Titus Review
by Frankie Paiva (swpstke AT aol DOT com)February 28th, 2000
Titus
rated R
162 minutes
Fox Searchlight
starring Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, and Colm Feore written and directed by Julie Taymor
from the play by William Shakespeare
There are some people who absolutely cannot understand Shakespeare. You either fully grasp what is going on, you kind of get the picture, or you don't know what the heck is going on. Unfortunately, I am a member of the third group. The language in these type of films loses me completely, and while I was somewhat able to identify the situations and main storylines for this film, it would be lying if I didn't say I had several problems understanding the film and it's message. (If it had one). It's a pretty bad thing to lose your audience for 162 minutes, even those who do know what's going on. But with the way this film sets itself up, and the time period (if there actually is one) they are supposed to be in makes it even more confusing for the common moviegoer.
Titus (Hopkins, who just can't seem to find good roles for himself) has returned from battle and is faced with Tamora, (Lange) a mother of three sons one day in his courtroom. He orders Tamora's oldest son killed, much to her pleads of mercy. At some type of political election days later the charismatic Saturninis (Cumming) revs up the crowd with a promising speech and pronounces himself king (or something of the sort) in front of Titus. He plans to marry Titus's only daughter, Lavinia. But refuses Saturninis's advances, and runs off with the man she truly loves. So he must seek another bride. Tamora, feeling the need for revenge for the death of her son, is willing to be wed.
And that's about where it all went downhill for me. Apparently Tamora is sleeping with a black guard/prophet/something with weird marks on his face. When they are discovered making out in the forest, by Lavinia and her lover, Tamora's two remaining sons kill the man that Lavinia loved and Tamora tells them to do what they'd like with her. They cut off both of her hands and tongue and replace her former hands with branches. It is then that the games begin, it's Titus vs. Saturninis and Tamora.
It has been a constant thing in films for as long as I can remember to worry more about the look of the film, then the script of the film itself. It's never been more apparent here. Director Taymor (who also directs the hit Broadway version of The Lion King) packs her film so full of visual style that sometimes it's too much to take. The film is up for a Best Costume Oscar, which it rightly deserves. But there isn't much else going for this picture. The film begins with a boy playing with action figures in his kitchen and suddenly turns into a battleground for Titus's soldiers. The film seems to go in and out of different periods of time. It's also very MTV for a Shakespeare play. While I'm told this is one of his very early works, and probably the most mediocre of his plays, I still doubt that Chrion and Demetrius (Tamora's sons) would listen to rock music, hump the air whenever they dance, play pool, or suddenly turn into rape and death, revenge's partners in a scheme to get Titus killed. (Don't ask). And another thing, could someone please explain to me why the kid playing with the action figures in the beginning of the film suddenly gets bigger, becomes Titus's assistant, and starts speaking Shakespeare?
The marketing for this film happens is extremely misleading. The posters depict the film as some type of historical saga with battles and a love story. In fact, the trailer does this too. Do not be fooled. It was exactly the opposite of what I was lead to believe. My major complaint in the film though, didn't need any understanding at all. The entire picture was so horrifically violent, and full of so many sexual images, that I'm surprised that the MPAA let it go with an R rating. There's nudity from every single member of the main cast, sometimes you just see a character's butt, other times it's full frontal nudity. Even though the film's dark subject, revenge, does deal with death and pain, I really doubt the film needed to show a midnight orgy between countless amounts of men and women. Since I didn't have a watch to keep checking, I must have thought at least one hundred times, "When is this going to end?!" The only other noteworthy thing here is an extremely strange type of ode to Hannibal Lecter, Hopkins famous character from The Silence of the Lambs near the end, but by then you'll probably just be wondering how much more of this you will have to endure. Where did everyone find such an array of weapons? Why don't people die when their hands are cut off? When is this supposed to take place? Why were they using plastic? Don't ask these questions, this film won't answer them.
D-
Frankie Paiva
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http://www.homestead.com/CinemaParadise/mainpage.html
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