will convince Lucius to stop attacking Rome. Titus agrees, sending Marcus to invite Lucius to a feast. "Revenge" offers to invite the Emperor and Tamora and is about to leave, but Titus insists "Rape" and "Murder" stay with him. She agrees. When she leaves, Titus's servants bind Chiron and Demetrius. Titus cuts their throats, while Lavinia holds a basin in her stumps to catch their blood. He plans to cook them into a pie for their mother.
The next day, during the feast at his house, Lavinia enters the dining room. Titus asks Saturninus whether a father should kill his daughter if she is raped. When the Emperor agrees, Titus snaps Lavinia's neck, to the horror of the dinner guests, and tells Saturninus what Tamora's sons did. When Saturninus demands Chiron and Demetrius be brought before him, Titus reveals they were in the pie Tamora enjoyed, and kills Tamora. Saturninus kills Titus after which Lucius kills Saturninus to avenge his father's death.
Back in the Roman Arena, Lucius tells his family's story to the people and is proclaimed Emperor. He orders his father Titus and sister Lavinia to be buried in the family monuments, Saturninus be given a proper burial, Tamora's body to be thrown to the wild beasts, and Aaron be buried chest-deep and left to die of thirst and starvation. Aaron is unrepentant to the end. Young Lucius picks up Aaron's child and carries him away into the sunrise.

Tags: murder, cult, psychedelic, tragedy, revenge, sci-fi

Review:
Now comes `Titus,' a film based on one of Shakespeare's earliest, bloodiest and least well known plays, `Titus Andronicus,' and, in many ways, this film is the most bizarrely conceived of the four, since it creates a world in which - amidst the architectural splendors of ancient columned buildings - Roman warriors, dressed in traditional armor and wielding unsheathed swords, battle for power in a land disconcertingly filled with motorcycles and automobiles, pool tables and Pepsi cans, punk hair cuts and telephone poles, video games and loud speakers.
Plus, in all honesty, Shakespeare's plays are themselves riddled with so many examples of historical anachronisms that the `crime' of modernization seems a piddling one at best.Those unfamiliar with `Titus Andronicus' may well be caught off guard by the ferocious intensity of this Shakespearean work.
Thus, even though we can never take our eyes off the screen, this is often a very difficult film to watch.`Titus' is filled with elements of character, plot and theme that Shakespeare would enlarge upon in later works.
At times, the surrealist imagery mirrors Fellini at his most flamboyant.The fact that this is one of Shakespeare's earliest works is evident in the undisciplined plotting and the emphasis on sensationalism at the expense of the powerful themes that would be developed more fully in those later plays with which we are all familiar.
`Titus' may definitely not be for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach, but the purely modern way in which the original play is presented in this particular film version surely underlines the timelessness that is Shakespeare..
And yet, Julie Taymor, renowned for her fantastical vision of The Lion King on Broadway, chose this, possibly Shakespeare's most problematic play, to be her introduction to film.This adaptation is wonderful.
Titus is a good character too, and Anthony Hopkins acts him well enough.It would be easy for a Shakespeare purist to say "eww, what was that," but I would call this retelling a gem.
Seeing Titus leaves one exhausted and exhilarated, believing one has seen true, gifted, timeless film making.Titus is one of Shakespeare's little-known, earlier works, and it is a violent, disturbing tragedy.
Taken from the Shakespeare play 'Titus Andronicus', A very dark humored and brutal work originally, Julie Taymor isolates and drives upon the very force that brought William Shakespeare to his immortal success: Shock your audience.A Roman General(Titus) after loosing many of his sons as soldiers in battle returns to a war-hungry Rome days after the death of Julius Ceasar.
Julie Taymor having not missed a beat with the visuals, which are terrible and powerful at times, only seek to punctuate tragedy, much unlike its 1999 counterpart 'Titus Andronicus' which focused more on hate and revenge making for very unreasonable 1 dimensional characters.My advice: Watch this movie more than once.
The original tragedy, one of Shakespeare's lesser known, plays like a 90's slasher film, with enough blood, guts, decapitations, amputations, murders, and missing limbs for several modern day horror romps.
It's like watching an on-screen play, with all the guts and glory of Shakespeare; the script does not even feel as if it was rewritten for the screen, but left for a modern dramatization of theater.
Her film "Titus," starring veteran actors Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lang, is one of the most bizarre updates of William Shakespeare's work I can remember-and that is a very good thing.
Anthony Hopkins plays general Titus Andronicus, at the heart of the story, who, as the movie opens, returns from conquering the Goths.
Some of his plays have a plot which makes a good basis for a modern production, but Shakespeare's absolute forté is his language and his linguistic jokes and acting in old English requires settings true to the play.
Taymor is renowned for her stage direction, and based this film in part on her recent off-Broadway production of "Titus Andronicus.
So her unique and self-consciously absurd visual style, combining modern and ancient design elements in order to suggest that violence has been one of man's favorite past times throughout the ages, really shouldn't be that surprising.But it is that style which points to the fact that this is not a typical Hollywood film.
Perhaps if someone had taken Arnold Schwarzenegger into the Roman colloseum after he finished making "T2" he would've felt a little differently about his actions, too.In other words, it's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt.PS - As for the ridiculous notion that Shakespeare "reads better than it sounds," any ounce of credibility left in the angry critique of "Titus" which inspired this message was pretty much wholly obliterated by that comment.
And I was not to be found withing myself for hours thereafter.Not that it is necessary, but I had already read Shakespeare's first play (titus andronicus) from which this film hath been made.
No beauty, only random killing; I liked his later works much better.Until I saw this film!Directed by a very able woman, Julie Taymor, the pictures are intense in colours and framing, and the acting is equally intense (Jessica Lange and Anthony Hopkins against each other).
After that she starts planning revenge and she's got two other sons and a Moorish man toy named Aaron to both help her out and pour gasoline on her fires for revenge.Watching Titus Andronicus I thought of Hamlet which also about what turns out to be a bloody quest for vengeance where nearly every principal character winds up dead in the end.
A big fan of Shakespeare, I rented this movie not too long ago, expecting an average--if not mediocre--adaptation of the play.
But by blending modern-day conveniences with Shakespeare's immortal words, Taymor created a wonderful film.All of the actors made their parts seem tailor-made for them.
I figured a Shakespeare movie starring Anthony Hopkins - hey, it can't be all bad.Oh boy was I wrong.Like Leo Dicaprio's Romeo & Juliet, the movie retained the original Shakespeare dialog but was set in a modern time.
In any case, the last thing this scene needs is the visual suggestion that the army has just passed Rome's power plant (without disabling it), and will shortly come across the arterial highway.It's bad enough for Taymor to assemble such ludicrous costumes, sets and locations; it's unforgivable for her to think that all she need do is assemble them, without giving any thought to how they'd look on film.
Taymor's many lame ideas are ALL visual - none of them have to do with story or character or theme - yet because she was concerned with what things look like in the flesh, not how they would end up looking on film, even these are half-lost.
Anthony Hopkins murmurs, rants and snarls without once achieving significant emotion; Jessica Lange and Harry Lennix can barely speak, let alone fill their roles; Colm Feore (Canada's idea of a major classical actor) does nothing with his apostrophe to Lavinia; and Alan Cumming is not convincing as a heterosexual.
All these people whining that Julie Taymor has 'distorted the text' by presenting a Roman story in modern dress should prepare themselves for some shocking news: Shakespeare did the same thing.
This film, which hopefully will be Miss Taymor's last, is a pretentious hodgepodge of cinematic cliches served up amidst a mishmash of visual styles and settings, that not even the fine performances of Mr. Hopkins and, especially, Miss Lange can save.
Action devotees should enjoy this more than other Shakespeare.Taymor has included a frame-story about a boy playing with toys who then become characters in the story, also there are many shifts between ancient and modern settings.
Anthony Hopkins is terrific as the head of the excellent ensemble cast that provides some depth to the thin characters and Taymor is able to extract humor from the grim proceedings while providing dazzling imagery and an adrenaline rush.A special mention should also be given to Harry Lennix as Tamora's servant Aaron, one of the few black characters in Shakespeare.
In the phrase of author Charles Beauclerk, "Divorced from his works and cut off from the wellspring of his creativity, his unconscious inundates the plays and his emotional pain overwhelms the text." Taymor meshes three time periods in the film: ancient Rome, fascism in the 1930's and the modern era.
A robotic procession of soldiers in ancient Rome is led by aging General Titus Andronicus (Anthony Hopkins) who is returning to Rome after a victorious battle against the Goths.Andronicus brings with him prisoners Queen Tamora (Jessica Lange), Aaron (Harry Lennix) and her sons Chiron (Jonathan Rhys Myers) and Demetrius (Matthew Rhys).
Anthony Hopkins takes the title role, a general who was loyal for so long to the Emperor (flamboyant as possible, which means a lot, via Alan Cumming) that he's repaid by allowing his new step-sons via new Empress (Jessica Lange, sultry and dangerous) to cut off his daughter's hands and her tongue and rape her and leave her for dead.
But all of this, including a subplot with the Moor Aaron (tremendous actor, can't recall the name), is presented in a form that's alive and energetic, insistent on making us pay attention, even if not every single work sticks to our consciousness (it IS Shakespeare, of course, a few words might slip by in his poetic prose).While Taymor's and her crew have one of the most lavish and awe-inspiring productions of 1999, and the cast has their fun chewing up said scenery as anger boils and madness comes to a head, and a sort of odd flaw continues onward with the boy's character (maybe more a fault of the writer than Taymor, albeit with one of the worst closing shots I've ever seen in any movie), it's still Shakespeare's show.
Having just read Titus Andronicus for the first time I was eager to take a look at the 1999 film version.
I found it an uplifting experience, because though the film was quite different to my own visualization of the story, it was a perfectly consistent modern take that both respected the language and construction of the original play and provided an exciting, personal interpretation –respectful of Shakespeare but true to itself.
I am also extremely glad that a certain amount of restraint was shown in the direction –it could so easily have been totally overloaded with effects, forced gimmicks and gore, but here the visuals –and impressive they are– never overpower the language and the interaction between the characters.The performances are of a high level throughout, and the actors are all comfortable with the language, which is a relief because so many other "modern" versions of Shakespeare suffer from an inconsistent mixing of acting styles that distract us momentarily from the story.
Alan Cumming gives a very memorable performance as the emperor –I found this character difficult to fully get hold of when I read the play, but the boldness and audacity shown by Cumming makes him very clear –and again it's never over- the-top as it so easily could be.I think it does help to know at least something of the play before seeing the film as there is no real explanation of exactly who is who to begin with and this may cause some confusion – the unravelling of characters and their relationships is equally challenging in the opening of the play, so the fault (if it can be called that) lies with Shakespeare.
Director Julie Taymor has added another film to the list of modern renditions of Shakespeare's plays.
We start with Young Lucius (Osheen Jones) in a modern house playing with war toys and suddenly interrupted by violent explosions outside, when Titus (Anthony Hopkins) rushes in to save him and transports him to a place that is an odd mixture of old world Roman architecture, mixed ancient and modern dress, and an assortment of ancient and modern machines and weapons.
But despite the hodgepodge, maybe even because of it, I enjoyed this production.The visuals kept attention constant and the Shakespearean language, which I often find difficult to fully absorb in the beginning, soon became second nature as I was wrapped up in the story.Anthony Hopkins in particular does stellar performance as the seemingly half-mad general Titus Andronicus, who spars with the emperor even as he vainly attempts to placate him.
It's so rare that a movie is so unique, beautiful, and powerful.Julie Taymor has filmed Shakespeare's bloodiest and most violent play as an astonishing, surreal delight.
A very, very, very long movie.Everything seems borrowed from other Shakespeare film adaptations.
The disembodied phantoms who finally appear to have been silently attending to all that (seemingly) has passed before our own eyes, in the insistent image of the Stadium of Death, which is the Arena of Taymore's Shakespeare-mediated Senecan spectacle, are themselves - like their representative, Lavinia, - mute witnesses to the scenes relentlessly paraded before us in that Circus of Horror, which signifies nothing less than the very Orbit that circumscribes this World of Suffering.
The disembodied phantoms who finally appear to have been silently attending to all that (seemingly) has passed before our own eyes, in the insistent image of the Stadium of Death, which is the Arena of Taymore's Shakespeare-mediated Senecan spectacle, are themselves - like their representative, Lavinia, - mute witnesses to the scenes relentlessly paraded before us in that Circus of Horror, which signifies nothing less than the very Orbit that circumscribes this World of Suffering.
Having discovered so much contemporary - that is to say, eternal, - sense in the ancient spectacle of Senecan tragedy - the smallest symbolic details of the poetic language of which are brilliantly transferred into the film's visual imagery, and consistently re-worked in the retro-modern, comic-book pastiche of the Savagery that was Ancient Rome - , Julie Taymor achieves the unnervingly sublime poetry of excess and horror better than perhaps any creative intelligence since Thomas Lovell Beddoes, or Ken Russell - even proving a match for old Seneca himself.
Having discovered so much contemporary - that is to say, eternal, - sense in the ancient spectacle of Senecan tragedy - the smallest symbolic details of the poetic language of which are brilliantly transferred into the film's visual imagery, and consistently re-worked in the retro-modern, comic-book pastiche of the Savagery that was Ancient Rome - , Julie Taymor achieves the unnervingly sublime poetry of excess and horror better than perhaps any creative intelligence since Thomas Lovell Beddoes, or Ken Russell - even proving a match for old Seneca himself.
The filmmaker, Julie Taymor, offers a very personal vision of the play as a synthesis of different times: Roman ruins and (Roman-like) modern buildings as settings, hybrid costumes, modern special effects and old-fashioned theatrical gadgets.
Her adaptation of Shakespeare's bloodiest and lesser tragedy,Titus Andronicus has pushed Shakespearean film to another level.
The acting and adaptation was first-rate, but I think the real talent in this production came through Taymor's outstanding and fully realized vision of Shakespeare's darkest play..
This lastest film incarnation of Shakespeare's play is a visually stylistic melange of anachronistic historical juxtapositions of timeless themes of violent human passions; revenge, lust,euthanasia, ambition, loyalty,infanticide,racism,and vendetta.The film exploits the classic scenic grandeur of modern day Rome and it's surrounding countryside, and mixes it with Fellini-like sets that recall "Satryricon".They create a surreal and jazzy backdrop for the Bard's plot and lines, making the telling as fresh as modern day headlines.The performances are engrossing and seemingly effortless even when over the top.It brings Shakespeare into the age of "The Matrix" with sleek flowing leather costumes and freeze frame effects.
Julie Taymor brings a very beautifully stunning adaptation of Shakespeare's worst play.
You will be missing a great film that has great performances, a good story and some very original ideas about how to stage a Shakespeare play for the screen..
Unfortunately, it is emotionally demanding and he has said that this will most likely be his last performance of Shakespeare.The supporting cast is good also, particularly the actor who plays Aaron.
Whether or not "Titus Andronicus" was Shakespeare's first play, it is still captivating.
The acting is pretty excellent - the people in this movie obviously have a very strong grip on Shakespeare and show it.Thankfully, the storyline here in "Titus" stays extremely close to the original story.
Now, I have absolutely no problem with placing a Shakespeare play in different periods of time, but "Titus" really stumbles with its mixture.
What a strange confection this movie turned out to be.Usually I'm eager applaud all attempts to bring Shakespeare, plus his dialogue, into the modern age, but then usually his plays were good!
It is unmissable, the manic and enormous Hopkins unleashed, in fact fast forward to that scene, you'll miss nothing important from the story.If this is to be the definitive modern version of Titus Andronicus, it's true, the play was always as awful as everybody said it was..
The fact that it has Shakespeare as a source and Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange in it may fool some people into thinking it is an "art" film.
I'm not well-versed in Shakespeare and I've never read "Titus Andronicus," but I enjoyed this film immensely.
I would think you either make a movie according to the original play and with the intended settings or you fully adapt it into modern times, by updating the dialogues and expressions but keeping the storyline.
Shakespeare's plays, like those of all great world masters, are intemporal stories involving the same emotions modern people have.
Hopkins gives the expected powerful performance in this adaptation of Shakespeare's final play.
Although Titus is not a perfect film, at times it is too stagy, as if Taymor forgot at points that she was suppossed to be directing a movie and not a play, in the end the strong and daring voice of the director shines through..
Julie Taymor brings her avant-garde theater background to this stylistic, time-bending adaptation of Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus", a lesser regarded, more lurid, violent play, not rarely performed today.