Main Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Harry J. Lennix, Colm Feore, Angus MacFadyen, James Frain
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 162 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
One of William Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, Titus Andronicus was staged in New York by award-winning theatrical director Julie Taymor in an acclaimed 1995 production, before her widely praised Broadway version of The Lion King. Taymor revisits that production for her first motion picture, with the addition of a star-studded cast. Roman General Titus Andronicus (Anthony Hopkins) has returned from defeating the Goths in a bloody battle, but the victory has left him with mixed feelings, as the war took the lives of several of his sons. Titus is reminded by his first-born son Lucius (Angus Macfadyen) that their faith demands the sacrifice of an enemy prisoner as a gift to the gods for their victory. Titus chooses the eldest son of Tamora (Jessica Lange), the Queen of the Goths, who has since been taken hostage by Titus's troops. Tamora pleads for her son's life, but Titus goes ahead with the sacrifice. She then becomes the lover of the new emperor of Rome, Saturninus (Alan Cumming), a weak-willed and corrupt man. Tamora uses her connection to the throne for her own ends: in retaliation for the death of her son, Tamora and her surviving sons, Chiron (Jonathan Rhys Myers) and Demetrius (Matthew Rhys), brutally rape Titus's beloved daughter, Lavinia (Laura Fraser). This act sets in motion an ever-tightening spiral of revenge and retaliation that leaves few of the participants unscathed. The supporting cast includes Colm Feore as Marcus, Harry Lennix as Aaron, and James Frain as Bassianus. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Best known for her groundbreaking costume design on Broadway's The Lion King, Julie Taymor brings equally arresting visuals to Titus, her take on William Shakespeare's bloody tragedy Titus Andronicus. In her directorial debut, Taymor displays a bag of tricks one might expect from a seasoned auteur, making for a grand, lush production that feels very much of the moment. Starting with the blue war paint smeared on Anthony Hopkins' face, Taymor splashes color throughout locales that better resemble a timeless fantasy world than ancient Rome, such that the film pulses with life. Taymor even uses the freeze-and-spin camera effect popularized by The Matrix during the film's violent denouement -- yet another of many indicators that the play's themes are divorced from a specific place and time. She doesn't shy away from the extreme bloodiness of the play, which scholars consider one of Shakespeare's weakest, perhaps because the excessive murders, rapes, and tortures aren't redeemed by memorable dialogue. It's not always an easy film to watch -- near the play's end, two characters are butchered and served in a meat pie -- and it's definitely not appropriate for children. Less an exercise in interpreting a play than bringing a painting to life, Titus is worth seeing not only for its visual sense, but for typically strong performances from Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Angus MacFadyen, and particularly Harry Lennix, who seethes hauntingly as the villain Aaron. It also marks a splashy debut from a director who proves herself master of multiple media. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Titus is a 1999 film adaptation of Shakespeare's revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus, about the downfall of a Roman general. It was the first film of the play (aside from TV productions). The film was made by Overseas Filmgroup and Clear Blue Sky Productions and released by 20th Century Fox. It was the directorial debut of Julie Taymor who co-produced and wrote the screenplay. It was produced by Jody Patton, Conchita Airoldi and executive produced by Paul G. Allen.
Director Julie Taymor took Shakespeare's script, added various linking scenes without dialogue (while cutting some of the text) and set the play in an anachronistic fantasy world that uses locations, costumes and imagery from many periods of history, including Ancient Rome and Mussolini's Italy. The opening scenes commence with a heavily choreographed triumphal march of the Roman troops, complete with motorcycle outriders. The selection of music is similarly diverse.[1]
Apart from the deliberate anachronisms, the film follows the play quite closely. One of the experimental concepts in the film was that the character of Young Lucius (Titus' grandson) is initially introduced as a boy from the present who finds himself transported to the fantastical reality of the film. At the beginning of the film his toy soldiers turn into Titus' Roman army. At the end, when Titus' son Lucius avenges his father by condemning the villainous Aaron to a painful death, the boy takes pity on Aaron's infant son. It is debatable whether the original play had such a positive ending, since some critics regard Lucius as a "severely flawed redeemer": Lucius was keen to lynch Aaron's baby, while his insistence on human sacrifice started the cycle of violence in the first place.[2]
“
Give us the proudest prisoner of the Goths, That we may hew his limbs, and on a pile AD MANES FRATRUM sacrifice his flesh. -Lucius.
Although the film did not do well at the box office, it was praised for its visual effects and design. It is, so far, the only theatrical film based on a Shakespeare play in which Hopkins plays the leading role (he played Claudius in the 1969 version of Hamlet, as well as the title role in a BBC production of Othello).
Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus, victorious Roman General who declines a nomination for Emperor upon his return to Rome. Following a post-war ritual of executing the proudest warrior of his enemy, the vanquished Goths, Titus draws the ire of Tamora, unaware of her inevitable appointment as the Queen of Rome.
Jessica Lange as Tamora, defeated Queen of the Goths, who swears revenge against Titus and the Andronicus family for the atrocities visited upon her eldest son, an executed prisoner of war, using her newly-claimed powers as Queen of Rome
James Frain as Bassianus, one of the deceased emperors sons and brother to Saturninus.
Laura Fraser as Lavinia, daughter of Titus and fiancee of Bassianus
Harry Lennix as Aaron, servant and illicit lover to Tamora, and the chief architect of her vengeful plans against the Andronicus family
Alan Cumming as Saturninus, brother to Bassianus and newly-crowned Emperor of Rome. Spurned by his attempts at claiming Lavinia as his new bride, he forsakes the Andronicus family and turns instead to Tamora as his new bride.
Colm Feore as Marcus Andronicus, Roman Senator and staunch ally of his brother, the ailing Titus.
Osheen Jones as Young Lucius, Titus' grandson and a key-character in the sense that he observes most of the key events.
Angus Macfadyen as Lucius, Titus's eldest son and loyal soldier. Following his failed attempts at freeing his condemned brothers, Lucius is banished from Rome and defects to the Goths, where he rallies a sizeable army to challenge Saturninus.
The score to the film was created by Taymor's long-time friend and partner Elliot Goldenthal and is a typical Goldenthal soundtrack with an epic, inventive and dissonant feel.
Reception
The film was generally well-received. As of February 2008, it has a 67 percent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes with other various newspaper (including "Critics Pick" by the New York Times), magazine ( by Empire) and BBC website reviews being fairly positive.[5][6][7][8]
In the bath scene, the wall behind the soldiers, from which the water flows, is a copy of the Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker.
The microphone on the podium during the election scene near the beginning of the movie has the call letters "SPQR" on it. SPQR stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, which is Latin for "The Senate and People of Rome." The letters were used as a sigil for Rome (as a republic as well as the later empire), the abbreviation "SPQR" can still be seen in many parts of Rome to this day.
Saturninus' and Bassianus' banners, and animal symbols, show the colours of the two roman football teams: Saturninus' red and gold and the wolf for A.S. Roma , Bassianus' azure and white and the eagle for S.S. Lazio[4]
