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Reviews
Titus (1999)
What is wrong with Hollywood?
This film is a huge commercial bomb, and rightly so. According to VARIETY, it grossed less than 2 million before being released on DVD. It will likely never recoup anywhere near its expense, and as an overblown, pretentious distortion of the brilliant play upon which it is based, it unfairly besmirches the public's perception of TITUS ANDRONICUS. Taymor's silly approach to interpretation, Anthony Hopkins' bored cue-card reading delivery and the offensive sissy-fication of key characters all contribute to the depth of this homage to puerile nonsense. Taymor's artsy overindulgences are inappropriate and distracting to any attempt to follow the author's intent... By author, I mean Shakespeare, not Taymor (who credits herself as writer and is, of course, no Shakespeare). Poor Will must have spun himself halfway through to China by now, from the misery of all the "modernized" versions of so much of his work. Search this database for Titus Andronicus to track down better treatment of one of Shakespeare's greatest and much misunderstood and underappreciated works. This film has its fans, primarily due to our culture's obsession with familiar celebrity appearances and fancy effects, but as an adaptation "Titus" should have been more aptly entitled "Julie's Folly"... The box office certainly verifies that assertion. What a shtinker.
Titus Andronicus (1999)
An indulgence in a brilliant new cult classic...
I bought this movie on VHS (It's not too hard to find the website or the major internet retailer that has it) and my family and I have since nearly worn it out. The original Shakepearean play is an intense indulgence in the repercussions of negative karma, revenge building upon revenge until all the players are immersed. This film adaptation is more true to the story than most treatments, but it has a true cult film twist in its handling of the over-the-top violence. The actors (who are all quirky but quite competent) play the roles straight, yet the director camps it up with overdone screaming, squirting blood, growling and Shatner-esque reaction shots. Just brilliant. The costumes and scenery are on a par with a 1950's era sword-and-sandal epic. No computer generated magic, but who cares? This thing is wild and chock full of subtle gems... and the not-so-sublte forest Lavinia scene, the Martius/Quintus scene, the Midwife Cornelia scene, the clown messenger scene, the whacko banquet, etc., etc. A Shakespeare movie to watch in a darkened room with cult movie friends and plenty of beer and chips. Some people don't really "get it", and that's too bad. This movie is that rare combo of treasure and trash at its deepest and shallowest, a mixture of "Ben Hur" with "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls"... perfectly suited for a story about an intensely persecuted hero who goes off the deep end in as big a way as possible. A triumph of cult indie filmmaking.