Titus: The Film

If you thought that Titus was hard to read, try seeing the film! Director Julie Taymor (also director of Across the Universe) took the play and put a whole new spin on it. The film starts with a young boy playing with toy soldiers during his meal. It ends up with the kitchen being bombed and we are taken to a coliseum looking arena with Titus. The viewer figures out that the boy is Lucius’ son. Taymor also adds a spin on the film by mixing what is modern with ancient Rome, such as the tanks beside the men in Roman armor.
Besides the apparent oddity in the scenery and the wardrobes of the film, it was don’t quite well. In class we saw another film, a BBC version, which was rather boring. There was no action but rather the long drawn out monologues and actors standing still. It was mentioned in class that the audience of Shakespeare’s time enjoy the poetry of the plays and were not always able to see the players, so the audience relied on the words of the actors. However, in today’s society, the plots fit right in but the word don’t. Taymor took the liberty of cutting down some of the speeches and instead use the visual aspect to communicate the play.
One such scene that the whole class talked about and enjoyed was the scene where Lavinia was found by her uncle. Marcus’ speech was cut drastically but his actions revealed so much of what the speech communicated. I personally think that I would be speechless if I came upon a family member who was ravished and had her hands and tongue cut off. The visual aspect of Lavinia after the incident was so much better as well. She was stood up on a stump in a swamp area. The brothers had placed twigs on the stumps where her hands were and when Marcus asked her to speech, blood came shooting out of her mouth. I found this to communicate the horror of the act much more than words spoken. I think that it works in todays society because we do depend so much on visual stimulation (i.e. TV shows, films, the internet, video games). Taymor tapped into the visual aspect and brought what was modern into the Shakespearean play. I guess audiences still enjoy blood, sex, and war.