Minotaur (film)

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Minotaur
Promotional poster for 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 May 11, 2006 July 26, 2006
Running time	93 min.
Language	English
Budget	$7,000,000 (US)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

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

1 Plot
2 The beast of the film
3 Deviations from the Legend
4 Cast
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Long ago in the Iron Age a shadow loomed over a lonely village of Athens. To ensure the survival of the empire of the island of Mino, Queen Raphaella gives her body to the strongest god of all,the Bull to create the ultimate fusion of man and god, Queen Raphaella goes through her pregnancy and when it's time for her to give birth,her servants cut open her stomach and the new god,the Minotaur,feeds on the blood of his own mother.As the Minotaur grows,so does its appetite, and to maintain its survival the people of Mino make human sacrifices for it every five 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. He is captured by the royal guards along with 7 other youths, Tyro, Danu, Vena, Morna, Didi, Ziko and Cyrnan, once in the labyrinth, they are immediately attacked by the Minotaur who kills Cyrnan and Ziko by stabbing them through the abdomen with its horns. Queen Raphaella is driven by the hatred of her brother King, jumps into the labyrinth and decides to help the people down there. Queen Raphaella tells them she knows the way out but Vena rejects her because she feels that Queen Raphaella is only trying to lure them to the Minotaur, Theo then attempts to tell her that Raphaella has good intentions for them but Vena loses trust of all of them, she begins to argue but is then stabbed through the mouth by the Minotaur and is killed. They run in different directions with Tyro and Didi finding the way back up to the surface and as they try to contact the others, they unintentionally attract the Minotaur's attention. Didi panics at the sight of the creature, loses her grip and falls directly on top of the Minotaur which kills her by impaling her through the abdomen. 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 ran 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.

[edit] The beast of the film

The Minotaur looks very similar to a gigantic skeletal bull with huge horns. The Minotaur is covered in cobwebs from being in the labyrinth and is also a very fast runner

[edit] Deviations from the Legend

There are several major changes that were made in this story as opposed to the original legend. First and foremost, the beast is suppose to be half-man and half-oxen, not just a horrific looking bull. Second, Theo, the protagonist of the film, is actually called Theseus and is the only person in the Labyrinth when he kills the Minotaur, not one of several people in the maze. Third, the king's sister in the film, is in fact his daughter in the legend, and he 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. Finally, at the end of the story Theseus is given the hand the Minos' daughter as a sign of goodwill and thanks for killing the beast. That and Minos is not killed by a huge explosion, as depicted in the film.