Titus Andronicus

Oh wow. I had to watch this in my Theatre arts class because we were studying Shakespeare. Not only was it extremely difficult to follow, it contained a lot of violence and overall was a snoozer--I found myself sleeping through most of it. First thing that flew out of my mouth when it was over was "What the heck was he smoking when he wrote that?" No one sane would be capable of writing something this horrible. It's hard enough with the language to be able to follow it, on top of the plot that is just all over the place.

I would not recommend this if you have youngsters or have trouble following plots and/or Shakespeare language.

Imagine, if you will, a Shakespeare play performed by pro wrestlers, washed-up porn stars and the Rural Kentucky Trailer Park Players.

This is the film of that play. There is so much to tell about this inept production: the producers seem to have thought that "Moor" means "having a glass eye"; the director belongs to the school that holds that you can convey more meaning as an actor by waggling your eyebrows a lot; the music is provided by a cello, a bottom-of-the-line keyboard and a recording of a buzzing insect and appears to be unrelated to the action; the director seeks to set up an atmosphere of horror by having the actors laugh maniacally at apparently random moments and by having a pregnant pause after every line, even the ones without hope of pregnancy. The credits reveal that the production team consists of the actors, including the costume credit to the lead actress, a sure sign of the quality and sophistication of the production. The credit to the guy providing the gallons of fake blood ("Slaughterhouse gore courtesy of Tom Holley") is also telling (and hilarious).

Yes, folks, the fake blood is a major player in this production. There is nothing like the draw of heads and arms and ears being chopped off and blood spurting from the wounds, of people being stabbed repeatedly, and babies' heads being bashed in to gain you a faithful audience. If done realistically, this could be at least nauseating, if not horrifying, but alas there was no budget to make these effects look real so you can clearly see that the severed limbs and heads are rubber and the baby is a doll.

Mind you, they did work out a way to show a guy having his face flayed off while alive, which is pretty horrific. They were so proud of this effect they used it in their cover art. This is the culmination and climax of the blood and gore and so naturally, in order to give it maximum effect, the director put it in the first ten minutes of the film, so everything was downhill from there.

If what you demand of a film is lots of blood and over-the-top acting, you'll love this. You have the same sensibility as the groundlings who made this play, and Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, and the works of Webster hugely popular in Shakespeare's day and after. Shakespeare wrote this one for you, guys. And this production, ridiculous and inept as it is, is true to what he intended and who he intended it for.

I saw this American movie in Spain last year, and at first I didn't know what to make of it. The audience around me either were "getting" it, or were really not "getting" it at all, and some were going nuts loudly laughing and cheering. At first I thought it was one thing, then as I stayed with it I realized it was playing out on different levels, BOTH deep AND freaky. The heroes (actually anti-heroes) and the villains are strangely believeable and engaging. This is definitely an original take on this kind of Shakespearean drama, masculine and not an "artsy" or fanciful treatment. It's set in the ancient past, but not a familiar look. Excellent styling... gritty, sweaty, very bloody and totally weird.

This has got to be the worst adaptation of Titus ever made. Aaron the moor is White!!! All of the scenes appear to be in the same set. A sandy stage in a high school auditorium. This film was made the same year as Taymor's flick and it shallows in comparison. Never since Day of the Woman, have I seen such horrid acting. I love this play and loved Taymor's adaptation of this play. It scares me that someone thought that this was a good idea. The music is also something to be desired...if you enjoy the sounds of a kazoo coming out of a Cassio. Titus' character should be at least contemplative and remorseful, not a lisping stereotypical fairy. Tamora's costume contains(barely) her robust self. It is "easy" to see why the emperor desires her.Yes, what a formidable opponent she is for the wimpy Titus. GOD AWFUL...GOD BLOODY AWFUL.

Other than the noteworthy over-the-top Grand Guignol violence that made this a minor cult hit, this film has one thing worthy of note -- it comes across as a badly done high-school production of Shakespeare. It has everything. There are nervous actors not quite hitting their spots and shuffling their feet quickly to get them where they need to be, furtively glancing at the floor and out at the crew, and the other cast members. Performers haltingly intone their lines with little understanding of what they are saying, rather than actually speaking. Motions and gestures are either overdone, or underplayed.

The main roles, Titus and Tamora, are particularly atrocious. The actors do not do their lines justice. Anyone who wants to be a Shakespearean actor would be advised to see a speech therapist to do away with an unfortunate lisp (it is so distracting that I thought this should be called SYLVESTER Andronicus) and the actress has an unfortunate habit of SHOUTING ALL HER LINES ALL THE TIME. That's okay, though. So does Titus' son, Lucius. Horrid.

Seriously. Horrid acting. Absolutely horrid.

It looks like a filming of a bad local community staging Titus Andronicus. (And what local community theater would do that?)

The pity is that TA is actually one of my favorite Shakespeare plays (yeah, I know) but this version of it is absolute... well, insert your preferred scatological term. It's a total waste of time.