Titus

Like all great revenge plays, a real injustice must be proffered at the beginning of the tale, in order for the revenge to go forth.  The injustice must be real; the injured party or parties, must have a good reason to hate and seek bloody redress of their honest grievance.  That grievance can also not be a trifle.  In this case human sacrifice, shown as a honor of a real tradition, but by no means a true necessity of religion, sets the stage for grief stricken scheming.  But like all good revenge plays, especially those of the 16^th century, and, particularly those of Shakespeare, revenge is seen as a corrupting and destructive path; things quickly go wrong for those invoking it’s bloody and convoluted philosophy.  Revenge must be presented almost as a character in itself, and, of course, it does make an appearance as a real character in Titus, as Tamora “disguises” herself as “Revenge” in her vane attempt to fool Titus Andronicus.  Here she is invoking revenge in the form of untruthful mockery.  But, of course, it is revenge that mocks her in the end.  What Tamora does know is that it is she that is the pawn of Revenge, not the other way around.  The sense is that Revenge the character in any such play of the day, was by nature dishonest like the devil hissing in the ears of the weak.   Revenge tempts it’s prey into actions that serve it, not them.  When revenge is invoked the outcome of the play then becomes inevitable, it must be bloody and it’s characters are thusly damned.  

Revenge in Shakespeare is not just an action taken by characters in schemes of seeking unsanctioned justice, it is presented as the evils of one of the most monstrous forms of dishonesty.  Of course, this is a political statement on the part of the players of the Globe Theater; they are letting the monarchy know that their’s is the rite of rule, and government is the only proper arena of true justice.  Still of Shakespeare’s blood soaked visions of revenge, Titus, provides visions of the most surreal types of violence.  Even the audiences of the 16^th century, who would have witnessed real acts of bloody vengeance sanctioned as legitimate violence [because it is government sanctioned and demanded] in the form of the most gruesome kinds of executions in the streets of London, would have been struck by a father willing to lop off his own hand to save his son’s heads--or by Pagan religious violence [human sacrifice], committed to honor those already dead.  The violence is stylized and, in many cases, ritualized on the one hand; however, much of the violence in Titus seems almost anarchistic as well—the killing of a child in rage, for example.  Saturnine who thinks himself the consummate politician, commits acts of violence on a whim and without guilt. Since he orders it, instead doing the deeds himself; on his unconsidered order(s) he is a violent catalyst betwixt the house Andronicus and the gothic captives of Tamora’s line—an enabler if you will.  His actions are small minded and whim fed—not really planned at all.

Then there is the character of Aaron, in whom we have, arguably, the world’s first modern full-blown nihilist (played here with brillance by Harry Lennix).  He is also the most naked example in all of Shakespeare of a racial stereo-type of a “Moor” (Othello doesn’t even come close!), is so “over the top” that the extremes of his nihilistic violence seem almost in-human at times.  It’s hard to say that any of what he does is from any kind of ambition, or greed or even avarice or envy—he simply does not believe in anything.  When he pleads for the life of his and Tamora’s son, one gets the feeling that this is the first time in his life that he has cared for anything.

Taymor’s Titus is a partially modernized vision of Shakespeare’s great Roman tale of war, human sacrifice and revenge.  I say partially, because there are many scenes in the movie that could well be from ancient Rome.  The movie is very beautifully shot.  I can’t find any real flaw with it that is amounts to anything big.  Sure there are nit-picking moments, but nothing major.  In some movie entries, it is even listed as a horror movie.  There is even a “Hannibal Lecter moment” from Hopkins just before he slits the throats of Chrion and Demetrius, after he has informed them that he intends to bake them in a pie.  I would say that it, for me, it is really the soundtrack that pulls it all into a beautiful violent package of WOW!!  I find this to be one of the most watchable of all Shakespeare films.  I love the bookend story that Taymor puts on the whole thing, through the eyes of Titus’ grandson—it’s nice loving touch to add to such a gory vision.

Pot Pie Anyone??