Titus, with Anthony Hopkins & Jessica Lange (1999)

War begets revenge. Victorious General Titus Andronicus (Sir Anthony Hopkins) returns to Rome with hostages: Tamora (Jessica Lange), Queen of the Goths, and her sons. He orders the eldest hewn to appease the Roman dead. He declines the proffered Emperor's crown, nominating Saturninus (Alan Cumming), the last ruler's venal elder son. Saturninus, to spite his brother Bassianus (James Frain), demands the hand of Lavinia (Laura Fraser), Titus' daughter. When Bassianus, Lavinia, and Titus' sons flee in protest, Titus stands against them and slays one of his own. Saturninus marries the honey-tongued Tamora, who vows vengeance against Titus. The ensuing maelstrom serves up tongues, hands, rape, adultery, racism, and Goth-meat pie. There's irony in which two sons survive.

Direção

Julie Taymor

Based on Shakespeare (Titus Andronicus) and adapted by Julie Taymor

Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Matthew Rhys, Angus MacFadyen

Writer, producer, and director Julie Taymor used anachronistic props and clothes throughout this movie (chariots, tanks, swords, and machine guns) because she wanted to symbolically depict 2,000 years of warfare and violence.

None of the characters wear green at any point during this movie. The only green seen in the whole movie are the vegetables in the kitchen, and the green of the grass and leaves during the forest scenes. Julie Taymor felt that green suggests safety and comfort, and told costume designer Milena Canonero that costumes could only be colored metallic, red, blue, gray, black, or white.

Writer, producer, and director Julie Taymor fought against an NC-17 rating for this movie, but finally agreed to make cuts in the Roman orgy scene, in order to obtain an R-rating. None of the gruesome violence, however, was considered inconsistent with an R-rating. She said in an interview, that she was "one buttock away from an NC-17," even there was no graphic sex, just plenty of naked bodies.

Writer, producer, and director Julie Taymor conceived of Saturninus (Alan Cumming) as being from the 1930s, and rooted in Fascism, while Bassianus (James Frain) came from the 1950s, and was concerned with conservatism. This is reflected in the cars in which they travel, and the clothes their supporters wear during the political speeches.

Writer, producer, and director Julie Taymor and Sir Anthony Hopkins disagreed about Titus' mental state throughout production, with Taymor feeling that Titus is feigning a kind of madness, but is in fact mad himself, but with Hopkins feeling that Titus is feigning madness, and is in fact totally sane. They never resolved their differences and on their respective commentaries on the DVD, they mentioned their differing interpretations.

Subs: English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Movie Link: https://youtu.be/_Skx7quGbQI

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