Whether this makes for an eyeful or an eyesore depends on your tastes.
Titus (1999)
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Reviews Counted:74
Fresh:50
Rotten:24
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: The movie stretches too long to be entertaining despite a strong cast.
Runtime: 2 hrs 42 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis:
Based on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (one of the Bard's lesser-known and most gruesome works), director Taymor (Broadway's The Lion King) brings this adaptation to life with dazzling imagery and...
Based on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (one of the Bard's lesser-known and most gruesome works), director Taymor (Broadway's The Lion King) brings this adaptation to life with dazzling imagery and haunting immediacy.
Titus (Hopkins) is a victorious Roman general who makes two mistakes: supporting the wily Saturninus (Cumming) as the new Emperor, and wronging Tamora, Queen of the Goths (Lange), by killing her eldest son. Murder follows murder as the tides of fate change, as Tamora is aided by her two reckless sons and her Moor lover, Aaron (Lennix). The body count is raised higher and higher until Titus finally holds a very special dinner banquet.
Taymor's bold visual sense verges on absurdity, but her sense of morality, as well as powerful acting by Hopkins and company, combine to tell a powerful, violent tale.
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Harry J. Lennix, Alan Cumming
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Harry J. Lennix, Alan Cumming, Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Laura Fraser, Angus MacFadyen, Colm Feore, James Frain, Blake Ritson
Director: Julie Taymor
Director: Julie Taymor
Screenwriter: Julie Taymor
Story: William Shakespeare
Producer: Conchita Airoldi, Julie Taymor, Jody Patton
Composer: Elliot Goldenthal
Reviews for Titus
Anyone criticizing the gruesome bloodlust of modern Hollywood might do well to ponder the body count in this play...
Eager to allow Shakespeare's words to shine through as clearly as possible, Taymor shoots the dialogue scenes fairly straight, with a minimum of background action.
Lacks the subtlety and subtext to make the story really work on screen.
Taymor has succeeded only in creating a great - and interminable - filmic mess.
Looks like a jumble sale featuring the work of other directors and artists.
Many will experience this all as a mere assault on the senses, outrage for the mere sake of outrage and, for all its intellectual posturing, pretty dumb overall.
While (Taymor's) film version isn't exactly a solemn spectacle, neither is it much fun.
It's like a bad Fellini parody on steroids -- and it's two hours and 42 minutes long.
At once mesmerizing and jarring to the point that the audience can never get comfortable in the film.
Latest News for Titus
February 04, 2005:
Julie Taymor to Direct Musical
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