Titus

Titus Andronicus was actually one of William Shakespeare's lesser-known theatrical plays. The begins with Roman General Titus Andronicus played by Anthony Hopkins, had returned from defeating the Goths in a bloody battle, but the victory had left him with mixed feelings, as the war took the lives of several of his sons. Titus is reminded by his first-born son Lucius that their faith demands the sacrifice of an enemy prisoner as a gift to the gods for their victory. Titus chooses the eldest son of Tamora , the queen of the Goths, who has since been taken hostage by Titus's troops. Tamora pleads for her son's life, but Titus goes ahead with the sacrifice. She then becomes the lover of the new emperor of Rome, Saturninus played by Alan Cumming, a weak-willed and corrupt man. Tamora uses her connection to the throne for her own ends: in retaliation for the death of her son, Tamora and her surviving sons, Chiron and Demetrius, brutally rape Titus's beloved daughter, Lavinia. This act sets in motion an ever-tightening spiral of revenge and retaliation that leaves few of the participants unscathed.

Titus is filled with elements of characters, plot and themes that Shakespeare would enlarged on. It includes a father betrayed by his progeny (`King Lear'), a Moorish general (`Othello'), a struggle for political power, and a theme that runs through virtually all Shakespeare's tragedies - the need for revenge to maintain filial or familial honor. Anthony Hopkins is superb as Titus, capturing the many internal contradictions that plague this man who, though a beloved national hero and military conqueror, finds himself too weary to accept the popular acclamation to make him emperor - a decision he will live to rue when his refusal ends up placing the power directly into the hands of a rival who makes it his ambition to bring ghastly ruin upon Titus' family. Titus is also a man who can, without a twinge of conscience, kill a son he feels has betrayed him and disembowel a captive despite the pleas of his desperate mother, yet, at the same time, show mercy to the latter's family, humbly refuse the power offered him, and break down in heartbroken despair at the executions of his sons and the sight of his own beloved daughter left tongueless and hand-less by those very same people he has seen fit to spare.

Visually, this wide-screen film is a stunner.The director matches the starkness of the drama with a concomitant visual design, often grouping the characters in studied compositions set in bold relief against an expansive, dominating sky. There were countless of amazing shots in this film but my favorite would have to be when Titus' daughter turned around to show her uncle who she really was, that shot was shot in slow motion as she was turning around, then I have never seen blood so beautiful than in this film, the motion of blood splurging out of her mouth was brilliantly done, her condition was so bad, that as a viewer you couldn't help but feel pity for her. The use of color was brilliant, I couldn't help myself from stop looking at this film because the color was popping and out there, you couldn't help but notice.

I loved this movie because it was a drama, it pulled me in, it kept me guessing and thinking about what was going to happen next. I think the music and lighting helped this film because it was stunning. If I had to say one word that describes the overall feel of this film it had to be madness.