Titus Androgynous: Foul Mouths and Troubled Masculinity

In Titus (1999), Julie Taymore makes obvious use of anachronisms (motorcycles, pinball machines, ziploc baggies). Rather than being gratuitous, this paper argues that these anachronisms are clues to her engagement with the Roman movie tradition from the 20s through Gladiator. By visually quoting sword-and-sandal epics, Titus engages one of their central anxieties: the threatened submersion of the male body in appetite, represented physically by open mouths and wounds, and architecturally by the rounded form and arched openings of the amphitheater. This complements the language of Shakespeare's play, which clearly parallels a devouring, appetite-driven Rome with the body of the barbarian empress, Tamora.