Macbeth
2018: Kit Monkman

This is certainly one of the most peculiar cinematic experiences one could have, in Shakespeare or elsewhere. The whole is shot in as a live action film, but the sets are interspersed with odd line drawings that give the impression of a plastic reality in which the scenes are floating provisionally. Sets merge with these line drawings in a curiously suggestive way. Changes o9f scene are represented by dropping or rising through the layers of a kind of stacked universe; we move up and down freely. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it; if it is an example of a particular style or mode of presentation, I don’t yet know how to classify it. That being said, the overall effect is riveting.

The script is more than trivially altered. There are major cuts (as one usually expects); pieces of the play are moved about and inserted into other pieces. The last major soliloquy of the play — Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow...” speech — is placed in the middle of his final duel with Macduff. Macduff is down in the fight; Macbeth turns his back and delivers the speech, unaware that Macduff has recovered himself in the background. With “...signifying nothing.” Macduff delivers the decapitating death-blow, and the screen goes black. The whole progress of the play has been an exploration of Macbeth&squo;s descent into a hell of nothingness, so this is perhaps the point. There are also many very significant omissions — the Porter's scene is all but eliminated, and Malcolm’s curious testing of Macduff in the scene where the latter hears of his family’s destruction is missing. as well.

It is also probably the most acoustically nuanced production of any Shakespeare play I have seen; most of the action is accompanied by moody background music, which is unusual enought in most Shakespeare films; there is, however, also a heightened appreciation for sound effects generally; as a study in how to incorporate sound in suggestive and symbolic ways, it would be hard to find anything comparable.

Some have found the presentation too chaotic to follow. I wouldn’t agree there, but it must be admitted that it probably helps a good deal to go in knowing the story pretty well. I would not recommend this as a first viewing of the play for anyone. The accents are also deeply Scottish; those who find that difficult to track may have problems with it.

With those fairly abundant cautions, I can say that some of the acting is really quite good. Focus is chiefly on Macbeth himself, and other roles get relatively short shrift. Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene is truncated but effectve. Macduff’s role is reduced to only a sliver of its original form, but within the space given him, Macduff conveys the extent of his grief and passion exceptionally well.

That this is no longeer Macbeth, properly speaking, probably goes without saying. It is nevertheless laden with significance and powerfully effective. Does it present the play as the playwright conceived of it? Surely not. Does it present something else still mainly in accord with his intention? I would have to say yes. Others may well diisagree Certainly the arch exremities of the presentation invite some rethinking. It's described in at least one of the blurbs (at Amazon) as a “reimagining” of Macbeth, and that certainly seems correct.

As noted, I would not recommend the film to anyone as a first exposure to Macbeth. Nor would I recommend it for younger audiences without adult supervision. It is rated “R” less for the violence; it contains — which is understated, if anything, compared to other versions like the Roman Polanski version — than for the frank sex and nudity in the section where Lady Macbeth is using her wiles to win Macbeth to her program. None of that is required by Shakespeare’s script, to be sure; but it is not, I would argue, really gratuitous either. Parents are, however, cautioned accordingly.

Watch Macbeth on streaming video from Amazon