Titus (film)

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Titus
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Julie Taymor
Produced by	Conchita Airoldi
Written by	William Shakespeare (play) Julie Taymor (script)
Starring	Anthony Hopkins Jessica Lange Alan Cumming Harry Lennix Angus Macfadyen
Music by	Elliot Goldenthal
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox
Release date(s)	26 December 1999
Running time	162 min.
Country	Italy  United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million

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.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Background and production 3 Cast 4 Soundtrack 5 Reception 6 Misc. 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Background and production

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.

”

^[3]

The film was shot at Cinecittà, Rome and on location at the EUR in Rome, Pula, Croatia and Tampa, Florida.

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).

In the film's dinner scene, Hopkins mimics the characteristic delivery of the three great British theatrical knights, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier.^[4]

[edit] Cast

• 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
• Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Chiron, one of Tamora's sons.
• Matthew Rhys as Demetrius, one of Tamora's sons.
• 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.
• Kenny Doughty as Quintus, one of Titus' sons.
• Blake Ritson as Mutius, one of Titus' sons.
• Colin Wells as Martius, another of Titus' sons.
• Raz Degan as Alarbus, Tamora's eldest son who is sacrificed, setting the drama into gear, at the beginning.

[edit] Soundtrack

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.

[edit] 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]}

[edit] Misc.

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (February 2009)

• 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]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• An in-depth review from the British Film Institute
• Titus at the Internet Movie Database
• Lucius, the Severely Flawed Redeemer of Titus Andronicus, by Anthony Brian Taylor