The Tragedy of Macbeth is the 11th film version of Shakespeare's Scottish play that I've watched and the 23rd version of the play I've seen overall.
It might also be the first version that I've seen where I declared part way through the movie that I wanted to make out with the costume designer. Then later the cinematographer. And later still the production designer. Mary Zophres, Bruno Delbonnel and Stefan Dechant respectively, for the record. Also, the entire team responsible for digital set extensions and just the CGI team generally.
Because this movie is SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL.
It's stylised to within an inch of it's life, and it's shot in black and white... and actually shot that way, not desaturated later... so the costumes rely on texture and pattern and material instead of colour. Same with the sets and the lighting. It's all about geometry and lines and shadow.
Total artifice and wonderfully sparse, but beautifully done.
But you could very literally take almost any still from the movie, frame it and put it on the wall and it would be the most wonderful monochromatic art piece.
Okay, so... what did Joel Coen choose to do with with my favourite Shakespeare play to make it his own?
Interestingly, he beefed up the roll of Ross (Alex Hassell)... he turned Ross into more of a priest than just another nobleman and Hassell's performance rides the line where you never know whose side he's supposed to be on and he always seems... a little creepy and a little Machiavellian. And, spoilers for a more than 400 year old play, as well as the movie... the inference here is that Ross is the one who saves Fleance and pushes Lady Macbeth down the stairs at the end rather than her leaping from a tower. He's much more of a "string puller" in this version.
Which is a take I haven't seen before.
He also chose Kathryn Hunter as The Witches. You might not recognise the name, but she was in the start of the fifth Boy Wizard movies very briefly, but she has a distinctive face and I recognised her immediately. Turns out that she's well known as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and is a respected theatre director and actor.
She's also mesmerising as The Witches. Or, technically, I guess, The Witch. Because while there are often three bodies on screen, either they are all Hunter and composited together or they are Hunter plus two other people of similar height and build. Hunter does speak in different tonal registers to indicate the three personalities of the Witches... but I'll be honest, in some ways, I wished they'd leaned into it more... actually had Hunter play three different characters who are mostly identical but maybe wearing slightly different outfits.
Because, honestly, more Hunter would not have been a bad thing.
It's interesting that Coen both included a number of actors from the Boy Wizard movies, but also cast a number of American actors in minor roles. And all of the black actors in the movie are American. Which makes sense, given that your Macbeth is both black and American... so it makes sense that they're all "from the same place" in the world of the movie.
Oh, and I just need to say that the Hair and Makeup Department did Banquo kinda dirty, giving Bertie Carvel big, bushy, comedy eyebrows. It was a choice... I honestly don't think it was a great choice given the often intentionally harsh lighting... those things often look like big angry caterpillars attempting to leap off his face.
But, I hear you cry... what about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?
First... let me say that in the production of Macbeth that lives, forever, in my head... Macbeth needs to be young. Mid twenties at the most. I feel like the combination of that amount of avarice makes more sense on a young man. And if Lady Macbeth is still of childbearing age, the revelation that Banquo will be the scion of a line of kings holds more bite to it, rather than Lady Macbeth being beyond the age where that's a possibility any more.
I also would love to lean into the idea of Duncan calling Macbeth "cousin" more literally, and have the king be early 30's at most and his sons in their teens.
But, this isn't the imaginary version I would put together...
This version stars Denzel Washington as Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. So, while I personally think that the Macbeths should be younger than they're presented here, you have to balance this against the fact that it's Denzel and Frances. And, I mean, especially Frances, because she's fantastic always.
Which isn't to say that Denzel isn't good... I just haven't seen him in that many things.
He plays Macbeth wonderfully... and this is possibly the best version of "Macbeth loses his mind at the moment he stabs Duncan" that I've seen. Other versions have done great work with that idea, but nobody else has really got down into it like Denzel.
But... I'm going to say... as a couple who are supposed to be in love, Washington and McDormand didn't really give me much in the way of chemistry. As conniving, backstabbing pair of regicides (also, it's weird that the word for the act and the word for the person doing the thing is the same word, it feels like it shouldn't be), I 100% totally buy them. But as a couple of who love each other and will do this horrific thing because of how much they love each other, not so much.
Which isn't blatant in the text or anything, I just feel that if you have that, it does a lot of the heavy lifting for their decision making.
But, like I said, they're both fantastic in their roles. And I was legitimately sad when we hit the point in the play where Lady Macbeth shows up less... because that meant less McDormand.
There were also moments of gold in very, very small roles.
Jacob McCarthy as Wheyface, the unfortunate servant that comes to tell Macbeth that the wood is on the move only has two brief scenes, and he's doing a lot of floppy hair acting, but he was memorable... as was Ethan Hutchison as MacDuff's son, who got a much more dramatic death than he usually does... and was actually really good in his one scene.
At the end of the day though, while this movie has many, many strong performances, a fantastically talented actress as the Witch, and charismatic actors in the lead roles... the strength of this movie is in it's visuals and it's design.
Absolutely stunning.
yani's rating: 5 geometric patterns out of 5
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