|
New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.
Home | Archive | About | Blog | Lists | Links | E-mail me | Sign up for my weekly newsletter! | The Woman in Black *** The Grey *** Man on a Ledge *** Underworld Awakening ** Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos *** Haywire *** Beauty and the Beast **** Contraband *** The Divide * Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy **** The Devil Inside ** The Iron Lady ** A Separation *** Pariah ***1/2 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close *** The Darkest Hour ** War Horse **1/2 In the Land of Blood and Honey ** The Adventures of Tintin ***1/2 More Dream House Drive Frida The Magnificent Ambersons Malcolm X The Mill and the Cross The Moment of Truth Outrage The Piano The Thing To Kill a Mockingbird 2011: The Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays More Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards Interview: Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender Interview: Simon Curtis Interview: Werner Herzog Interview: John Cho Interview: Roland Emmerich Interview: Stephen Bishop on Moneyball Interview: Nick Swardson Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson Interview: Lone Scherfig Interview: Jesse Eisenberg & Aziz Ansari Interview: Wayne Wang Interview: Andre Ovredal on 'Trollhunter' Interview: Ewan McGregor & Mike Mills Interview: Kelly Reichardt (Examiner link) The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival - 2011 Coverage Interview: Emma Roberts Rainn Wilson & James Gunn (Examiner link) Interview: Tom McCarthy Interview: Abigail Breslin (Examiner link) 2010: The Year's Best Films 2010: The Year's Best DVDs & Blu-Rays Interview: Sofia Coppola Interview: George A. Romero The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009 My Top 100 Films [Updated] My Top 60 Directors [Updated] Christmas Movies Essential Halloween & Horror Movies Cult Movies Actress Interview Gallery More Features and Interviews Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis More Books Reviews A-C Reviews D-F Reviews G-J Reviews K-M Reviews N-Q Reviews R-T Reviews U-Z The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!
© 1997-2012 Combustible Celluloid |
Titus (1999)Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4) Brushing Up ShakespeareBy Jeffrey M. Anderson
Written and directed by Julie Taymor, and based on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Titus is a combination of the best of both worlds. It's a huge, seemingly important work, but it takes a cue from Welles or Kenneth Branagh and adds a wicked grin to the proceedings. The plot is quite complex, as nearly every character tries to deceive every other character in some way. As simply as possible, Anthony Hopkins stars as Titus Andronicus, a general who has recently returned from the crusades against the Goths. He has brought back with him four Goth prisoners; Tamora, the Goth Queen (Jessica Lange), her illicit lover, the evil and slippery Aaron the Moor (Harry Lennix), and Tamora's two squealing frat-boy sons (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Raz Degan). Through a misjudgment on the part of Titus (not his last), Tamora finds herself empress of Rome alongside emperor Saturninus (Alan Cumming), and from her new perch of power vows secret revenge upon Rome and everyone in it. Director Taymor, who helmed the mighty Broadway productions of The Lion King and Titus Andronicus, has an eye for hugeness, color, staging, and motion. Taymor takes all her cues from the play and includes all the graphic violence that Shakespeare originally dreamed up for his characters. Lavinia has her hands and tongue cut off by Tamora's vengeful sons, and twigs and branches stuck into her empty wrist sockets. Titus cuts off his own hand because he thinks it will save his two sons. There's a scene in which Titus' hand (and his two sons' heads) are delivered back to him and Taymor puts the gory items inside a sort of musical circus wagon, complete with a little girl who puts out chairs for the lucky spectators. The whole movie is this unhinged and imaginative. Not to mention the bloodbath of a climax in which, among other things, Titus cuts Tamora's sons' throats, drains their blood, and bakes it into a pie, which he serves to the emperor and empress. Taymor's achievement is doubled when one realizes that Titus Andronicus is not really one of Shakespeare's more well-regarded plays. Indeed, Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare's more clueless characters. He continually makes the wrong decisions, allows himself to be duped, kills his own son, and does not seem to mourn a whit for his "20 sons" killed in battle. On the other hand, Titus contains one of Shakespeare's most vicious villains, Aaron the Moor. He's so nasty that from atop the gallows he delivers a hair-raising speech of such evil and horror that even the foul Iago would quiver in fright. The play was written early in Shakespeare's career, and it relies heavily on exploitation elements. But so does the cinema, which makes Titus a worthy film. The press notes and certain other reviews I've read try to ascertain how and why Titus is a "relevant" film for our times, which is ridiculous. Any great work of art is always timeless and always timely. Taymor inserts a fascinating prologue and epilogue in her movie, which, without giving anything away, seem to be saying the same thing that Saving Private Ryan tried to say: "war is bad." But Titus says it more effectively. There are no heroes here and no one to look up to. We get the message, spelled out in bloody red. Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Angus Macfadyen |
| Home |
New Movies |
New DVDs & Blu-Ray |
Features |
News |
Search Reviews |
Classic Movies |
Film Books |
Gallery |
Links |
About |
Contact |