Roman Polanski's (The Tragedy of) Macbeth
1. The Beginning: On a deserted beach, the Three Weird Sisters ("Witches") dig a hole in the sand and place a human arm with a dagger in its hand and some blood into it. They cover it up and talk about meeting Macbeth later. As they walk away, fog enshrouds the screen and the titles come on. Over the titles we hear what sounds like an enormous battle raging. We also see the credit "Executive Producer Hugh M. Hefner". The credits end, the fog lifts, and armored soldiers appear on the bloody beach as we watch a victor bash to a bloody pulp the back of a combatant from the losing side.
2. The Cinematography of Gilbert Taylor: Taylor was the DP of such films as Dr. Strangelove, Star Wars, A Hard Day's Night, The Omen, Frenzy and Repulsion. Here he paints a world separated from our own by over a millenium's distance - mid-11th century Scotland. It is a brutal, primitive world, yet somehow it's occasionally bathed in warm sunlight or the beautiful green of the unscathed countryside. But mostly, even (or especially so) in its characters' dreams, their flawed humanity outshines whatever goodness may be buried within.
3. The Shakespeare Dialogue: This is a somewhat faithful version of the play but it's an incredibly cinematic one. Even so, many of the film's highlights include some of the best dialogue ever written. Some of my faves are: "Nothing in this life became him like the leaving of it"; "Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble"; "Out, damned spot! Out I say."; "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes!"; and my favorite, "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
4. The Music by the Third Ear Band: The sounds heard in Macbeth are just as eerie as the visuals. The score sounds like something Roxy Music might have recorded if asked to go even more medieval and lose Bryan Ferry's vocals. The strings and oboe-sounding instrument, in particular, are often enough to drive one up a wall, so it's a perfect accompaniment to the guilty and hateful inner lives of Lord and Lady Macbeth.
5. Polanski's Direction, especially in response to the Murder of his wife and unborn child: The film has many blatant references to the murder of Sharon Tate by the Manson Family, but that is why Polanski choose this subject to film next after that terrible incident. There are numerous penetrating knives, including one into a woman's abdomen, and children are killed on screen. There are decapitations, hangings and loads of blood. I would call this film suspense/horror, so it definitely fits into Polanski's films thematically, but often the personal nature of what this film shows adds an extra dimension of true terror to the watching of it. The staging of the Mirror Scene, the Future shown in the Witches' Bubbling Cauldron, and all the other Fantasy/Dream scenes are extremely well done and make this film perhaps the most "modern" Shakespearean film which still keeps it setting intact.
6. The Acting: All the acting seems to be at least good, but much of it, especially Jon Finch's Macbeth, is extraordinary. The play is written and staged so that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have to be the standouts and get most of the best lines and scenes, but here, Martin Shaw's Banquo, Nicholas Selby's Duncan and Terence Bayler's Macduff almost match him. This is a realistic depiction shot in castles and forests so the acting is not overly theatrical, yet it is certainly Shakespearean, if you believe there can be a difference. Finch is great whether he's doing a mental soliloquy, a physical one or interacting with other actors.
7. The Verisimilitude: This appears to be one of the most-realistic depictions of the Middle Ages ever. Unlike Excalibur, another of my fave films, this one has totally believable armor, costumes and sets. They look so great, you can almost feel them. The land itself is seen as clean and capable of beauty, but the skies above it are often very dark and the humans scheming beneath them are even darker. Technically, this film takes place after the Dark Ages, but it's difficult to conceive of a darker, yet more-realistic, world set in the Middle Ages.
8. The Climax: When birnam wood does come to Dunsinane, Macbeth still shows no fear, as he does battle and makes child's play out of all attackers. It's a violent and well-staged action set-piece. It's only after an announcement that there may actually be someone who is "not of woman born" that Macbeth starts to go psycho and the tables are turned on him in.
9. The Ending: The film's ending, back at the home of the Three Weird Sisters, implies that the themes of the play and the film are a never-ending cycle where whoever is not in power will do whatever is necessary to try to gain it. It really does paint humanity in a dark light, but I'm sure that many will accept it just as readily as I do.
10. Eternal (?) Themes: While telling a semi-historically-based Shakespearean tragedy, this film shows Mankind at its most barbaric and greedy. Human life is shown as perhaps the cheapest commodity on earth. I realize that these themes date back to the Bible and other cultural tomes, but Polanski is able to bring it up to date by using his own personal tragedy while also tying the actions in this film into something resembling a gangster saga. All the different sides here seem to have their own ethics up to a point but those who feel undervalued or shunned will sell themselves to the highest bidder. At least "The Family" in a film such as The Godfather (released the year after Macbeth) will tend to stick together, but that only goes so far, and often water is thicker than blood. The "gangs" in this film don't resemble the ones in Romeo + Juliet, except that they are willing to kill, but in that case it's for pointless, stubborn family pride. Here, Macbeth and his wife seem more akin to the Manson Family, willing to kill to fulfill some prophetic dream ("Helter Skelter") which makes no sense to anyone at all, except themselves. As time goes on in the real world, heartless greed seems to extend beyond obvious murders, pointless wars and bureaucratic power struggles. It now seems to involve the collapse of peoples' modest savings and homes so some amoral punk can grab millions of dollars and actually be proud of it. Today, there seems to be no guilt, which was the bane of Macbeth. Is this the new Dark Ages?
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