The Movie Titus

The movie Titus directed by Julie Taymor a well awarded director who has created many visual arts, made countless thought-provoking choices when directing Titus, a movie based off the book Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare. Titus Andronicus is a tragedy highlighting Titus, a roman general that becomes obsessed with getting revenge with Tamora, a previous prisoner of his and the Queen of Goths. When Taymor directed the film Titus she incorporated many aspects from the present (when the movie was made) and the era the book was written in, during Shakespearean times, to relate to the audience at that time and still remain true to the story. She tried her best to stay as close to the book as possible and portray the characters as well as they could be interpreted. In some illustrations she was spot on and in others she was not.

The opening scene starts with a little boy in a classic 90’s kitchen, which is set up similar to a low class restaurant. He is wearing a baggy t-shirt and blue jeans with a brown paper bag over his head. He is sitting at a dining table watching a cartoon on a TV. The camera does not cast the TV, so you are unaware from what period it is from, but never the less it is there. The cartoon has rodeo horns and a man yelling ‘come one come on’ with a groggy voice similar to Popeye the sailor man. He is at his kitchen table playing with electric helicopters, robots and action figures while eating a hotdog alone. He starts to destroy the table by pouring salt out of a salt shaker over everything and squeezing the ketchup out of a generic glass ketchup bottle. For the most part this is a silent scene, the only noises are the onomonopeia’s made by this little boy to express the actions of his toys. While in the mid...

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...haracters to compliment Shakespeare’s work. With the opening she captures the aspect of war without using the original opening. Instead she uses a child and modernizes it. In ACT III SCENE I. Rome. A Street, she examines every word and portrays the art of revenge, loss and justice. She digs into the bible and relates them to Titus and his morals and actions. Taymor made many interesting choices when directing Titus, many staying true to the book, and character analysis bringing Titus Andronicus to a visual art.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. Titus Andronicus . Rhome: 1594. Print.

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(Shakespeare)

Taymor, Julie, dir. Titus. Prod. Jody Allen. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2000. Film. 25 Feb 2014.

"Biblical judges." n.pag. Wikipedia. Web. 25 Feb 2014.

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