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Here's my Macbeth review for the interested.
The very least that can be said of Roman Polanski’s Macbeth is that it leaves an impression. It is the most intense and bloody Shakespeare movie that I have ever seen, but the violence is never cheap or meaningless. From the opening scene of the witches burying a severed hand holding a dagger to the pessimistic ending, the film is unrelentingly bleak. However, the bleakness suits the play and helps to deliver the full power of the tragedy. Every piece of the film works together in order to create a powerful, unrelenting, and awesome experience.
It would be easy to dismiss the film’s violence as a reaction to the death of Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, but that would do the movie a disservice by greatly oversimplifying its significance. Murder is by its definition an ugly act, so it is appropriate that the movie doesn’t pull any punches. By doing so it shows it not only in its full cruelty and destructiveness, but also how it actually is. The film aims for realism, and the brutal deaths are portrayed without sanitation or covering up.
Violence is also no small part of the play itself; it is both what starts Macbeth’s rise to power and what ends it. Polanski makes this a key theme in his movie by placing every death, both big and small, front and center. The burial of the hand at the beginning implies violence before the movie starts and Donalbain approaching the witches’ lair at the end hints that the circle of bloodshed is far from ending. Malcolm, who took back the crown by force, is perhaps sentenced to the same fate as his father while Donalbain may be set up to be the next Macbeth. Violence continuously begets violence in what may be a never ending cycle. Even when Macbeth is killed, the parading of his severed head prevents any feeling of elation at the resolution. Even in the end, the nobility is not noble and there are no heroes.
Setting also plays a large part in Macbeth. Polanski’s background as a horror director gives him the tools to perfectly set the seen.The film opens with a shot of the endless, empty scenery of a Scottish beach, which sets the visual tone for the rest of the film; grey, dark and amp. It’s hard to imagine a better setting for a story of betrayal and madness. Not only does it look like Scotland, it soaks the film in melancholy and gloom. There are a few scenes where sunlight creeps over the Scottish hills, but these primarily serve only to show how dark and gray the rest of the film is. Like the weather in Othello that reflects disorder of Venice, this scenery reflects the upset order the Great Chain of Being. As a film, there is access to bigger and better sets than a play is capable of having, but there is also the advantage of music. The music, which is often atonal and eerie, also compliments the film well and could almost pass as the soundtrack to a horror movie.
At the end of the film, it cannot be said that it is a tragedy of character, but instead a tragedy of circumstance. When standing above Duncan, Macbeth hesitates and begins to step away, but Duncan’s unexpected awakening forces him to murder. Given the scenes with the witches, it’s possible that the entire thing was out of his control the whole time and Macbeth was fated for violence and doom. Do the witches predict what is to come or only what may be? It is not said. Randal Robinson states that
Polanski’s Macbeth is the tortured child. In his society, the strong penetrate the weak with demands for unremitting obedience, for selflessness, for service, for suffering, for sacrifice of the body. Rebelling, the subjects kill their aggressors and become aggressors they hate. Having been trained to believe they ought to be victims, how can they not want to kill themselves? (108).
If this is the case, then Macbeth is not tragedy of character because character is already destroyed when the play starts. It is then the circumstances that cause this that provide the real tragedy of the film.
When all is said and done, Roman Polanski’s Macbeth is a unique and powerful adaptation of the play. It is perhaps the most haunting, visceral, and unsettling adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s works and because of this it is also one of the best. The film’s brilliant execution and unwavering existentialism make it memorable and deeply affecting film, although not one for the squeamish.
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