Minotaur (film)

Minotaur
DVD cover of Minotaur
Directed by	Jonathan English
Produced by	Jonathan English
Written by	Nick Green Stephen McDool
Starring	Tom Hardy Tony Todd Rutger Hauer Ingrid Pitt
Music by	Martin Todsharow
Cinematography	Nic Morris
Editing by	Eddie Hamilton
Distributed by	Lions Gate
Release date(s)	March 11, 2006 (United States) May 11, 2006 (Russia) July 26, 2006 (Germany)
Running time	93 min.
Country	United Kingdom Luxembourg Germany France Spain Italy United States
Language	English
Budget	$7,000,000 (US)

Minotaur is a 2006 horror film, directed by Jonathan English. It stars Tom Hardy, Tony Todd, Ingrid Pitt and Rutger Hauer. It was filmed in Luxembourg.

Plot

Long ago in the Iron Age a shadow loomed over the lonely village of Thena. For every three years, eight village youths are stolen from their families to the capital of the Minos Empire and placed in the underground labyrinth to be a sacrifice to the Minotaur, the Minoan god. Theo, haunted by the loss of his love, Fion, in an earlier sacrifice, is convinced that the beast is not a deity and that his love still lives within the labyrinth. His father Cyrnan, the village leader, tries to reason with Theo not to go but Theo is driven by blind rage and made his way in with seven other youths to be sacrificial lambs. However, Theo intends to kill the Minotaur. Along with his fellow captives, Tyro, Danu, Vena, Morna, Didi, Ziko and Cyrnan, they are placed in the labyrinth by King Deucalion, with the youths slaughtered one by one by the Minotaur. However, Theo is aided by Deucalion's sister, Queen Raphaella, who reveals that her mother gave herself to bestiality to create a living god, the Minotaur. As the Minotaur grows, so does its appetite when it murdered Deucalion's brother, resulting with the human sacrifices to appease the Minotaur while ensuring Minos's survival.

Theo, along the way, discovers the labyrinth is connected to an underground vent and Tyro tempts the Minotaur to crash into one of the vents, but is unsuccessful, as the Minotaur eats him alive. Theo then tempts the Minotaur and in the process, the Minotaur breaks his left horn, but continues to charge after Theo. As Theo runs back towards the enlarged vent, he scratches the walls and generates a spark that ignites the whole labyrinth, and dives into a pond of water where Raphaella was waiting for him. They emerge from the water as the flames die out, but the beast is still alive and attempts to charge at them again. Theo takes the horn out of the rubble from where the vent was, and just as the beast attempts to kill him, stabs the Minotaur through the mouth and continues on charging until it hits a collapsed rock formation which impales the horn through the Minotaur's head and finally kills it. Once out, they find Deucalion near death from the explosions decimating the palace as Raphaella smothers him to death, ending the cycle of fantaism and starting a new age.

Cast

• Tom Hardy ... Theo
• Michelle Van Der Water ... Queen Raphaella
• Tony Todd ... King Deucalion
• Lex Shrapnel ... Tyro
• Jonathan Readwin ... Danu
• Rutger Hauer ... Cyrnan
• Maimie McCoy ... Morna
• Lucy Brown ... Didi
• James Bradshaw ... Ziko
• Fiona Maclaine ... Vena
• Claire Murphy ... Nan
• Ingrid Pitt ... The Sybil

Deviations from Classical mythology

There are several major changes that were made in this story as opposed to the original legend. In the myth, the king was Minos himself (Deucalion was Minos' second son), who had been married to the queen who gave birth to the beast; this had been the consequence of a divine curse, while the gods play no part of import in the movie. Theo, the protagonist of the film and based on Theseus (a demi-god, rather than a humble shepherd), had no interest in killing the Minotaur at first. Furthermore, the name of king's sister in the film, is in fact Ariadne in the legend, and Deucalion does not show any signs of wanting sexual relations with her in the original text. The daughter also gives Theseus a golden string to help him navigate the maze, as well as a sword to kill the Minotaur. Finally, at the end of the story Theseus is given the hand of Minos' daughter as a sign of goodwill and thanks for killing the beast.

See also

• List of historical drama films
• Minos
• Theseus
• Minotaur
• Minoan civilization
• Bronze Age
• Knossos
• Greek mythology in popular culture

External links

• Minotaur at the Internet Movie Database
• Minotaur at AllRovi