Macbeth
1971: Roman Polanski

This was the first major film project Roman Polanski undertook following the horrific murders of his wife and others at his home at the hands of the Manson Family. It seems clear that he was to some extent using the film to purge certain imagery from his mind. You need to consider whether that’s imagery you want living in your own.

It is a thoroughly cinematic treatment of the play, shot in gorgeous widescreen, with lavish Scottish locations and an extremely sure hand with the camera. There’s a strange and atmospheric score under the whole, made up largely of Celtic instruments probably more characteristic of the eighteenth century than of the twelfth or even the sixteenth, and one painfully anachronistic song at the banquet about half an hour into the film (nothing half as excruciating as “A Time for Us” from the Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet, however). Some of the action (especially the battles) are not shown, rather than shown: that is, we hear them, while looking at “fog and filthy air”. This doubtless saved expense in the production, but the depiction of the battles (which are not onstage) is really not necessary anyway, and the imagination is perhaps more powerful in expressing what’s going on than anything less than a very lavish depiction. As often in cinematic versions of Shakespeare, soliloquies tend to be done by means of voiceover. It’s a convention, as much as the spoken soliloquy is, and it seems perfectly reasonable to handle them this way.

The principal characters — especially Jon Finch as Macbeth and Francesca Annis as Lady Macbeth — are extraordinarily well-played. Both are seasoned players with a good sense of the text. Annis is still young and very striking, and she is an appealing character until her cold disposition begins to unfold. Duncan, on the other hand, is shown as reasonably young and vigorous (in contrast to many other performances, where he is presented as old and feeble).

The script is nonetheless cut at least somewhat, which is unfortunate, given the brevity of the play overall, and rearranged in parts to make the pacing more cinematic. Polanski seems not to have been quite sure what to do with Malcolm’s elaborate “confession” scene. It remains (as it does in many productions) largely uninterpreted and hence puzzling.

As a caution to parents and teachers, I should mention that this is certainly the bloodiest and most grotesque of all the versions of Macbeth I have seen, and it also includes some non-sexual nudity. In some ways, however, it is among the best of the movie versions.

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