Titus (1999)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

"Titus Andronicus" is objectively a terrible mess of a play, and it's a good reminder to anyone that Shakespeare was not all great, nor was he always well-received. It's his first major tragedy, and it shows; it's a disaster, with little to redeem or recommend it. Similarly, this film is a disaster, with little to redeem or recommend it.Taymor is an unquestionably talented and skilled artist, but she had not come fully enough into her own style and ability while doing this film. Excellent actors like Jessica Lange and Anthony Hopkins are wasted in directionless roles that are clumsily moved from one point to another, and very little connects anything into coherency of any kind. The movie comes off mainly as extremely self-indulgent, full of things that only Taymor wanted to see, and nothing much else. It smacks of a vanity project, making it all the easier to resent due to the waste of great actors. At its best, it comes off as clunky, aping Peter Greenaway's vastly superior work on his adaptation Prospero's Books.The thing about Greenaway is that even in an adaptation of a simple enough play of Shakespeare's, he managed to bring a different perspective and vast sensory engagement. Taymor, here, shuffles through an intolerably bad play and brings nothing at all novel to the table, but every part of the production acts like it's something never before seen. Even Reign: The Conqueror was a far better production along these same fundamental storytelling lines, bringing so much new and engaging even if elements of its story were not particularly good. Closer to the material, Derek Jarman's take on "The Tempest" also brought modern elements and accessibility to an aged work and proved that Shakespeare could still be daring and even avant-garde, hundreds of years later.It's unimaginable that anyone could really enjoy this, especially as it vastly overstays its welcome at an over-two-hours running time. None of the characters are sympathetic, and the only slightest charm brought to any of the proceedings comes from the actors...neither direction nor script contribute much of anything to the proceedings. Frankly, starting off with an obnoxious modern child and clashing with the pseudo-historical setting of the story was a massive mistake. Don't cultivate resistance from your audience straight off the bat, not in "Titus Andronicus" -- they're going to hate the characters and the story anyway, and irritating them from minute one is a poor choice.It's admirable to have the ambition that this adaptation takes. It's just that Taymor is only ambitious enough to tackle the project, not enough to actually do anything with it. Her anachronistic touches are lazy and don't work most of the time, as well as taking away what little meaning the play originally had with its specific context. She's simultaneously too married to the play and not attached enough to it, in favor of what she imagines is a dazzling artistic message. The problem here is that most people never experience "Titus Andronicus", and that's because it's one of Shakespeare's absolute worst: cartoonish, clumsy, laughable, and a base attempt to crowd-please. But she never manages to bother making the story accessible to an audience likely to be unfamiliar with it, made even more difficult by literally none of the characters being written sympathetically or even interestingly. It's every bit as poor in her presentation, because even the best actors can't pull something out of so much nothing. It's still hilariously bad, even in its most dramatic, tragic moments, and it's not a joke people are missing the humor of or a tremendous wit: it's just a poorly-written play that fails in everything it sets out to do.The production overall suffers, as no version of this I could find had any decent sound to it. Lines are mumbled and drowned out in parts, blathered incomprehensibly in others. The soundtrack dwarfs everything else sometimes, and at other times it barely registers. Whoever was responsible for sound, I hope they've learned how to do actual sound production since 1999. Likewise, costumes are as easy to criticize as any of Taymor's well-known work: they're either lazy and boring or ridiculous and impractical, but not in an engaging enough manner to forgive them. They all also scream "costume", no matter what the scene or character.If you want to watch a good Shakespeare-inspired film, watch Prospero's Books. If you want to watch Taymor do Shakespeare well, watch her version of The Tempest. If you want to watch a good, straightforward adaptation of Shakespeare, watch the Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet. But under no circumstances should you watch Titus. It will cure you of your delusions about Shakespeare's greatness and, if you have any affection for the actors involved, depress or anger you with the resentment of someone doing nothing so much as wasting their time. It's a waste of these actors' time, and it's a waste of the viewers' time. And that, especially in art or entertainment, is unforgivable.

Titus, a Roman general (played by Anthony Hopkins), finds his world falling apart around him when a scorned enemy, Tamora (Jessica Lange) gains the power to exact revenge against him. At his lowest point Titus begins to plan his own even more terrible revenge against Tamora who shows no sign of stopping her tormenting him.The story, set in a timeless almost fantasy like Rome, is more gruesome than Hamlet (1996), another Shakespeare film with a theme based on revenge. Tamora's revenge is terrible and is aimed mostly at Titus' family. She has two of Titus' sons framed and executed for murder and his daughter raped, her hands and tongue cut off because as he says "He that wounded her hath hurt me more than had he killed me dead." She also has Titus cut his own hand off in the false hope that his two sons will be spared. There is a lot of focus on children and family in the use of revenge and Titus' revenge is no different, he serves Tamora her own two sons baked into a pie, which she eats in front of him and seems to enjoy.Julie Taymor uses dramatic costumes to help portray the personalities of the characters the costumes are all a mix of Classical, Elizabethan, and the more modern World War Two German uniforms. Particularly interesting is Saturnus' (Allan Cumming) costumes. Most of his costumes have features from World War Two Germany and his hair cut is an exaggerated version of Hitler's, he wears the effeminate make up of men from the 1920's the whole effect portraying him as a sniveling but vengeful and dangerous dictator.The use of symbolism is also strong throughout the movie. One notable scene is just after Tamora has pleaded to Saturnus of Titus' innocence. She pauses to look at Titus and the image of flames arise between them, then the burning limbs of a statue representing the limbs of her first born son that Titus had cut off and burned and finally a statue's torso bearing the same mark as Titus used to mark her son. This gives Tymora reason to hate Titus and plan her revenge. Another good use of symbolism is the scene where Lavinia, Titus' daughter relives her rape. Tamora's two sons represented as tigers pounce on Lavinia wearing a white dress that is blowing up reminiscent of the famous Marylin Monroe scene from The Seven Year Itch (1955). This moment is where Titus likewise begins to plan his revenge.Revenge is best served cold but the characters that indulge in terrible revenge in this movie all wind up dead, consumed by the destructive nature of their sense of justice.

Past films have shown us a number of ways of adapting Shakespeare to film: keeping the original dialogue or adapting it for modern consumption. "Titus" does the former, but that's the only way that this film can be associated with any other efforts to bring Shakespeare's work to the screen. Some film's, like Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" keep the traditional 15th century setting, while others, such as Tim Blake Nelson's "O" elect to tell the story in a more contemporary setting. Julie Taymor's "Titus" does neither. Taymor mixes a number of different settings, blends it all together, and runs it on overdrive. The result is some sort of deranged nightmare that could only have come from the lady who stunned Broadway audiences with her daring and bizarre vision of "The Lion King." Anyone who's seen that has only a little idea of what to expect.Describing the plot of "Titus" takes some time, and in doing so I will give away some of the surprises. Let me just say that this is a bloody and twisted tale of murder and revenge, a story that only Shakespeare himself could have come up with.The acting isn't just good, it's OUTSTANDING! It is so rare these days to see a film with a really good performance, but when every single performance is Oscar-worthy, it is a film that must be seen.Anthony Hopkins is the modern-day Laurence Olivier; no one can do Shakespeare in the movies like he can. Titus is a bombastic man who becomes bitterly vengeful against those who have wronged him. Hopkins tackles the character with relish, and he's a sight to see. From the soliloquies to the bouts of rage, Hopkins never ceases to amaze. His nemesis, Tamora, is ably played by Jessica Lange. She wants revenge against Titus for killing her son, and no act of villainy is beyond her capacity. Titus is about to find out what happens when you cross her, and it ain't a pretty sight. However, the one who really pulls the strings in this bloody drama is not Tamora, but her lover, Aaron (Harry Lennix). Aaron is pure evil, and he relishes in it. Lennix radiates this malevolence, and brings to life what has to be one of Shakespeare's most vicious creations. Alan Cumming brings his usual bizarre antics to the Emperor Saturninus. Cumming is known for his off-the-wall characters, and that suits the character well. However, Cumming does not take Saturninus over-the-top, which is to the film's benefit. Colm Feore is good as Marcus, Titus' brother, and Laura Fraser exudes innocence as Lavinia. Angus MacFayden is terrific as Titus' son, Lucius. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Matthew Rhys are fun to watch as Demetrius and Chiron, Tamora's stupid and sadistic sons.Taymor lifts the dialogue right from Shakespeare's original script. In order to enjoy "Titus," it is crucial to have an affinity for the language. Anyone who doesn't like reading Shakespeare or seeing his plays would probably want to avoid this one.A full-length production of one of Shakespeare's plays lasts a good three or four hours, so at 2:42, it is obvious that in adapting the play, Taymor cut a lot out. The result is a very streamlined version of the play (which I have not read), but it is for the most part perfectly coherent.Speaking of Taymor, her vision of the play must be mentioned. The only director that I can think of that nears her imagination is Tarsem (The Cell, The Fall). Tarsem's a little more out there, but Taymor is not far behind. Bold, bizarre, and visually arresting, Taymor never lets this film become boring. However, her handling of the material is not flawless. The dream sequences are not well-integrated (in fact, they could have been left out entirely), and the last scenes are poorly handled."Titus" gets a hearty recommendation, and is a must-see for any Shakespeare buff.Note: Taymor was forced to make cuts to the film's orgy scene, but not any of the violence. Apparently, sex and nudity are still taboo with the MPAA, even if it is historically accurate (and was more than mentioned 600 years ago), but violence of any kind still gets the "A-OK." There's nothing here that earns such a restrictive rating. Actually, most of the violence is merely mentioned, and not shown. Had the film gotten a PG-13 rating, you would not hear a complaint from me.

After watching Julie Taymor's screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Titus, I can now understand why so many people feel alienated and baffled by Shakespeare's excellent plays and why in many cases they believe them to be the province of a pretentious pseudo intellectual elite. For myself, having read the play several times, but never fortunate enough to see it, I was disappointed to see this stunning play sullied by gimmicks delivered without tasteful discretion. Surely the Bard's brilliance speaks for itself? However, yet again I'm bearing witness to a production where the directorial decisions appear to be serving personal ego rather than gifted artistic integrity.The context of the play is ancient Rome, yet the viewer is treated to a hotchpotch of clumsy visions filched from various time periods, to name but one example stylised Roman Legionaries - impressive in themselves – but then motorbikes and cars! Whatever happened to the beauty of straightforward, clear simplicity? Shakespeare was a genius, remembered and admired to this day because of the universality of his themes, brilliance of his characterisations and his awesome way with words. Scarily, Julie Taymor thinks she's better than him - or perhaps she know's she's not and is simply creating a smokescreen. The soundtrack frequently drowns out speeches; obviously what the characters are saying is not as important as Julie Taymor's crass visuals! Imagine the crassness of Lavinia (raped and mutilated off-stage) by psychedelic tigers. I'm torn between saying "Emperor's New Clothes" and just plain embarrassing.However it is the misdirection of the actors that is my main gripe and the film's major flaw. With the exception of Anthony Hopkins and James Frain who valiantly bring a degree of sincerity and believability to their performances, the film is rife with overacting, incoherent gabling and in many cases amateurish performances – Jessica Lange, Matthew Rhys and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers are particularly culpable - the unfortunate product of an untalented director and actors who are for the most part out of their depth and have no idea what they are talking about! A wasted opportunity and a crime that is all too frequently committed!