I love every inch of this blood-soaked masterpiece. Even if Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark turns out to be as delightfully awful as it appears to be, Julie Taymor will always remain in my good graces for this (and Across the Universe, to a lesser extent). Thoughts-in-list-form time!:
-I find it curious that Taymor never fully goes into camp with the film, even with the truly strange "penny arcade nightmare" (Taymor uses this term in the commentary) sequences. It would have been tempting to do so, I'm certain, especially since the play is already blackly comic concerning much of its violence. Yet while she does give us the dark humor, she also manages to keep things truly dramatic and tragic.
-The terrific cast helps a lot, especially Jessica Lange's near-operatic Tamora (can you believe she said she had NEVER done Shakespeare before this?), Hopkins and his weird mix of dignity and Hannibal Lecter, Harry Lennix's scene-stealing, and Alan Cumming, who manages to be both hilarious and truly frightening in his unpredictable madness.
-Some of the flourishes may seem excessive, particularly the Matrix-esque shot of the final killing spree, but I love them. I love directors who aren't afraid to go big and have it pay off so delightfully.
-The movie plays great with a crowd. When I watched it with my Shakespeare class last semester, it went over like gangbusters, especially Aaron's "Villain, I have done thy mother!"
Any more thoughts on this glorious tragedy?
-I find it curious that Taymor never fully goes into camp with the film, even with the truly strange "penny arcade nightmare" (Taymor uses this term in the commentary) sequences. It would have been tempting to do so, I'm certain, especially since the play is already blackly comic concerning much of its violence. Yet while she does give us the dark humor, she also manages to keep things truly dramatic and tragic.
-The terrific cast helps a lot, especially Jessica Lange's near-operatic Tamora (can you believe she said she had NEVER done Shakespeare before this?), Hopkins and his weird mix of dignity and Hannibal Lecter, Harry Lennix's scene-stealing, and Alan Cumming, who manages to be both hilarious and truly frightening in his unpredictable madness.
-Some of the flourishes may seem excessive, particularly the Matrix-esque shot of the final killing spree, but I love them. I love directors who aren't afraid to go big and have it pay off so delightfully.
-The movie plays great with a crowd. When I watched it with my Shakespeare class last semester, it went over like gangbusters, especially Aaron's "Villain, I have done thy mother!"
Any more thoughts on this glorious tragedy?
