Titus (Widescreen)

Don't remember this if and when it came to theatres but this was an amazing movie! I love Shakespeare and this was one of the best interpretations of any of his plays, I have ever seen . The scenery, costumes, and music are a marvelous dance of time periods, quite surprising, but well suited to the action. Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lang give outstanding performances as do all the other actors. The bonus features and interviews with the director are just as facinating.

I only takes a little while to get into the swing of Shakespeare's English and Julie Taymor does an exceptional job of helping the audience understand. This timeless story of revenge and it's consequences has us actually cheering for Titus even as he turns barbaric.

I would recommend this to all. Even if you are not a big fan of Shakespeare, this may make one of you.

Every once in a while, a movie comes along which you feel was made just for you. I can understand why a lot of people might not like this film, but for certain people I think it might be just what they were looking for.

Taymor's production, instead of trying to somehow mitigate the remorseless violence and moral vacuum which characterized the much-maligned play, intentionally plays it up. The garishness of the plot is complimented by the garishness of the anachronistic costumes, the elaborate staging and the delerious, overdramatic acting. It gets right to the heart of what a revenge drama is, and what value can be found in Andronicus just as a pure visceral experience. A lot of great performances, and the images are brilliant. My only complaint is, given the pacing of a modern film, it's difficult to hear and understand all of the dialogue sometimes, since none of it was 'updated' from the original Shakespearean. Given the stylized nature of everything else, maybe some of the dialogue should have been simplified.

Writing this now, comparisons to Kill Bill are inevitable, and, while it can't quite claim to reach that pedestal, and lacks the ultimatley morally redeeming value of the complete KB, I recommend it to fans of the KB pt. 1 as a similiar experience.

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".