The production in this movie is wonderful - particularly if you're able to accept the strange cross-genre world the movie is set in. Much like the world of Tim Burton's Batman was sort of the 40s and sort of the future, this takes modern day and mixes it with touches from ancient Rome, to make a weird fantasy realm where anything can happen. A DARK fantasy realm.
This serves a couple of really good purposes - first, some of the touches are inherently humorous, thus lightening a play which could be called "the Texas Chainsaw Massacre of Shakespeare." Far more importantly, however, is the visual cues which it gives a modern audience.
The average person, even someone fairly versed in Shakespeare like myself, sees two guys walk into the Roman senate, dressed in togas, and orating, and there is NOT A SINGLE visual cue to tell me who these guys are. I don't know toga styles! On the other hand if one of them (Bassianus) is progressing to the senate, chilling in the back of his convertible, wearing a leather jacket, addressing his followers with a bullhorn, and his brother Saturninus is encased in a full-on pope-mobile with a leather greatcoat and a greased-down forelock - that tells me something about these guys!!!
OK, the plot - nearly everybody dies. I would call this a spoiler, but anyone who knows that (a) this is Shakespeare and (b) this is considered a tragedy, then knows that - by definition - nearly everybody dies. The cool thing is the plots and counter-plots as the various characters try to take down, take out, or take on the others.
The basic premise is, however, that Titus Andronicus is a great general who has just returned from war with captives, including defeated Queen Tamora, her three sons, and her servant Aaron (ooh, is he evil!!). Despite the queen's desperate pleas for mercy, Titus sacrifices Tamora's oldest son to the gods, as a thank you for victory, and thus starts the chain of back and forth murdering which goes on for the rest of the film.
Two things which will probably be of interest to no one but myself, but I have to express are the theme of the play/film and Titus' fatal flaw.
First, in screenplay classes you work hard to get "theme" - some concept which is not necessarily brought out in the plot, but is supposed to be woven throughout your movie and generally never is, or is something really simplistic and obvious. However, the theme of Titus is actually exquisitely done, and was in the original play, which makes me wonder quite why people generally regard it as a throw-away piece among Shakespeare's works.
The theme I see is "what we do for our children", which seems an odd one for such a bloody play, but it is the killing of Tamora's son which sets off the maelstrom. When her sons attack and mutilate Titus' daughter Lavinia, he gets his revenge, and then does for Lavinia the greatest, most honorable thing he can - kills her. The two sons of the recently deceased emperor, the aforementioned Bassianus and Saturninus, have no father to look out for them, and he didn't name a successor before his death, which is what leads them astray, and finally, Aaron, despite being a self-proclaimed villain (and who tricks Titus into cutting off his OWN FREAKING HAND - now THAT'S a villain!), kills whoever he has to in order to protect his own progeny.
Now for the fatal flaw - again, a fascinating concept which struck me like a ton of bricks when I "got it". (For those how don't know, each of Shakespeare's tragic heroes is fatally flawed in some way, and when I was in high school our teacher made us always write essays on these, which is why I look in the first place - Hamlet's, for instance, is indecision, while Macbeth's is being "wife-"whipped.)
Titus's fascinating flaw is "Tradition". Every decision he makes, until he goes mad (or pretends to), is entirely dictated by tradition, and every decision is a bad one. He is offered the job of emperor and turns it down, then selects Saturninus to take the job - on the grounds that he is the dead emperor's eldest son, despite the fact that he is obviously going to be a petty despot. Then, when Saturninus asks for Titus' daughter in marriage, Titus agrees, even though she's already betrothed to (and in love with) the younger son, and when her brothers "rescue" her so she can run off with her true love? Titus kills one of his own sons - executing him as a traitor.
Time after time, tradition and "the right thing to do" is Titus' downfall. By the end of the story, he deliberately turns his own flaw back on himself by asking Saturninus what should happen to a woman who has been dishonored and damaged - should she be killed, as set forth in historical precedent? When the emperor flippantly agrees, Titus kills his own daughter, right there at the dinner table. To her, it is a mercy, but to everyone else, it's a real eye-opener!!!
OK, enough ranting. THIS time...
This serves a couple of really good purposes - first, some of the touches are inherently humorous, thus lightening a play which could be called "the Texas Chainsaw Massacre of Shakespeare." Far more importantly, however, is the visual cues which it gives a modern audience.
The average person, even someone fairly versed in Shakespeare like myself, sees two guys walk into the Roman senate, dressed in togas, and orating, and there is NOT A SINGLE visual cue to tell me who these guys are. I don't know toga styles! On the other hand if one of them (Bassianus) is progressing to the senate, chilling in the back of his convertible, wearing a leather jacket, addressing his followers with a bullhorn, and his brother Saturninus is encased in a full-on pope-mobile with a leather greatcoat and a greased-down forelock - that tells me something about these guys!!!
OK, the plot - nearly everybody dies. I would call this a spoiler, but anyone who knows that (a) this is Shakespeare and (b) this is considered a tragedy, then knows that - by definition - nearly everybody dies. The cool thing is the plots and counter-plots as the various characters try to take down, take out, or take on the others.
The basic premise is, however, that Titus Andronicus is a great general who has just returned from war with captives, including defeated Queen Tamora, her three sons, and her servant Aaron (ooh, is he evil!!). Despite the queen's desperate pleas for mercy, Titus sacrifices Tamora's oldest son to the gods, as a thank you for victory, and thus starts the chain of back and forth murdering which goes on for the rest of the film.
Two things which will probably be of interest to no one but myself, but I have to express are the theme of the play/film and Titus' fatal flaw.
First, in screenplay classes you work hard to get "theme" - some concept which is not necessarily brought out in the plot, but is supposed to be woven throughout your movie and generally never is, or is something really simplistic and obvious. However, the theme of Titus is actually exquisitely done, and was in the original play, which makes me wonder quite why people generally regard it as a throw-away piece among Shakespeare's works.
The theme I see is "what we do for our children", which seems an odd one for such a bloody play, but it is the killing of Tamora's son which sets off the maelstrom. When her sons attack and mutilate Titus' daughter Lavinia, he gets his revenge, and then does for Lavinia the greatest, most honorable thing he can - kills her. The two sons of the recently deceased emperor, the aforementioned Bassianus and Saturninus, have no father to look out for them, and he didn't name a successor before his death, which is what leads them astray, and finally, Aaron, despite being a self-proclaimed villain (and who tricks Titus into cutting off his OWN FREAKING HAND - now THAT'S a villain!), kills whoever he has to in order to protect his own progeny.
Now for the fatal flaw - again, a fascinating concept which struck me like a ton of bricks when I "got it". (For those how don't know, each of Shakespeare's tragic heroes is fatally flawed in some way, and when I was in high school our teacher made us always write essays on these, which is why I look in the first place - Hamlet's, for instance, is indecision, while Macbeth's is being "wife-"whipped.)
Titus's fascinating flaw is "Tradition". Every decision he makes, until he goes mad (or pretends to), is entirely dictated by tradition, and every decision is a bad one. He is offered the job of emperor and turns it down, then selects Saturninus to take the job - on the grounds that he is the dead emperor's eldest son, despite the fact that he is obviously going to be a petty despot. Then, when Saturninus asks for Titus' daughter in marriage, Titus agrees, even though she's already betrothed to (and in love with) the younger son, and when her brothers "rescue" her so she can run off with her true love? Titus kills one of his own sons - executing him as a traitor.
Time after time, tradition and "the right thing to do" is Titus' downfall. By the end of the story, he deliberately turns his own flaw back on himself by asking Saturninus what should happen to a woman who has been dishonored and damaged - should she be killed, as set forth in historical precedent? When the emperor flippantly agrees, Titus kills his own daughter, right there at the dinner table. To her, it is a mercy, but to everyone else, it's a real eye-opener!!!
OK, enough ranting. THIS time...