Titus 

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Julie Taymor, 1999 (162 mins, Cert. 18)

Hard-hitting both to the emotions and the eye, Julie Taymor moves from directing the West End's Lion King to tackling Shakespeare's most controversial play. Taymor brings vividly to life Shakespeare's exploration of the vicious circle of violence that can spiral out from a single act of brutality.
(Playhouse Publicity)

This is a stunningly effective, no-holds-barred adaptation of Shakespeare's bloodiest play. As Titus, Anthony Hopkins is ideal for the role and gives a commanding performance but in this he's not alone: the whole cast are superb and throughout play with great passion and conviction.  The language is delivered clearly and intelligently by all the actors and every word counts. The photography is exhilarating and creates a gleefully anachronistic Rome of suitably decadent grandeur on a truly epic scale, with a myriad of perfectly-judged and unforgettable sets.  The level of gore is kept reasonably under control, given the subject matter (you could expect to see far worse with far less excuse in today's cinema) but even so this most definitely isn't a film for the squeamish. For over two and a half hours Titus had my attention in a vice and in every way is a triumph for all involved. I cannot fault this film. Quite simply, for my money, this is filmed Shakespeare at its very best!
(Steve Fagg)

Seen: Tuesday, 6th March, 2001 (Harlow Playhouse)