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Minotaur (film)

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Minotaur
DVD cover of Minotaur
Directed byJonathan English
Written byNick Green
Stephen McDool
Produced byJonathan English
StarringTom Hardy
Tony Todd
Rutger Hauer
Ingrid Pitt
CinematographyNic Morris
Edited byEddie Hamilton
Music byMartin Todsharow
Distributed byLions Gate
Release dates
March 11, 2006 (United States)
May 11, 2006 (Russia)
July 26, 2006 (Germany)
Running time
93 min.
CountriesTemplate:FilmUK
Template:FilmLuxembourg
Template:FilmGermany
Template:FilmFrance
Template:FilmSpain
Template:FilmItaly
Template:FilmUS
LanguageEnglish
Budget$7,000,000 (US)

Minotaur is a 2006 horror film, directed by Jonathan English. It stars Tom Hardy, Tony Todd, Ingrid Pitt and Rutger Hauer. It was filmed in Luxembourg.

Plot

Long ago in the Iron Age a shadow loomed over a lonely village of Thens. For every three years, eight village youths are stolen from their families to the capital of the Minos Empire and placed in the underground labyrinth to be a sacrifice to the Minotaur, the Minoan god. Theo, haunted by the loss of his love, Fion, in an earlier sacrifice, is convinced that the beast is not a deity and that his love still lives within the labyrinth. His father Cyrnan, the village leader, tries to reason with Theo not to go but Theo is driven by blind rage and made his way in with seven other youths to be sacrificial lambs. However, Theo intends to kill the Minotaur. Along with his fellow captives, Tyro, Danu, Vena, Morna, Didi, Ziko and Cyrnan, they are placed in the labyrinth by King Deucalion, with the youths slaugthered one by one by the Minotaur. However, Theo is aided by Deucalion's voluptuous sister, Queen Raphaella, who reveals that her mother gave herself to the most disturbing actions to create a living god, the Minotaur. As the Minotaur grows, so does its appetite when it murdered Deucalion's brother, resulting with the human sacrifices to appense the Minotaur while ensuring Minos's survival.

Theo along the way discovers the labyrinth is connected to an underground vent and Tyro tempts the Minotaur to crash into one of the vents, but is unsuccessful, as the Minotaur eats him alive. Theo then tempts the Minotaur and in the process, the Minotaur breaks his left horn, but continues to charge after Theo. As Theo runs back towards the enlarged vent, he scratches the walls and generates a spark that ignites the whole labyrinth, and dives into a pond of water where Raphaella was waiting for him. They emerge from the water as the flames die out, but the beast is still alive and attempts to charge at them again. Theo takes the horn out of the rubble from where the vent was, and just as the beast attempts to kill him, stabs the Minotaur through the mouth and continues on charging until it hits a collapsed rock formation which impales the horn through the Minotaur's head and finally kills it. Once out, they find Deucalion near death from the explosions decimating the palace as Raphaella smothers him to death, ending the cycle of fantaism and starting a new age.

The beast of the film

Though resembling the classic myth version when born, the Minotaur looks very similar to a gigantic skeletal bull covered in human skin with huge horns. The Minotaur is covered in cobwebs from being in the labyrinth and is also a very fast runner.

Deviations from Classical Mythology

There are several major changes that were made in this story as opposed to the original legend. In the myth, the king was Minos himself (Deucalion being the name of another mythological character), who had been married to the queen who gave birth to the beast; this had been the consequence of a divine curse, while the gods play no part of import in the movie. Theo, the protagonist of the film and based on Theseus (a demi-god, rather than a humble shepherd), had no interest in killing the Minotaur at first. Furthermore, the king's sister in the film, is in fact his daughter Ariadne in the legend, and he does not show any signs of wanting sexual relations with her in the original text. The daughter also gives Theseus a golden string to help him navigate the maze, as well as a sword to kill the Minotaur. Finally, at the end of the story Theseus is given the hand of Minos' daughter as a sign of goodwill and thanks for killing the beast. That and Minos is not killed in a huge explosion, as depicted in the film (the concept of explosions was unknown at the time).

Cast

See also

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