Titus

Rating:
Summary: Stunning visual adaptation of a classic
Review: For those who don't yet appreciate Shakespeare, this makes a fine introduction. The dialogue may require several viewings to fully comprehend, but that merely indicates the quality and depth of the play. What will sweep you away, however, is the fantastic nature of the cinematography. Movie fans who may not have a single Shakespearean(sp?) work in thier collection will want to give this piece serious consideration on visual merits alone (in widescreen only, of course:).

Rating:
Summary: Visually Stunning - An Artistic Masterpiece
Review: This DVD Rocks!! I wasn't at all familiar with the story or even sure that I would like the Shakespeare genre but this production is truly magnificent. The story contains interesting characters, plot twists, and its share of graphic gore which pushes the limits of what you can endure. This depiction is similar to some of David Lynch's works in that it tugs at your emotions from all directions. Julie Tamor and her staff did a wonderful job giving the movie a unique look and each shot has a real theatrical style. Good movies are all about taking you to a different world, and this one really accomplishes that! The costumes should be nominated for an academy award because they are so incredibly unique. The acting is superb, expecially Anthony Hopkins and Alan Cumming....Highly recommend this to fans of theater and people who love visually stunning productions.

Rating:
Summary: unconventional beauty
Review: This is one incredible film. Through out the nearly three hour duration this film spans I did not move from my seat. My expectations of this film were torn down with in the first five minutes (which is a good thing). This off the wall visual spin on a lacluster play is pure genius. Buy it now. I f you have a taste for Shakespear and the absurd you will enjoy. If youre a theatre snob who hates to see the desecration of timeless work, then youre missing out on half the fun that is William Shakespear.

Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare meets theatre of the absurd
Review: I don't mind it when Shakespeare plays are adapted to locales and time periods different from those that Shakespeare wrote for them. So long as the are tastefully done, that is all well and good. After all, one of the best features of Shakespeare drama is the timelessness of his plays; they depict human nature today with as much veracity as they did in Elizabethen England.

However, I draw the line at renditions of Shakespeare such as this one. The film is full of anachronisms of ancient Rome blended with the milieu of modern day technology. The production has an overall 1920s style feel to it, with all sorts of Nazi images mixed in. This combination makes for a rather incoherent and nonsensical movie.

Make no mistake, however, this is a very well done film (for what it is). Julie Taymor is a remarkable director and the movie is full of superb acting (Anthony Hopkins' perfomance stands out - as usual). It is also filled with lavish sets, all of them wonderfully designed.

I suppose the bottom line, for me, is that I would very much like to overhear a conversation taken on between Sam Beckett and one William Shakespeare. However, I don't believe that even they would dream of attempting to merge their diverse styles into a hybrid. That, I'm afraid, is the task this project endeavors to undertake. I don't like it.

Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare Smothered
Review: There is no horror in this Titus, only decor. Like a good post-modernist, Taymor concentrates on production design rather than drama, on sets and costumes rather than character and conflict, on things rather than people. The result is a surfeit of window-dressing: cluttered yet empty, overstuffed yet dull.

Having the talent and instincts of a puppeteer, Taymor is unable to evoke strong acting from human beings. Anthony Hopkins rants and murmurs (and then murmurs and rants) without once achieving significant emotion; Jessica Lange delivers her customary skim-milk performance; Harry Lennix' Aaron picks his way uneasily through the language like an amateur; Colm Feore (Canada's idea of a major classical actor) does nothing with his apostrophe to Lavinia; and Alan Cumming is not persuasive as a heterosexual.

One hundred years ago, the Victorian theater smothered Shakespeare in arid pictorialism. This approach has long since been discredited but has now made a bizarre come-back, thanks to Taymor, Serban, Noble and other interior decorators masquerading as humanists. This isn't progress: it's regression.

Rating:
Summary: Beauty so disturbing, so real, so dream-like
Review: I bought this movie for the only reason that Alan Cumming was in it. I did not know that I would watch it repeatedly, each time getting that same, tingiling feeling of disturbance and utter beauty. When I realized that Julie Taymor had directed the film I automatically knew that it would be an extravagant and extremely well acted motion picture...which, in turn, it was. many people believe that the modern/ancient Roman/surrealism of it all defeats the purpose of it being Shakespearian anyway, but I found that it added (if not improved) the entire story. The soldiers fight with automatic guns, the women wear full metal bodices and the emporers drive around in antibellum classic cars. It is not so "modern" as to ruin the story -or even distract- but to compare and contrast the human flaws felt even today. Murder, rape and revenge. These are the three evils faced throught the motion picture. TITUS is uniqe because it dosen't just have a protagonist and antagonist like so many other films today. It shows that although you may be living the story through the "good-guy's" eyes, the "good-guy" still does a lot of really bad things. The actors of TITUS are equally stirring. From the war torn Titus (Anthony Hopkins) we see that war, blood thirst and pain will drive one mad. From the sexpot Tamora (Jessica Lange) we observe a mother trying to survive no matter what. From the innocent Lavinia (Laura Frasier) we witness the brutal rape and nightmarish mauling of a loyal daughter and loving wife. And of course from the extremely vain, over-dressed Saturninus (the AMAZINGLY sexy Alan Cumming) we find that placing power in the wrong hands is like tripping down a flight of stairs with an unpinned grenade. In conclution, TITUS stayed with me long after I first saw it. Between the disturbing imagery of severed hands repalced by twigs, the revolt of subdued cannabalism and the awe of such a masterful work from such a mutilating story.

Shakespear never had it this good.

Rating:
Summary: The best treatment of Shakespeare yet
Review: Titus is not terribly well known among Shakespeare's other plays, and I can certainly see that it could be a pretty distasteful, dull play if not done correctly. That being said, this movie is incredible. I honestly believe it's the best movie production of Shakespeare that I have seen. Truly amazing, visually incredible and outstanding acting by the entire cast. Don't miss this one. Filled with violence, but done so artfully, that while you feel pummeled by what is happening, you are enthralled by how it is presented.

Rating:
Summary: What film ought to be...
Review: It is when a story is torn from its expected context that the mind is forced to let go of the notion that it knows anything. With a rediscovered openness, one is then ready to participate in a powerful story.

Taymor's color palette, her sets--ancient Roman ruins and the facist part of Rome (the EUR)--the anachronisms, Elizabethan dialogue, the graphic violence, all combine to tell a story that feels very much like ancient Rome.

And a good story it is. Irreverent pride, hard heartedness, revenge, lust, love, grief and terrible suffering. Reviewers say that Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare's earlier and not best tragedies. I'm not one to judge. But the film is riveting. My wife is an Ally MacBeal fan and she stayed for the entire film (missing the first Ally episode of the year). Neither of us left our seats or paused the play button on our VCR (the film only played in one theatre in NYC in our area and we couldn't get to it).

Hopkins and Lange were outstanding. The actor who played the moor (I don't recall his name unfortunately) was powerful as well. I am writing this review because I am purchasing the DVD version of this film.

I highly recommend it. Just put aside 3 hours and make sure you are well rested before pressing the play button.

Rating:
Summary: this summer's feel good movie!
Review: The fact that Titus Andronicus was Shakespeare's first tragedy, and that he hadn't quite achieved the 'knack' for the genre aside-- I was shaking when this movie was over. The movie left me with a feeling that took a good two weeks to brush off. The set design, the acting, and the gore (Oh, my God the gore!) just took it out of me. I have no idea how anyone could watch this movie and not be affected.

Rating:
Summary: Mythic and visceral...
Review: As a play, "Titus Andronicus" is not the best of Shakespeare's works. It's an early piece. It's violent. It's relentless in its downward spiral. Nevertheless, one can see elements in it that Shakespeare would use later - existential dilemas, outcast Moors (he really had a thing against Moors, didn't he?), honor, pride, treason, madness, questions of lineage and heritage, among others. These elements are in such proliferation here that it's difficult to talk about them. Later plays explore these themes much more thoroughly because each play has fewer themes to think about.

As a movie TITUS is an amazing piece. The acting is superb - especially from Hopkins, Lange (but is that really surprising?) and Fraser (whose Lavinia is stunningly beautiful, strong and tragic). Taymor's visuals are fascinating - I'd be tempted to compare them to Peter Greenaway's, but Taymor's are more accesible, though they share a sort of ecclecticism.

Yes, you've seen more blood and guts in other movies. Yes, they still speak in complicated iambic pentameter. Yes, the plot is murky and slow at times... but these are all part of the experience of TITUS. Even the slow parts reveal much about these characters if one is paying attention.

All in all, this movie was an experience I would not have foregone for anything. Very worth a viewing, but make sure you're not in too good a mood when you watch it. Your mood could sour quickly.