An Italian (?) Titus Andronicus - Summer of Shakespeare (NSFW)

An Italy that's decidedly not Italy. How far can you bend the idea of location before it breaks? A look at this Italian production by an American director.
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[@ShaM3fullyCha0tic]

Some scholars have proposed that Titus Andronicus was one of Shakespeare’s first plays he ever wrote, so he went a little edgy like we all do with our writing when we’re young.

[@stevekaczynski3793]

It may say something about public tastes that it seems to have been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays on the stage when he was alive, despite being his closest approach to what we would now call a video nasty.

[@leandropondoc6132]

I just remembered I had a good

[@erikbihari3625]

@@stevekaczynski3793. Considering how many modern hetero romances can be boiled down to pissing contests, taming of the shrew wouldn't be out of place! No?

[@erikbihari3625]

@@leandropondoc6132. A good what?

[@Lobajoba]

I would agree with this but also suggest that he was imitating his heroes like Marlowe and other bloody revenge tragedies. Then with time he does plays like Hamlet where he is able to approach the genre with a voice more his own. Doing things that I feel you can see glimpses of in titus.

[@gabrielaubry1334]

Tricking your enemies into cannibalizing their children is a notable revenge trope in mythology. The two most notable examples (that I can think of) include when Atreus killed the sons of his brother and rival Thyestes and fed their cooked flesh to him, and when Wayland the Smith killed the sons of his captor, King Nidhad and fashioned goblets out of their skulls and jewelry from their eyes and teeth which he then gave to the Nidhad, his wife and his daughter.

[@jfridy]

I love this film. Julie Taymor does Shakespeare's Tarantino Phase!

[@amiefortman7220]

The minute I saw Alan Cumming on screen, the only coherent thought running through my head was "...what." That guy has landed roles in some of the most bizarre things.

[@amiefortman7220]

Eamonn Deane Oh, definitely. That, and in serious need of a better agent.

[@amiefortman7220]

Eamonn Deane I did see that--he was the best part of that movie. :)

[@xxeruss3080]

For a movie to be bizarre, it must star Alan Cumming (or Floop, as I refer to him as).

[@SM-ov5rf]

Amie Fortman He's usually the best thing an any movie he's in

[@Nullifidian]

He was very good in this. He had just the right quality of smug smarminess giving way to adolescent petulance that you really need in Saturninus.

[@albion65]

A commonly held theory is that Shakespeare did this play as a parody/satire of the works of his main rival and friend Christopher Marlowe. By taking the ideas the Marlowe loved to an extreme, Shakespeare was able to finally move away from that influence and find his own artistic voice. So in that sense writing this paly was a cathartic experience for Shakespeare and vital step in his evolution as an artist.

[@ELSTERLING]

Brain: Wow, this is probably the only major Shakespeare work I've never even seen a synopsis for, let alone read/watched. I wonder why that slipped by me? Kyle: RAPE AND PIE. Brain: Ah, that'd be why.

[@blueishgreen76]

While almost no one would argue it to be one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, modern scholarship has been much kinder to this play than this review lets on. Most of the modern scholars who actively dislike Titus Andronicus seem to be unable to come to terms with their beloved "demigod genius" making the Elizabethan equivalent of a slasher movie. None of the lurid aspects of the play are out of line with the standards of the genera it's in, and many of the perceived flaws in the plot flow from expectations of storytelling that have been shaped by modern cinema. (For the more introspective scholars, I think this was held up as a bad play because they liked being able to admit that Shakespeare wrote some turds, and Titus is much more memorable than many of the true turds in his collected works. Its place as a bad but memorable example seems to have been displaced by Taming of the Shrew due to a shift in sensibilities).

[@christaberry2694]

My school's Shakespeare Club read Titus last year, and our teacher said that the main reason it's so much more over-the-top gruesome than Shakespeare's other plays is that it was his first attempt at writing a tragedy. He took the tropes of tragedy at the time and just kind of went overboard with them.

[@plumlogan]

The absurdity of this play is well matched by Tumor's direction - I love this movie

[@plumlogan]

and its music

[@Kateiswriting]

Same. It's the PERFECT adaptation. The blend of historical time periods, the OTT opulence, the dark humour, the absolute joyous disregard for realism... I can't think of a single way to improve it.

[@BrorealeK]

I can't believe someone did a review of this film, and this PLAY. Titus was the first Shakespeare film I saw (other than the Lion King, haw haw), and despite how much of a mess it is I can't help but love it. It's so out there, so visually striking, and tries so hard to make up for being a flawed filming of a flawed stage production of a deeply flawed text. It's given me a much more positive opinion of Titus Andronicus than the play probably deserves, but I can't help but love it.

[@jackcharlotte25]

I agree. I grew up with Troma and the like, so to see "Titus" have such exploitative violence mixed with Shakespearean sensibilities is always a treat. And a poignant one too, as Kyle illustrates toward the end of his analysis.

[@apemantus67]

The commonly held idea that this is Shakespeare's "worst" play is just a hold-over from more squeamish times that found the rape and violence a bit too impolite. I'll read and watch Titus Andronicus 100 times again before I ever revisit the Merry Wives of Windsor, or The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

[@amiefortman7220]

A repertory theater near my college actually did this play in a setting where all the violence made sense--I kid you not, Nazi Germany. The conceit was that all the actors were putting on the show illegally in an underground theater to basically thumb their nose at the Third Reich. It was all lit with really garish dark colors to make it look as grimy and cheap as possible--like an illegal theater would be--and the curtain call ended with the actors being lined up and shot by Nazi soldiers.

[@ambskater97]

+Amie Fortman "He set *Titus Andronicus* in Nazi Germany!!"

[@amiefortman7220]

ambskater97 I was waiting for somebody to say that. :) It was a great production, though--the actor playing Aaron was clearly having the time of his life.

[@tatehildyard5332]

MasterBerry "There were swastikas everywhere!"

[@falloutghoul1]

@@tatehildyard5332 Where did that quote come from?

[@pinkwings8036]

Titus Andronicus can't exist without NSFW tags everywhere, and I think I love it.

[@Desert_Rose_]

Julie Taymor also did a fantastic production of Oedipus that is as batshit as it is amazing

[@representationmetaphorique]

I now have a routine where somewhere around midnight I fix myself a bowl of ice cream, drape myself on the couch, and watch the summer of shakespeare videos.

[@daniellefregoe1467]

~sings/screeches~ SWEENY! SWEENY! SWEEEEEEEEENYYYYYY! ATTEND THE TALE OF SWEENY TODD!, etc...

[@lucygregory1416]

and he wouldn't want us to give it away

[@fallingcrane1986]

Not Sweeney... Not Sweeney Todd...

[@TheHeroOfTomorrow]

SWEENEY, SWEENEY, SWEENEY, SWEENEY...

[@HanaBakemono]

I had to make props for The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged. Including the infamous pie. I made it smell like a pie using melted candle wax. This play is just... insane. I love it. I need to see this movie now.

[@bigjonfaulkner]

I LOVE those toga combo suits.

[@dcbandnerd]

Honestly kinda shocked this wasn't a thing during Mussolini's reign. I reckon that sort of historical anachronism would have been right up their alley.

[@MadameChristie]

My 3rd year Shakespeare prof had a theory that Titus was (probably) Shakespeare's first work, and as a newbie, he basically based it on the popular plays of the time (which were often violent and melodramatic, like The Jew of Malta) because that's what the people liked and he thought it would attract a large audience.

[@Snes_Controller]

I remember Doug Walker has said that this is one of his all-time favorite movies a few years back.

[@tonyjoestar2632]

Shakespeare was a smart ass, this had to be a joke. It's early Adult Swim humor.

[@Galvion1980]

'I agree! Old Will and his plays trying to gain the attention of Londoners meant competing with bear-baiting, brothels and the occasional public execution...that's where "Titus Andronicus" fits naturally. The Bard surely knew his audience and what they found entertaining/funny...maybe he was even poking fun at them, like Hideki Anno did to his audience with "End Of Evangelion" ? Wouldn't put it past him...

[@stephencarter7266]

If the American cultural gates keepers deemed Titus Andromicus a great play, people on this thread would be falling over themselves praising it.

[@stephencarter7266]

​@@Galvion1980Presumably "Old Will" _always_ knew what his audience wanted whether it was Titus Andronicus, Hamlet or The Tempest. The question is _who_ decides what the gullible American audience _should_ think is a good Shakespeare play in contemporary times?

[@ShawnRavenfire]

Julie Taymor did probably one of the most awesome versions of The Tempest I've ever seen.

[@Agamemnon2]

I really don't like Brand's whole debauched hedonist schtick, but he really came into his own as Trinculo.

[@TheITinFIT]

To be fair, Julie Taymor was booted out of the director's chair halfway through production on Spider-Man, so they just took what she already did but twisted it into...well, what we see here. Makes me curious to see your thoughts when we get to The Lion King.

[@Redem10]

+TheITinFIT If I recall correctly, she was actually booted out much later in production and her version was actually shown to some small number of people before she was ejected and the show retool

[@tape-6]

TheITinFIT my sister worked on a production of a midsummers night dream with Julie Taymor (speaking of Shakespeare) and it was very artsy theatre that could never work with spiderman

[@jedisquidward]

Well done at 9:23, syncing together the leap in the West Side Story footage and the "leap" spoken in the script.

[@wess9900]

Isnt the pie eating directly ripped from the myth of thyestes? Honestly this play feels like a classics major cramming in as many references they can remember from Latin class.

[@TalysAlankil]

Rewatching this because of the latest Game of Thrones episode. Was anyone else thinking of this because of the Arya scene?

[@coolgirl1744]

TalysAlankil as soon as I saw that scene in the episode I was like: "Oo, Shakespeare reference...?"

[@eliburry-schnepp6012]

The scene was based on a scene from the books where Lord Manderly serves two of the Freys in pies to the Boltons, which was itself inspired in-universe by the story of the Rat Cook, which was itself based on this play. So it's circuitous, but yes it was based on this.

[@rtelkin2194]

Titus is not a history play, but a fiction of a therefore necessarily fictional Roman Empire; why should it then need resemble anything beyond the bare Imperial trappings?

[@Hewylewis]

I think the point of the artistic direction for this movie is what the world would be like if the Roman Empire had never fallen.

[@jamiee7367]

12:36 except in the play, it's _Marcus,_ Titus' brother, not Lucius, that kills the fly. For the movie, they give Marcus' lines & actions to young Lucius, but in the play he has only 2 lines for this scene. Also, the fly scene was added several decades after the play was originally written, probably after Shakespeare's death, and likely by a completely separate playwright (Thomas Middleton, who appears to have done the same for Macbeth, Measure for Measure, & All's Well that Ends Well). That, of course, doesn't mean we aren't allowed to interpret the play with the fly scene. But any interpretation trying to approach Shakespeare's intention would have to ignore it.

[@Garhunt05]

fun fact: this was executive produced by Steve Bannon. yes the breitbart guy

[@TheOfficialHerb]

And he originally wanted it to be set in outer space with aliens: ANDRONICUS We fought for you. We gave up everything for you-and you betrayed us! He grabs Barnabus by the front of his cloak. BARNABUS Do not resist. Earth is evolving and so are you: half-spirit, half-human, embrace your self and others too. Evil can exist only in the thin line that separates what should be whole.

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

Gart Lonm Now I’m upset.

[@javiercs006]

A movie against violence produced by a man of blood. Modern life is ironic that way.

[@javiercs006]

@kevin willems Nope. Titus was a Steve Bannon passion project. Well, at least this is much better than all his other ones.

[@IamMissPronounced]

Of course an actual white supremacist would executive produce this. of course

[@dragonetafireball]

In the UK we get plays distribution in cinemas and Titus Andronicus is coming soon. Also Horrible History's loves to reference this play whenever Shakespeare's comes up.

[@oneinathousand2156]

Oh... the pie thing. Now I know where the dog eating scene in Theater of Blood comes from

[@AvengingAngel777]

THAT movie was brilliant.

[@pdzombie1906]

Shakespeare did it 400 years before Tarantino: the over the top revenge fantasy!!! I love Titus, I wish there were more adaptations like these to get people to enjoy The Bard!!! Thanx!!!

[@stephencarter7266]

How is Titus Andronicus anymore an "over the top" fantasy than e.g Macbeth or Hamlet ? There are no Wiches or Ghost in TA. There is nothing particularly Tarantino-esque about TA. It's actually a very serious albeit violent play. It's one of Shakespeare's best.

[@JimFaindel]

Thank you so very much for uploading these here, it is impossible to watch blip on mobile and this medium is just the best and easiest to watch.

[@JimFaindel]

Tho it might mean hardship to a lot of content creators, I believe it was for the best in the long run.

[@quiroz923]

Well, I think we can guess what your approach towards The Lion King will be. Also, I couldn't stop laughing at "do you bite my thumb, sir".

[@Below20Below]

Idc what y'all say, this is my favorite Shakespeare play of all time, always has been

[@bewilderbeastie8899]

Speaking of Shakespeare and Italy, one of my favourite absurd conspiracy theories about Will is that he was actually an Italian who moved to London, called Guglielmo Crollalanza (from scrollare - to shake and lancia - spear). It's hilarious.

[@Galvion1980]

That is hilarious indeed, if only because it is so preposterous...but then I've heard people claim that William Shakespeare was actually GERMAN...no, really! The things some people convince themselves of, even in the face of insurmountable evidence to the contrary...

[@Alia-bc3rc]

All in my head was: *THIS IS TOO 1999*

[@fallingcrane1986]

3:54 ATTEND THE TALE OF SWEENEY TODD!!!

[@JMD501]

Hey you did the Drew Carey snap. It is the only way to end the joke. Well played.

[@erikbihari3625]

I wonder if this would work with taming of the shrew as well! The story sounds like makings of modern day romantic screwball comedies like when Harry meet Sally! No?

[@CzechAvailabilitie]

I'm guessing GRRM likes Titus Andronicus a lot because there is a certain scene in A Dance With Dragons that's very obviously inspired by the pie scene in the play. Although in ADWD it's only hinted at and never explicitly stated that the food contains the dead relatives of the person eating it.

[@hinasakukimi]

+Talisguy lol k dude. game of thrones wins an emmy but sure the writing is "bad". "you want a good girl but you need the bad pussy" - a quote from the episode they won an emmy for. seriously, how do you not see the genius?

[@hinasakukimi]

***** haha i know, i was being sarcastic. i completely agree, it started off extremely well done but it's just become an absolute mess. i sympathise with them to a certain degree because holy hell adapting asoiaf must be incredibly taxing but still... it's insanely bad.

[@hinasakukimi]

***** definitely. it's seriously depressing that this show gets lauded as a feminist masterpiece by some. i literally think the only thing they took away from the books is that sex and death sometimes happens and that's cool i guess? you're completely right, they should've outgrown this bullshit a long, long time ago. but nah, their racism and sexism is rewarded with emmys so it's clearly just what works.

[@hinasakukimi]

***** yes, all of that. they're wasting such a brilliant cast and a great adaptation of books that were considered un-adaptable to start with. even if the seeds of their shittiness are more evident with hindsight, i completely agree that the first two seasons were really effective and well-done. i do watch it mostly just in the blind hope that it'll get better or they'll portray SOME part of the books. season 5 was abysmal and anything they're getting rewarded for is purely because of GRRM's work that they're massacring. i think since season 3 they've been trying to recapture the red wedding moment since it was so critically acclaimed and shocking to people. they fail to realise that the darkness and horror in asoiaf had a point to it. instead of epic fantasy, it's now the type of cringy dark edginess that i'm sure makes 13 year olds feel really badass when they watch it online.

[@gangurobitch]

The serving someone's relatives to them at a meal plot device comes from, of all things, Greek myth. Atreus (the father of the more famous Agamemnon and Menelaus) killed his twin brother Thyestes' sons and fed them to their father because he was mad that Thyestes seduced his wife in a bid to claim the throne of Mycenae. Thyestes follows this by raping his own daughter to conceive a son to avenge him. Which he does, but then Atreus' sons kick Thyestes and incest rape-baby Aegisthus out of Mycenae, only for Aegisthus to return while Agamemnon is off fighting in the Trojan War and then Aegisthus and Agamemnon's wife bump him off and then Agamemnon's son Orestes kills his mother and her lover to avenge his father... Greeks, man.

[@manicpixiefangirl4189]

Well, considering politics throughout the ages, the violence in Titus isn't THAT crazy. Heck, it's pretty much proto-Game of Thrones.

[@Justplainsomething]

So I know this is a year old video, but as I kept hearing the details of this season's Game of Throne finale, all I could think of was "Jeez, they're going full Titus Andronicus on us." And now rewatching this video I'm just going "YEP, they went full Titus Andronicus, right down to the meat pie."

[@AnticitizenOne93]

Thank God for this channel. I love you work Kyle!

[@AGuyWithAChannel]

Cultural appropriation is a neutral term, regardless of the baggage that gross misuse has given it. As such, I'd say this IS cultural appropriation - not exchange, as... it's all take and no give - but that's not a bad thing, inherently.

[@ElBailes]

This film was a passion project of Steve Bannon. No seriously. look it up.

[@Tuckerscreator]

So now it's like "because the Democrats continue to oppose my policies, I Steve Bannon will now marry the President of Russia."

[@kevlonk]

As someone who always liked this film...ergh. I feel oddly violated now.

[@thrownstair]

That explains far too much.

[@chickencharlie1992]

This is the Shakespeare version of a Grindhouse film.

[@JSmusiqalthinka]

2:05 update to the current president: "Because the crooked Dems are still refusing to negotiate about the Wall; I, Donald J. Trump, will now marry the leader of Mexico...after all I've already been married to 3 women, BEAUTIFUL women, how hard can being married to a man be? I mean come on!"

[@javiercs006]

I mean, this movie *was* executive produced by Steve Bannon... Oh God, they've turned real life into Shakespeare adaptations.

[@Redem10]

Who want some pie?

[@cherrybillet4339]

Redem10 me personally i embrace violence i do neither of what he says cause im kinda nuts

[@wormswithteeth]

Redem10 I do. The meat better be fresh!

[@fallingcrane1986]

God, that’s good!

[@jonathanwright8025]

...no...more...pieeee

[@gilbertoignacioaguirrevarg4550]

Walder Frey

[@Advent3546]

Hear me out on this one guys. Titus.... starring Christopher Titus.

[@Jillbles]

Two-word reason for why this film is anachronistic and bizarre: Julie Taymor.

[@godzillasaurbuttersworth3176]

Honestly, when you said 'baked into pies' my first thought was Game of Thrones

[@misseli1]

Godzillasaur Buttersworth My first thought was Sweeney Todd... At least, I Think they bake people into pies in that story? I haven't actually watched it...

[@fallingcrane1986]

elizabel In Sweeney Todd, Sweeney and his accomplice cooks people into pies as a way to dispose of the dead bodies of Sweeney murdering his customers because he’s too edgy and hates everyone and life because his wife got assaulted, and his daughter is the love of his wife’s rapist. Also, he sings real good. REAL good.

[@ZombieDragQueen]

I became aware of the play because one of my favourite artists, Nick Cave said his father (a professor in English) would recite for him passages from "Titus Andronicus" and "Lolita" when he was a child and it made quite an impression on young Nick. A literary impression and a love for the written word, but also an incitement to discover fringe works of poetry and prose. And just like every rebellious teen Nick chose to study art at college. But in the end, just like the prodigal son, he came back to the written word.

[@Kirbita22]

no offense but anyone who recites titus and lolita to a child should probably be arrested

[@docdave15]

4:10: Translations - "NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAA-NA! I made you eat your children!"

[@Kashanta]

Thanks for this video. When I first saw this movie, I *hated* it, but watching this and listening to your commentary has given me better context for the film. I once said that I'd never see it again after that one viewing, but after this I think I'll re-visit it.

[@NuncNuncNuncNunc]

@10:00 I'd argue that film is just as suggestive as stage. First there is the basic fact that film is 2D. Any 3D perspective we have is entirely by design of the filmaker. We see the world not as it is, but as we are guided to see it. Film uses painted backdrops, miniature models, special effects, etc. High speed chases can be filmed in cars mounted on trucks moving at a leisurely rate, but editing and score suggest the intensity. Film goes so far as to on occassion swap in different actors for the same role hoping you don't notice. What suggests rust to you, suggests dust to me. Stating emphatically that X matters is not a demonstration that it matters.

[@erikbihari3625]

Everything is in the beholder's eye!

[@lannadelarosa]

So, I love this movie and it was the reason I bought my first DVD player back in 2000. But I can enjoy this video lol.

[@BlackSilver23]

The 1999 Taymor production is clearly over the top, but in a strange way (a _very_ strange way) it works. Regarding authorship, I hold that it was indeed written by Shakespeare... perhaps on a dare or bet. Critic: "Hey, Will. I bet you can't write a play in which _every single scene_ contains something utterly shocking and disturbing to the audience." William: "Hold my quill." It's like SAW, 400 years ahead of its time.

[@TheKeyser94]

I like Titus, I see back in the 90', with the Shakespeare fever back then. I think that you had forgotten to review Midnight Summer Dream, that one of my favourites plays, along side with Hamlet, Macbeth, even Romeo and Juliet that was the first Shakespeare play that I had seen, and I totally trough that they would have a happy ending, how naive I was.

[@greatarkangel]

Well done. Amazing review.

[@BradSimsCPT]

Ive had the pleasure of being obsessed with this since I saw it in the movies theater. Ive been fortunate enough to play both Bassianus and Saturninus in 2 different college/community theatre productions. Ive seen the great Robert Cuccioli (famous for the Broadway role of Jekyll and Hyde) play the role of Titus at the Shakspeare Theatre of NJ.. LOVE this play...

[@paulmuaddib451]

...I like that your take on this bonkers play is bonkers AF. Really serves the theme. 😊

[@justmanic9673]

Shakespeare wrote the first torture movie basically.

[@falloutghoul1]

Oh, the movie was torture, for sure...

[@Nullifidian]

Hardly the first. Read Kyd's _The Spanish Tragedy_ and Seneca's _Thyestes_ if you want to know the kind of thing Shakespeare was responding to. Bel-Imperia sends a letter in her own blood and Hieronimo bites out his own tongue, and the Thyestian banquet is the original which Shakespeare clearly had in mind in this play.

[@Nullifidian]

@@falloutghoul1 I thought it was excellent.

[@peterhill8398]

I remember back in Australia in the early 1990s when Melbourne’s annual art festival featured, as one of its centrepieces, a performance of this play. What made it unusual was that the cast performed the entire play in Romanian. The local tabloid press seized upon this as the fitting symbol of how obscure and elitist not only the festival but most of the city’s grants-funded art scene had become. ‘Shakespeare’s worst play spoken in Romanian!’

[@sesfilmsllc]

So this inspired game of thrones and Gotham.

[@troyschulz2318]

Well, it was directed by Julie Taymor and shot by Luciano Tovoli (Suspiria)?

[@robinterrazas654]

Titus Andronicus rules though. It's super underrated

[@alchemicmercury]

This movie is going right up there with "Caligula" as new favorite movie.

[@erikbihari3625]

But to who, specifically!?

[@alchemicmercury]

@@erikbihari3625 ME....specificaly...

[@The1stImpish]

Hang on. Did Kyle miss that the soldiers made of stone at the opening of this film are wearing Chinese style armour. not Roman? and that theyre LITERALLY THE TERRACOTTA WARRIORS? I get the point he's trying to make about the eternal city, but... theyre the Terracotta Warriors...

[@erikbihari3625]

Please, he's an ex channel awesome member, if he's asked to do research with his wildly over produced yet cheap videos, he might end up snapping like a twig!

[@NeilSonOfNorbert]

I look forward to the day you cover Taymor's Tempest, a movie me and my father prefer to her Titus but which a friend and prof of mine considered much worse then Titus.

[@cinematictheatrics]

NeilSonOfNorbert I’m with the professor. Titus is great, The Tempest... not so much. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

This reads like Spaceballs: The Play. Shakespeare really was an innovator. He satirized his own plays centuries before English teachers decided to do it so they could assign it to their students!

[@stephencarter7266]

Nah, Titus Andronicus doesn't read like Space balls the play; you've been _taught_ to read it that way. The play is no more fantastical than Hamlet or MacBeth. Titus Andronicus is simply out of favor right now, by our contemporary cultural gate keepers.

[@thecuttlekid2758]

quick correction for you: it's actually MARCUS who kills the fly in the original text, not Lucius. therefore, the argument of violence shaping Lucius isn't really supported by this scene. it is in the movie, but not in the original text.

[@cyanmanta]

Holy fuck, Kyle, you almost killed me with that joke. Well done, sir.

[@Dave_the_Dave]

It's sad this incredible and bonkers film has kind of disappeared.

[@VuotoPneumaNN]

I love this analysis and I'm a huge fan of yours, Kyle, but I can't believe you kept calling that place "a Coliseum". That's called an amphitheater, The Coliseum is just the nickname of the Amphitheater Of Flavius.

[@gradgurl2007]

So, confession. I freaking adore this play. I think for two reasons. 1) It was my first Globe Theater play and 2) it is just SO insane. Plus, the actors were so good! A secondary character will not come on stage and leave.... they will be murdered. And this version had Titus suffocating the queen in the meal made from her sons. The film version looks a little too... serious for me.

[@EmpressTiffanyOfBrittany]

While I do agree, it's really just not as poignant as other Shakespeare plays. It's a satire of revenge plays, a rather abstract and era-specific premise. It took Julie Taymor altering it to have it have some poignancy.

[@dornravlin]

great video

[@qwertyTRiG]

Never heard of this, and now I want to see it.

[@canadmexi]

"That Demetrius is a real fruitcake!"

[@evanlinden4410]

It makes me so sad because he mentioned South Park but not Sweeney Todd

[@djcreeps121]

Its a wonderful dayy for pie

[@QwertyGirl789]

LionWingenedMunki39 Heavenly Not as hearty as bishop, perhaps but then again not as bland as curate, either

[@scrublordfinesse4359]

djcreeps121 i love this thread

[@Svezhaja_struja]

What is that lovely piece of lute (?) music at 15.53 finishing some of Shakespeare reviews? Would be great to know...

[@hemiolaguy]

+Blue Moon It's called "Can She Excuse My Wrongs?" by John Dowland.

[@Svezhaja_struja]

hemiolaguy Thank you!

[@dornravlin]

i wonder what would happen if ken russell directed this movie

[@alwaysapirateroninace443]

I had to watch this for a class. Wow.

[@kathrynblakeley9823]

May I add that as young Lucius and the child of Tamora and Erin* are the first to leave. They are leaving through the funeral doors of the Roman Coliseum which as you can guess people only go through if a) fighter is dead and someone is moving their corpse (as there is a tunnel system under the colassium that had trap doors, but I digress) or b) you are on a group tour of the Coliseum, your guide knows and planned how to get to do this in advance. Which in both cases is a juxtaposition which adds a little (of sadness or hope I honestly don't know) but I thought might be interesting to share. ** * sorry if I spelled Erin wrong. ** I am nerd, and an amatuer who got to see the Colassium, I am not qualified this is a mere observation and you have been warned.

[@MsDjessa]

I was loving this while watching it on DVD. Then I got so drunk I shut up so drunk I closed my computer. And now I'm watching this review. Praise be to gin and whisky. Okay there are some typos there but I leave them there just to show how drunk I was.

[@Ubermensch9240]

Just remember: This is one Doug Walkers favorite films. THINK ABOUT THAT.

[@rjakobi]

This video alone is worth the subscription. And the pie. Mostly the pie, but...

[@trekjudas]

I liked it it!! Its freaking insane but I loved it!

[@kkkkkkkkkkk6313]

The story is not so rediculous when you think about the context. First the play is pretty much a spiritual successor of a play from the old roman poet andronicus and second the play was made in the early times of Shakespeare theatre in which the author's experimented more with allegories. It was not the late elisabethian Hamlet-Theater jet it was the early Everyman-Theater.( Everyman is a play.) And even in Hamlet we have a ghost that could be real, a halizination or an allegory for hamlet's psycho and we have the play in play which is also an allegory.

[@tausifshadlee]

do Ran (1985)

[@dougmphilly]

i love this movie.

[@robertshows5100]

Steve Bannon was a co-producer. Someone who was in the White House. Fascists are strange. He must have identified with the title character.

[@manciano2009]

There is not the Colosseo in the movie. They shot in the Roman amphitheatre of El Jem in Tunisia.

[@letolethe5878]

Shakespeare invented everything.

[@shanstergoodheart5177]

Titus Andronicus is probably my favourite Shakespeare. This is a great film. I don't understand the hate. Yes it's graphic but it has everything, gender politics, race relations, betrayal, the importance of family. Also the language is beautiful, "I have done a thousand evil deeds as easily as one would kill a fly, and yet it grieves me mightily indeed that I cannot do ten thousand more". That's just marvellous. It's also funny, as well as awfully tragic. It is incredibly problematic, I will grant that. It's racist and sexist and I could do without the rape, despite it being integral to the plot. But is it racist and sexist really? Aren't Aaron and Tamora really saying that if we keep treating people like shit then they are going to bite back and viciously? Tamora likely wouldn't have been a problem if they hadn't murdered her son at the beginning. The characters in the play keep making racist remarks to Aaron, well before they know he's evil. In the film, he's covered in scars. We can assume he hasn't led the best life. And his love for his son always warms my heart.

[@stephencarter7266]

Not racist at all. Only the deranged "woke" crowd, could find this great play racist. I'd be careful of assigning victim status to Aaron, as that itself is a rather racist presumption.

[@ajallen128]

When he Says it's the first film to use Shakespeare's actual text, what exactly does he mean by that?

[@KyleKallgrenBHH]

The first film to use the actual text, within the particular series of videos that I was doing at the time, that is. This was part of my second Shakespeare series, you see.

[@ajallen128]

Ok! Thank you for clarifying. I love this series.

[@turingmachine7905]

Love this movie.

[@tyrant-den884]

Nostalgia critic's 20th favorite movie.

[@whitherwhence]

6:06 She had a _name_, you know!

[@BarnabusBarbarossa]

The idea of tricking someone into eating their children's remains also crops up in the Lay of Atli, a poem from the Poetic Edda. In that case, King Atli (aka Attila the Hun) is tricked into eating his children after their mother, Guðrún, kills them and cooks them for him at a feast in revenge for Atli killing her brothers.

[@trentonnewman9683]

I loved the aristocrats joke.