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Titus [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Starring: Osheen Jones, Dario D'Ambrosi, Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Raz Degan
Director: Julie Taymor
Format: Anamorphic Closed-captioned Colour Dolby DVD-Video Special Edition Widescreen NTSC
Released: 15 Aug 2000
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Why is it Shakespeare's worst play? - By: , 23 Nov 2004
Having studied Shakespeare for as long as I remember, & having read through the entire corpus, give or take one or two of the comedies, I find it hard to understand why so many people unquestioningly judge this to be the worst of Shakespeare's plays. The rhetoric is fascinating - Tamora's manipulation of natural imagery for her own lustful purposes in Act II.iii, sits alongside Titus' ethereal joy in the forest as a life-giving force in one of the most subtle & satisfying inversions in drama. The disintegration of Roman civilisation is alllied to the descent of one man into madness with devastating effect. The rape of Lavinia is painfully - but hopefully - depicted. All this in the original. This stunning adaptation is one of the finest that I have seen. The Dionysian vitality of its cast - without exception - is fascinating alongside the dry, rather embarassed RSC productions of recent years, in which the sole purpose seems to be a race to see who can get through their quota of lines fastest. I loved this adaptation, & rate it as one of the most fascinating & original that I have seen. It has the ability to shock. Seeing Lavinia with twigs for arms & blood pouring from her mouth made my heart skip. This is not Shakespeare's worst play, & nobody need be embarassed by it. Indeed, it is one of the finest examples of Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy, portrayed here with vigour & enthusiasm, not to mention a sense of originality that puts my faith back into modern film-making.
Julie Taymor's directorial debut of the Bard's weakest play - By: Lawrance M. Bernabo, 11 Jan 2004
The fault with "Titus" is basicallly the original play by William Shakespeare. "Titus Andronicus" was his first & clearly the least of the Bard's tragedies. It is also the bloodiest, in which a series of ghastly mutilations is but prelude to the slaughter of the principles in the final scene. In that regard the end is similar to "Hamlet" & "King Lear," but without the artistry or the more developed sense of tragedy. What artistry is present in this 2000 film comes from first time film director Julie Taymor, who has done a theatrical performance of "Titus Andronicus," but who is best known as the Tony award winning director of "The Lion King."

Taymor claims this story with the title sequence of the film, in which the Roman general Titus Andronicus (Anthony Hopkins) returns to Rome after his victorious campaign against the Goths. His soldiers, in full armor & blue mud, march into the coliesium in a grandly stylized & totallly arresting manner, bearing the bodies of Andronicus' twenty one dead sons along with his four living ones. Among the captives brought to Rome are the Queen of the Goths, Tamora (Jessica Lange) & her three sons, the oldest of which is sacrificed (drawn & quartered, for starters). Tamora vows revegne against Andronicus & his family, & the story heads towards its bloody conclusion.

My single memory of the play, reinforced by a photography of a stage performance with Laurence Olivier & Vivien Leigh, was of the fate of Lavinia, the daughter of Titus, who is raped & then has her tongue cut out & her hands amputed by her assailants. Later in the play, holding a stick with the stumps of her arms, she is able to scratch out in the dirt the crime committed against her & the names of her rapists. However, this is put one horrible aspect of the larger tale. If this is not the most depressing Shakespeare play it is simply because we have little sympathy for the title character, who gives over the crown, the empire, & his family to Saturninus (Alan Cumming), who might end up being short of Caligula on the crazed Roman emperor scale, but is definitely heading in that direction.

Listening to Hopkins declaim Shakespeare is a joy, but his casting for this particular role becomes problematic at the end when comparisons to Hannibal Lecter become unavoidable (alll due to Shakespeare's play more so than anything the actor or director bring to the proceedings). For me the troublesome bit of casting is Cummings, because alllowing him to become emperor is just such a bad move. At least Lear with his stupid divide the kingdom in thirds nonsense thought it over. Titus refuses the crown & tosses it to Saturninus, only to be stunned when things go bad in a hurry. He then compounds this mistake with a series of others ending in the bloodbath at the end.

Ultimately it is Taymor's creative way of dealing with the text andthe problems it presents, that makes "Titus" worth watching for students of Shakespeare. To put it in the same context as Ian McKellan's "Richard III," misses the mark, for there is more here than changing the period in which the story is told. There are stronger similarities to Baz Lurhmann's "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet," but Taymor's stylistic excess goes far beyond that production as well. I am sure there will be those who take issue with her choices, but you have to respect the ambitious effort to dress up the shortcomings of this play into something more palatable. In "Titus Andronicus" there is reallly nothing to be learned, & few who see the play once are every inclined to see it again.

This is one of those DVDs where the extras earn the fifth star for the rating. No doubt it is Julie Taymor's theater background that explains the depth of the commentary track that she provides (there is also an interview on the second disc), but in this regard at least she puts every director who shows up for such things are mumbles a few anecdotes about making the movie to shame. When you see what Taymor has done with the least of Shakespeare's tragedies, you have to be intrigued by what she might be able to accomplish with one of the classics.

taymore does the bard - By: Medea Dingo, 08 Dec 2003
this is an intelligent & imaginative adaptation of Shakespeare's early tragedy, titus. personallly, as a classical theatre director, i am naturallly bias towards the stage as the place to experience what makes shakespeare the genius that it is fully: however,taymore's signature, her imaginative & humanly accomplishable design (she is also a designer) is always evident in her work, this being no exception, it is a pleasure to read the visual elements. one of britian's finest classical actors, anthony hopkins as titus, brings to the role what one would expect from an actor of his caliber. equallly, alan cumming gives a strong performance as Saturninus & is matched by Lang as Tamora. Often, this tragedy is dismissed as being one of the lesser plays in the canon - it does not have the complexity of Hamlet, that is true: & in a way this is the strength of the work for film, a medium that cannot capture the dymanic that the more complex plays have in live performance: it does however, grip us, & is a nicely journeyed tragedy in taymore's adaptation. if you are the kind of shakespeare fan who likes to appraise the work by reading along with the text on your knee (a director's nightmare!) forget it: taymore has sliced & diced the text, but in an intelligent way that does not jar. alll in alll, this is an imaginative postmodern kind of number, & i for one would say its worth a watch.
Unexpectedly Memorable, But Not Entirely Successful - By: Gary F. Taylor, 11 Nov 2003
TITUS ANDRONICUS is perhaps the least regarded of Shakespeare's plays, & there are several reasons. Written early in his career, it shows little of the brilliant language we associate with Shakespeare's work; moreover, the plot is extremely derivative & so extravagant as to be virtuallly unbelievable, owing a great deal to both Roman "closet drama" & the "revenge tragedy" popular at the start of Shakespeare's career. At best, most critics regard it as developmental; at worst, a virtuallly unperformable mishmash of spurting blood & grotesque comedy.

The plot is notoriously bloody. Titus Andronicus has returned to Rome after successfully subduing the Goths, & he brings with him Tamora, Queen of the Goths, & her three sons as prisoners. Upon his arrival, & in spite of Tamora's pleas for mercy, he sacrifices Tamora's oldest son--but when Tamora's charms cause the newly crowned emperor Saturnius to crown her as empress, Tamora & her Moorish lover Aaron plot to destroy Andronicus for his refusal to show mercy to her oldest son. And the revenge they wreck is horrific indeed, as is the revenge Andronicus seeks against them in return. Before the story ends, we've seen rape, limbs lopped off, tongues plucked out, & two heads baked in a pie.

Given the outrageous nature of the story & the very loosely constructed plot & script, it shouldn't be a surprise that director Julie Taymor's film is not entirely successful. What IS surprising is that TITUS is as successful as it is. Coming from a remarkably strong theatrical background, Taymor follows suit with the script, giving it the most extravagant visual & highly theatrical style her limited budget will alllow. When it works, it works extremely well; when it fails, which is fairly often, it is at least visuallly interesting.

Although I found that Anthony Hopkins' performance in the title role left something to be desired, he is at worst rock solid; this aside, the overalll cast is amazingly good, with the major laurels going to Jessica Lange as the evil Tamora & Harry J. Lennix as her doubly evil lover-slave Aaron; Alan Cumming also makes a vivid impression as the weak-minded & ineffectual Emperor Saturnius, as does Laura Fraser as Titus' hapless daughter Lavinia.

But as previously noted, the great attraction here is the look of the thing. In terms of the script itself, Taymor is very faithful to the original--but in order to bolster its weaknesses she transposes the story to a collage-like never-never land that includes elements of ancient Rome, the roaring 20s, set pieces that would seem lifted from the notorious film CALIGULA, & fascist Italy. There are moments when the effect is flatly awkward--the first few opening minutes of the film being a case in point. But for the most part, Taymor's stylistic vision is quite remarkable, & while you may not care for the basic vision it remarkably done nonetheless.

For myself, I did not particularly expect to enjoy this film, but even though I was extremely critical of some of Taymor's ideas I found myself watching it straight through from beginning to end. Although the DVD version does not seem to be widely available in the UK, it is worth noting that the DVD edition contains a number of excellent bonuses that will help the uninitiated grasp Taymor's intent more fully.

Those most likely to enjoy the film are people with a strong interest in theatre, design, & art films with an extreme edge; for them it will probably be a "must own." At the same time, however, I do not put it entirely out of bounds for more casual viewers, for there is much to recommend it--but I would also suggest they watch it before making a purchase.

Gruesome and spectacular - By: Mr. L. O. G. Owen, 24 Mar 2002
There are two ways of dealing with "Lesser Shakespeare". That is to say, there are two ways of dealing with the less famous, arguably less good, Shakespeare plays.

One is to produce it apologeticallly. To essentiallly say "Hi. Yeah. This is a Shakespeare play. It's not very good, but it's Shakespeare, so it must have *some* value, right? Sorry if you don't like it. We don't much, either".

The other is to embrace the play for alll it's worth & try to squeeze every last drop out of what it has to offer. And such, it would seem, is the ethic of Julie Taymor.

Visuallly, "Titus" is superb & the casting is practicallly perfect. To rattle off a whole host of celebrities: Anthony Hopkins gives a world-weary battle-hardened eloquence to the title role, Jessica Lange is energetic & wonderfully evil as Tamora, Lennix plays Aaron with vigour & enthusiasm, Angus MacFadyen portrays Lucius superbly as the noble young soldier, Alan Cumming plays Saturninus with alll the camp insanity befitting the part, Laura Fraser plays the part of Lavinia with exact distress & emotion the part needs and, in doing so, proves that she can actuallly act (which came as something of a surprise), James Frain does well as Bassianus, & Colm Feore, frequently overlooked in reviews, is superb as the noble brother of Titus, Marcus.

Sadly, Demetrius & particularly Chiron, played by Matthew Rhys & Jonathan Rhys-Meyers respectively, are less good. Rhys-Meyers seems to have only a vague impression of what his lines actuallly mean, & thus his interpretation of the part is not great.

The text is fairly heavily abridged, but so few people are familiar with the original text that Taymor easily gets away with it.

On the whole though, this is a reallly quite spectacular movie. The interpretation, an abstract merging of modern day objects (motorbikes, guns et cetera) with Roman objects (swords, temples et cetera) works very well. Taymor's choice to embrace the weirdness rather than tone it down to make it more realistic is what makes this movie so brilliant.

I look forward to seeing how the Royal Shakespeare Company handles the play.