Rating: 
Summary: Good film, great dvd
Review: I bought this disc without having seen the movie because I figured, hey, Shakespeare, Anthony Hopkins, an inexpensive 2dvd set-it's worth taking a chance! Well I am most certainly glad I did. Julie Taymor's adaption of "Titus Andronicus" is a spectacle of theatrics, brilliant acting coupled with stunning photography and a deft amount of wit. A story of crime, punishment, and most importantly, revenge, the play is generally considered the least of Shakespeare's works (although I'd take it over one of his banal comedies any day) but it stands as one of the strongest film adaptions of the Bard's work I have seen. Hopkins plays the title role with all the elgance we've come to expect from one of our greatest living actors, but it's clearly an ensemble. Every actor here gets his or her moment to shine, including a surprisingly strong Jessica Lange and the scene-stealing Henry Lennix. His performance is brilliant as the embodiment of evil in that he doesn't sneer and brood and cackle with devilish laughter but rather delivers his lines with eloquence-he's charming,intelligent and TOTALLY unrepentant. Some contrivances in the plot do occasionally hinder the screenplay, as do some of the anachorisms; at times they're brilliantly symbolic and at other moments just distracting. But it all adds up to a very powerful film that is TRUE tragedy in the sense that there is no moral to the story. If you purchase the dvd, be sure and check out the feature loaded second disc, including a wonderful Q&A session with the director as well as a enjoyable hour long "making of" documentary.
Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful and Haunting Debut
Review: Julie Taymor, of Broadway's "Lion King" fame, creates a dazzling surreal anachronistic fantasy world with her feature film directorial debut. "Titus" (lately, "Titus Andronicus,") though thought to be Shakespeare's worst play, is a beautiful symphony of distruction, murder, deception, seduction, rape, and cannibalism...at least it becomes so under Taymor's careful direction. The choreographed opening scene of marching soldiers weary from battle in the middle of the collesium sets the tone for a very unlikely brilliant piece of film. Alongside armored soldiers on horseback, people ride down the street in automobiles of various periods. A jazz band accompanies the new young emperor's wedding night orgy. And two young Gothic barbarians in furs trade in their furs for leather and video games. This movie is beautiful, intelligent, and above all unexpected. You can't help but like Aaron the Moor, who prides himself on his villany. Even the queens young sons you can't help but find fascinating, despite their rape of Titus' young daughter Lavinia. Anthony Hopkins, as always, is brilliant in the title role of Titus. A man dedicated to his country and his emperor and upholds duty above all else...even willing to risk his daughter's unhappiness by consenting to her marriage to the young corrupt emperor Saturninus. Saturninus however eventually marries Titus' captive Gothic queen, played with true sinister brutality by the unrepentantly sexy Jessica Lange. One of her sons you might even recognize from the movie "Velvet Goldmine." Saturninus is played by the always talented and sexually enigmatic Alan Cumming who seems to take great pleasure in imitating more politicians than you could shake a stick at. But hands down the show is stolen by Henry Lennix, playing the evil Aaron, the queens trusted friend and consort. Aaron never apologized for all the pain he has inflicted or his evil ways...he revels in them. The ending is not unexpected considering most Shakespearian tragedies...but I won't ruin the finer points. Suffice it to say, my personal favorite scene involves the queens two sons, Lavinia, and some twigs put to some very interesting use...this scene sticks with you long after the movie has ended...as beautiful and haunting as it is horrifying.
Rating:
Summary: the blue color of revenge
Review: I had never heard of the Shakespeare play "Titus Andronicus" before and I was walking through a video rental place when I saw Anthony Hopkin's face on the cover of the Titus DVD, so I decided to rent it. I was in no way prepared for the world of madness I was about to enter. Truly the Pulp Fiction of its day, this film is wrought with violence, beheadings, dismemberments, rape, tongue and eye gouging, blood in large volume and fear. Often times, it's what you don't see that scares you, and even though this film is in-your-face grotesque in many scenes, the unknown that is coming up next is even more scary. This is not a pick-me-up, feel-good moving watching experience. If you or a loved one has been raped (statistics say this is a 1 in 3 reality in the U.S.), this is not a film you want to see... nor if you or someone you love has had a child murdered. Even the most stoic, iron-stomached individual cannot steele themselves for the visual assault on the screen. This Shakespeare adaptation appears to take place in the 1930s - big microphones, gangster cars, but still Roman architecture, Shakespeare's original script, and Titus is still wearing his Roman regalia. It is a truly surreal experience. The film is in color, but there is a murky blue look to everything - fleshtones are realistically pink, but sometimes blood looks black, and the music will make every hair on your body stand at attention. The acting is superb and the story is a chilling one of revenge, murder, rape, betrayal and self mutilation to the ultimate extreme. Not for those with weak constitutions or for expectant mothers. It's truly hard to believe that a woman directed this blood bath, but she did an exquisite job. While I don't recommend that everyone see the film, I can tell you that the visuals will stay with you forever. There is a surreal, yet almost super-real quality to the scenes. With the carrying on that people are doing over the "Passion of the Christ" being too violent, I wonder where all the violence protesters were when this film was released... much less how it got away with an R rating. Fans of Hopkins will not be disappointed, the whole cast delivers in horrific form.
Rating: 
Summary: A disaster
Review: Despite the extremely positive reviews regarding Titus, I found the movie to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I would not recommend it to anyone. I was attracted to the movie because I enjoy Shakespeare, historical dramas, and the great acting of Anthony Hopkins. But this movie--what were they thinking? There is one word to describe this movie: ugly. Shakespeare's theme are ugly, the cinematography is ugly, the costumes are ugly. The best movies with dark themes can be redeeming if they reveal imbedded truths of humanity. This one fails miserably. It is a long depressing ride. Even worse than rollerball. Some reviewers appreciate the mixture of the modern and Roman costumes. I also enjoyed the mix, but within ten minutes the novelty wore off. What I was left with was a movie with an extreme focus on novelties and the visual impression, but a senseless story meandering in pointlessness. To waste time or not waste time? That is the question when considering investing your time in this movie.
Rating:
Summary: My new appreciation for Shakespeare
Review: Blood, sex, gore, rape, mutilation, wild orgies. Shakespeare? You realize this isn't going to be a standard Shakespeare adaptation when only 15 minutes into the film, you see a modern boy messing up his whole dinner table and action figures with ketchup, male full frontal nuditity, and someone's guts sizzling in a sacrificial flame. Surprisingly, Julie Taymore's adaptation doesn't stray too far from the original Shakespeare tragedy, 'Titus Andronicus' although it may seem like that because it's so damn entertaining. What brings Titus truly alive and makes it comprehendable from a modern standpoint is that each scene contains elements from separate time periods- architecture, cars, and guns from Fascist Europe; pool tables, arcade games, and heavy metal from the MTV age, swing music and Chaplin-ey dark makeup from the roaring 20's, and old, clanky military costumes from ancient Rome, the time period in which the original play was set. Titus follows an ensemble cast, Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Laura Fraser, Angus McFayden, Colm Feore, Alan Cumming, Jonathon Rhys-Meyers, and the standout Harry Lennix through a cold and bloody revenge spree started when Roman general, Titus (Hopkins) returns from war and sacrifices Gothic Queen Tamora's (Lange) eldest son for religious purposes. Soon after, Tamora vows revenge and marries the bufoonish emperor Saturnius (Cumming), sends her two obnoxious sons off to brutally rape and mutilate Titus's virginal daughter Lavinia (Fraser- in what's sure to be one of the most harrowing scenes in film history) and has Titus cut off his own right hand in vain. Everything about this is horrible. But it's directed with such a furious zeal for the material that each scene plays like Scream- in poetry. Indeed Titus is much closer to a modern horror movie than any Shakespeare adaptation in sight. And believe it or not there is a message behind Titus. A message that speaks volumes about violence, and directly reflects back on our culture. The way violence can either be passed on generation through generation. The way cruelty backfires. And the constant reprucussions because of one violent, maybe even righteous act. If Taymore supplies the entertainment, Shakespeare supplies the meaning.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping gore
Review: Shakespeare scholars routinely dismiss Titus Andronicus as the Bard's "worst" play. History shows he wrote it as a potboiler designed to fill the Globe Theatre with Elizabethan fans of sex and violence. Julie Taymor has thrown in the rock 'n' roll element, turning this so-called "worst" play into a fever dream of epic proportions. It's both horrifying and beautiful. The players in this film are fighting for power, be it political, personal or in the bedroom. The play is set in ancient Rome but the landscape of this film turns the setting into a strange mix of past, present and futuristic. There's elements of A Clockwork Orange to the violence, and Anthony Hopkins, in the title role, takes a few satirical jabs at his Hannibal Lechter performances. Industrial music fills the soundtrack, surreal dreams play out before your eyes, we tour ancient catacombs, a Mussolini-era building gives the underlying fascist elements a real punch. Performances are uniformly excellent, as characters engage in an unrelenting melee of betrayal, revenge and human depravity at it's most despicable (and most sensuous too!) For those unschooled in Shakespearean language, the plot is pretty easy to follow. Try turning on the subtitle function of your DVD if you need a little help following the plot. Gore fans won't be dissappointed. The bloodletting and cannibalism genre didn't start with Herschell Gordon Lewis, as Titus proves time and again.
Rating:
Summary: Titus : the conceptual seed in Shakespeare's tragedies
Review: Titus Andronicus was always a powerful challenge for any director. Even, literally , this work has been often missunderstood. The young Shakespeare, still in his twenties , was just developing in this play, the future.
But what it's worth to state is the glorius stage the employement of a outstanding color effects to introduces us into the film.
The opening sequence in what we watch a child playing with toys a simple game like the war and the violence in a domestic and secure kitchen , inside a home placed surely in a protected neighborhood, and suddenly this child , like everybody of us are sent to the Roman Coliseum in just a second, since now it belongs to the story of the cinema.
The dazzling marche of the roman soldiers is spelling. And Titus emerging from the shadows with his twenty four died son, plus Hopkins giving that amazing speech make that film (with the wonderful exception of Touch of Evil (Orson Welles))be the overwheelming introduction fifteen minutes in many years in any other film of any genre.
I know this statement may be surprise to many people, but I think Anthony Hopkins has never been so comfortable in any past role. He is surrounded by his natural environment, like the shakeperian universe. And maybe Hopkins has never been so extraordinary well in any of his performing and powerful roles.I mean, we are talking about one of the three best world actors.
From the opening to the end Hopkins and Jessica Lange go ahead all the rest of the cast. And this is the primal strength and perhaps his its only sign of weakness.
Who can deny the no restiction violence in this play? And what's the trouble with it? That's precisely what the greek wanted when you went to a teatral play. It's what it has benn called the cathartic state. And believe or not, Julie Taymor could make it.
That's his the most relevant aspect to remark. All along the film you are in the presence of the most incredible feelings of revenge, cruelty, greed, ambition, betrayal, hunger of power and murder.
If you are able to say yes to the Shakespeare mood , come in to the movie. But if you still want to see just violence as simple entertaining , forget that film.
This work has another great virtue: Taymor made an adaptation which links brilliantly, past and present, because the clue is just to make us see that that story is not a horror tale in the perverse mind of a famous genius. We clearly can identify many characters and traslating without too much effort to the actual age.
This film is a ravishing gaze to the sordid but real facts that the human being, under certain circunstances may reach.
Don't miss this picture. Forget all the negative reviews you may listen or read. Experience by yourself this tragedy. Not only you'll be able to identify in Lavina a famous femenine character in his future works, but also another.
And consider it from now a classical movie.
Rating:
Summary: Titus (2000) d: Taymor, Julie
Review: Titus Andronicus is arguably the most complicated play ever penned by the great William Shakespeare. It is also one of the darkest and most violent plays, filled with shocking scenes, and obscene human behavior. Using the original old English, this movie mixes things up a little using outrageous situations, and brilliant visual touches of ancient Rome, fascist Italy, and a coke-a-cola post everything media assault. The new emperor played by Alan Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Cumming marries a vengeful queen (played by a sometimes topless Jessica Lange) who has two vicious punk rock sons who torment Roman warrior Titus (played by Anthony Hopkins). In scenes comparable to Silence of the Lambs (1991), Titus seems to lose his mind after his two sons are decapitated and his daughter is raped, she has her tongue cut out and her hands chopped off. Revenge soon follows in a cannibalistic dinner served to the guilty, 'a la Theatre of Blood (1973) with Vincent Price. The DVD contains many extras. A excellent film with something to offer both young and old alike. Not only is it hard to believe the depths the movie delves into, but even more incredible is that this epic picture by Julie (Lion King) Taymor is a directorial debut. Impressive first try..., we can't wait to see another.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful and Haunting Debut
Review: Julie Taymor, of Broadway's "Lion King" fame, creates a dazzling surreal anachronistic fantasy world with her feature film directorial debut. "Titus" (lately, "Titus Andronicus,") though thought to be Shakespeare's worst play, is a beautiful symphony of distruction, murder, deception, seduction, rape, and cannibalism...at least it becomes so under Taymor's careful direction. The choreographed opening scene of marching soldiers weary from battle in the middle of the collesium sets the tone for a very unlikely brilliant piece of film. Alongside armored soldiers on horseback, people ride down the street in automobiles of various periods. A jazz band accompanies the new young emperor's wedding night orgy. And two young Gothic barbarians in furs trade in their furs for leather and video games. This movie is beautiful, intelligent, and above all unexpected. You can't help but like Aaron the Moor, who prides himself on his villany. Even the queens young sons you can't help but find fascinating, despite their rape of Titus' young daughter Lavinia. Anthony Hopkins, as always, is brilliant in the title role of Titus. A man dedicated to his country and his emperor and upholds duty above all else...even willing to risk his daughter's unhappiness by consenting to her marriage to the young corrupt emperor Saturninus. Saturninus however eventually marries Titus' captive Gothic queen, played with true sinister brutality by the unrepentantly sexy Jessica Lange. One of her sons you might even recognize from the movie "Velvet Goldmine." Saturninus is played by the always talented and sexually enigmatic Alan Cumming who seems to take great pleasure in imitating more politicians than you could shake a stick at. But hands down the show is stolen by Henry Lennix, playing the evil Aaron, the queens trusted friend and consort. Aaron never apologized for all the pain he has inflicted or his evil ways...he revels in them. The ending is not unexpected considering most Shakespearian tragedies...but I won't ruin the finer points. Suffice it to say, my personal favorite scene involves the queens two sons, Lavinia, and some twigs put to some very interesting use...this scene sticks with you long after the movie has ended...as beautiful and haunting as it is horrifying.
Rating:
Summary: Taymor adapts vengeance and its consequences...
Review: Titus is based on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, which is an extremely bloody and terrifying tale of vengeance and its consequences. The cinematic adaptation that Julie Taymor wrote is set in a Roman Empire-like environment with crossings of ancient and modern as the mise-en-scene displays cars as well as tanks with soldiers in ancient armor. This creates a link between then and now, which could suggest that the displayed horror is timeless and possible even today. Taymor creates exaggerations in this cinematic environment with brilliant cinematography, grand directing, and mise-en-scene that amplify the abstract atmosphere as it elevates the unnatural doings of Titus Andronicus (Anthony Hopkins), Tamora (Jessica Lange), and Saturninus (Alan Cumming) among others. The Shakespearian violence that Taymor presents serves as the means to an end as the story plunges into a dark realm that most do not wish to visit, but must contemplate as it could have devastating effects on all.
The film opens with a scene where a young Lucius is sitting at the kitchen table, with a brown paper bag over his head, eating dinner while sadistically tearing the heads of his warrior dolls while violently smashing the items on the table and pouring ketchup over the "killed" dolls. This is followed by an explosion where Lucius dives bawling to the floor for protection. Lucius is a clear resemblance of his father Titus in the opening shot. The rest of the film is a carnival of hideous acts and morbid behavior that alll falls around Titus with a domino effect trigged by one wrong decision. Despite the distressing elements of Titus, the film offers a brilliant cinematic experience that devours the audience as it supplies several subplots and themes, which the audience should ponder under the light of human compassion and the word "consequences".
|
