MACBETH (1971)
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
Roman Polanski is a controversial, but extremely gifted director. His best pictures (Oscar nominated for CHINATOWN and TESS) are brilliant and some of his lessor ones (FRANTIC, BITTER MOON, and DEATH AND THE MAIDEN) are still intriguing. His downfall is that his roots are in horror films (ROSEMARY'S BABY and DANCE OF THE VAMPIRE).
Undoubtedly giddy with the success of his ROSEMARY'S BABY, Roman Polanski decided to approach his next film, a Shakespearean play, in the same manner. With backing from Playboy Productions, his vision of MACBETH is one of the lessor of the movies made from Shakespeare's works. Beside the slasher movie aspects, the film is filled with full frontal nudity. It even has naked boys who are gruesomely murdered.
[Polanski also lost his wife to the Manson clan sometime during this period, and I have no idea how that affected him. MACBETH might have been finished before then. All I know for sure is that it was released in 1971.]
All of this notwithstanding, the major problem with the film is that the acting is lifeless. Yes, the shocking portions are there, but most of the acting is remarkably devoid of energy. Polanski's direction serves more to confuse than to enlighten. If you are not already well versed in the play before you enter, you will undoubtedly leave shaking your head and wondering "what was that all about?"
Polanski's MACBETH has a traditional look. The sets and the costumes are quite realistic. The squalor of that period is in full evidence. The castle rooms have straw beds with a roaring fire in the middle. Several people sleep in each room, and their big dogs sleep with them. From what I know of Scottish history this is all authentic. The movie was actually filmed in Wales, but that is another story.
The cinematography (Gilbert Taylor who later did STAR WARS) is full of earthen browns. It paints a bleak picture of the landscape. Rather than the picture postcard look, it goes with quite a depressing motif.
Polanski has his actors think aloud many of the lines as they walk rather than speak them. He is no Kenneth Branagh. He seems incapable of imbuing in his charges the importance of enunciation. They run through their lines as if the dialog were of little consequence.
If one of Shakespeare's purpose in the play was to shock people with Macbeth's dastardly deeds, then Polanski's techniques are effective. When Macbeth (Jon Finch) murders Duncan (Nicholas Selby), he stabs him several times with the blood spurting onto his hands and his clothes. He transfers the blood to the hands of his wife, Lady Macbeth (Francesca Annis), which makes all the dialog about the blood particularly poignant.
"Do not bid me speak; see, and then speak yourselves," says Macduff (Terence Bayler) when asked about the king's death. As in most sequences, the words are literate but the acting is not. Bayler has little screen presence which is the problem with most of actors in the film. Only Francesca Annis gives a mildly interesting interpretation of a woman gone mad.
Regardless of all of its flaws, this is Shakespeare, and the language is worth the price of admission. When Macbeth wants to beat a fast exit, he does not say, "Let's get out of here." Oh not, Shakespearean prose is ever so much more elegant. Macbeth advises, "Let us not be dainty of our leave-taking." Don't you wish you could talk like that? Don't you wish everyone would talk like that?
As you hear the cold wind blowing across the barren Scottish plain, you can feel the chill going right through your bones.
Finally, I can not leave this review without mentioning the famous scene of the witches. So what do you think Polanski's vision of this is? Well, he has not just a few, but three score of witches. He picks them for their ugliness, no surprise there, for their enormous girth and for their lack of teeth. Oh yes, and he has them all strip naked before the cameras roll. I wish he had spent less time trying to shock and more on practice sessions for his actors.
MACBETH runs 2:20. It is rated R for graphic violence and full frontal nudity of women and boys. The show would be appropriate for mature teenagers. Although it is full of flaws, the movie does have lovely language and effective settings. In the end, I can not recommend it, but I do give it ** which is perhaps a bit more than it deserves.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: November 25, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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