Titus

Released 1999
Stars Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Colm Feore, James Frain, Laura Fraser, Harry J. Lennix, Angus MacFadyen, Matthew Rhys, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
Directed by Julie Taymor
Reviewed May, 30, 2002

What a bold directorial debut from Julie Taymor, as she reinterprets her stage version of Shakespeare's play to the screen. It's hard to believe this is her feature-film debut. I would think you'd want to start with a small movie to get your feet wet. Instead, she started with the most reviled play from the greatest writer ever and was able to cast one of the best actors of all time, Anthony Hopkins. She didn't even stop there. She adapted the screenplay from Shakespeare's text and chose to not confine the story to ancient rome. In a precursor to Moulin Rouge, she mixed ancient Rome with the modern world, where anything could be used and incorporated into the story. We see chariots with shotguns in the same scene. She imposed no limits on herself, and it's very successful. I'm sure it helped that she had previously directed the stage production of the play, but she took tremendous risks.

The movie opens with a young boy playing with his action figures, which include Roman soldiers, at the kitchen table. He starts to use food to create a battle for the figures until it escalates into a violent mess. While this was happening all I could think of was the Red Hot Chili Peppers' title, "Blood Sugar Sex Magik." Why did Taymor open the film this way? What does it mean? It's very disorienting, but I think she wants to let us know right from the start that she will be toying with the audience just as Shakespeare toys with the characters.

This film is not for everyone. It's full of stylized, symbolic bold images and contains many atrocities, most of which are thankfully off-camera. Also, I think it's clear that it's Shakespeare's weakest tragedy, because it's rather shallow and contains several plot contrivances. Still, shallow for the Bard is deeper than most anything else. In all tragedies, you have to ask what was the fatal flaw of the hero. What trait caused him to generate his own downfall? In the case of Titus, it was his need to strictly follow the rules, whether they were his sense of duty, the rituals of war, or his allegiance to his emporer. His fatal mistake was not putting humanity above ritual when he refused to heed Tamora's pleas for her son. Other mistakes followed, but it was that one mistake that brought about his downfall.

Titus is an intense story with a lot of savagery and gore, but it also contains black humor to lighten the load. In filming this, Taymor had to decide how to balance the two. If the entire play were filmed, it would probably be about four hours, without including her own additions. In the end she pared it down to 160 minutes, which are pretty tight. In doing the trimming, she had to decide when she thought Shakespeare was winking at the audience, and when she thought she could include a wink without breaking the tone. She kept the tone solemn, but she used enough sly winks to keep the drama from becoming farcical. Whenever you have the main character's daughter be attacked and lose her chastity, tongue and hands, you need something to bring you back from the brink. You need an Aaron to revel in his devilish soliloquies so you can take it less seriously. Taymor was able to balance all of the elements of the film beautifully, and she's created what should be the definitive film version of Titus for quite some time.

Reviewed by Bill Alward
May 30, 2002
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