Directed by Julie Taymor
StarringAnthony Hopkins (Titus)
Jessica Lange (Tamora)
Jonathan Rhys-Myers (Chiron)
Laura Fraser (Lavinia)
Angus MacFadyen (Lucius)
Alan Cumming (Saturninus)
Harry J. Lennix (Aaron)
Colm Feore (Marcus)
Constantine Gregory (Aemilius)
Blake Ritson (Mutius)
James Frain (Bassianus)
Matthew Rhys (Demetrius)Colin Wells (Martius)
Kenny Doughty (Quintus)
Osheen Jones (Young Lucius)
Written by
Julie Taymor
William Shakespeare (play)
Titus Andronicus, the great Roman general, returns home
victorious from a long war with the northern Goths during
which all but his four remaining sons have died. Lucius, the
eldest son, reminds Titus that part of the victory ritual is the
human sacrifice of an enemy prisoner. Titus chooses the
eldest son of Tamora, the Queen of the Goths, who has
been brought back to Rome as a captive with her three
sons and the Moor, Aaron. Though Tamora pleads for her
son’s life, Titus carries out the ritual, not out of cruelty but out
of what he conceives to be religious devotion. Tamora and her two remaining sons,
Chrion and Demetrius, vow revenge. With that, the tale of double revenge
begins—first Tamora’s and then Titus’s.
To the dismay of his family and friends, Titus faithfully supports the new emperor,
the spoiled and corrupt Saturninus, who surprises everyone by taking the seductive
and alluring Tamora for his wife—and act that shocks and unsettles Titus and further
enrages Titus’s family, causing the disoriented Titus to kill one of his own sons in the
dispute. Now the enemy is in a position of power and, through a truce is feigned by
Tamora, the battle truly begins.
During a hunt in the forest, Aaron, the Moor, plots with
Tamora and her sons, Chiron and Demetrius, to kill
Bassianus, the emperor’s brother and the husband of
Titus’s only daughter, Lavinia, who is dragged away
mercilessly by the boys. Aaron frames two of Titus’s sons
for Bassianus’s murder and, in spite of Titus’s pleas, the
Emperor condemns them to be executed and orders that
Titus’s eldest son, Lucius, be banished from Rome. Just as
Titus laments this terrible turn of events, his brother, Marcus,
brings him the pitifully maimed Lavinia who has been raped
and mutilated so that she cannot reveal her assailants.
Aaron appears with the message that if Titus cuts off his own hand and sends it to
the emperor, he will have his condemned sons back. Titus lets Aaron cut off his
hand, but realizes how cruelly he was deceived when he receives in return his sons’
severed heads. Vowing revenge, Titus sends his only remaining son, the exiled
Lucius, to the Goths to raise an army against the Roman emperor. And, when
Lavinia finds a way to write the names of Chiron and Demetrius in the sand, Titus
continues to plot his vengeance.
Aaron turns his back on Tamora when she asks him to destroy the child she has
secretly born him—for he and Tamora have been lovers all along—and he escapes
from Rome with his son, only to be captured by Lucius and the Goths. In an effort to
save his son, Aaron confesses all to Lucius.
To his family and all of Rome, Titus appears by his eccentric
behavior to have gone completely mad. Tamora is
overjoyed, but Saturninus, insulted and outraged, demands
that the Senate take action against Titus. Then they hear the
bad news that Lucius is bearing down on Rome with an
army of Goths. Although Tamora tries to “trick” Titus, he
outwits her and captures her two sons, revealing to them
how he will take revenge on their mother at a feast he is
preparing.
The feast begins, deceptively cordial, painfully tense. All are present but Chiron and
Demetrius. Titus, dressed as a cook, serves Tamora his specially baked pies… 
