Macbeth

Geoffrey Wright, who did Romper Stomper and brought Russell Crowe to the attention of the world, brings Shakespeare's Scottish play up to date by setting it in the under world of Melbourne (or is it Sydney?). the speeches are there and so is the flashy trash of Silk Stalkings or one of the other cable (before cable was cool) series that surfaced in the wake of Miami Vice. Its an odd mix of guns and iambic pentameter, which works as well as that description. Not "bad" as such, the mix just doesn't work and the result is more grating then ingratiating. Part of the problem is the need to fit the plot into a new surroundings while retaining the language. the result is some odd sequences with no dialog and music that are suppose to get things across the dialog really can't because it doesn't pertain to now. The longish opening sequence before Macbeth meets the witches (Goth School girls in Catholic School Girl Uniforms) sets up the scenario which is changed from battling lords to battling crime families. This leads into the awkward meeting in an empty disco where Macbeth is holding a hostage. Turning on the lights and fog machine- for no real reason, Macbeth finds the girls coming out of the fog. My interest began to wane almost immediately and the scene where Macbeth's friend tells the drug lord of Macbeth's heroics kind of sealed the deal and I stopped watching and instead began to listen rather than watch(or were the scenes reversed, I don't know I don't care). despite its awards down under the film just doesn't really work especially when the idea isn't a new one with earlier films like Joe Macbeth and Men of Respect floating around. If you must see it it wait for cable.

A very hyped-up, slick, edgy reinterpretation.

They've fallen into the "because it's modern, it has to be hyped-up, slick, etc." trap.

"Romeo and Juliet" carried this idea off much more successfully, but I really think it's time we move beyond the two extremes here (period piece vs. edgy film).

Just because this is a "modern" retelling, doesn't mean the movie has to look like a magazine ad, or have anything to do with drugs or guns.

If the trappings were as subtle as the honeyed words, Macbeth would be a far more powerful film. As it is, read your Shakespeare. Read it out loud. Ask your Oxford dictionary some questions. Skip the film. Or don't, but you've been warned.

Sorry for the super-long review. IMDb made me do it.

Well actually it is adapted from a play from Shakespeare, but it's not your typical Shakespearian adaptation you'll get here. Although the dialog seems to be spoken as it stood in the book (I don't know it word for word, but they use Shakespearian "language"), the whole thing is brought into a more modern world. It's not the first movie to do so, but I guess it's the first to be quite so brutal about it (literally speaking in this case).

The acting is quite good and with a bit of settling in time, you'll not even notice that this is done after a Shakespeare play, but see it as an action-drama (movie). And if you can do that, than you can enjoy it too (as much as it is possible for you).

Saw this at a preview screening today. I have never seen the Director's most famous film, Romper Stomper, and know it only by reputation. My guess is this very graphic and bloody version will satisfy his fans and many others. Doubt I would recommend it to anyone who was unfamiliar with the play but, taken simply as a film, I believe it is excellent. Superb cinematography and great sound track back up a 'reading' of the play that seems to me to have real integrity.

I note the current average rating on IMDb is a fraction over 3/10. Assuming the vast bulk of those are votes by the illiterate and inexperienced voters with a mental age of 12 who usually bulk out the meter, that probably bodes well for what is quite an exceptional film. If you don't know the play, for god's sake read it and don't send your ignorant comments to this forum.

It is refreshing to rest assured that Shakespeare remains a viable writer and no matter how his plays are manipulated or 'updated' or altered or interpreted, his majesty of the English language remains intact and the impact of his ideas and words sustain even the most bizarre reconsiderations. Such, for this viewer, is the case of MACBETH as condensed for the screen by writer/actress Victoria Hill and directed with intensity and sensitivity of communication by Geoffrey Wright. The result may seem to be a bloody mad feud suggesting a majority of the teen driven films of today, but consider the source: imagining Shakespeare's MACBETH without the gore would mean the meat had been removed.

Transferred from Scotland to Melbourne, Australia, the well-known fight for kingship among the Scots is transposed to be the turf struggle for supremacy in the underworld gangland of Melbourne. The script and the direction make this transposition work, using the original dialog from the play, placing it in the voices and bodies of an all-Australian cast, to the point that the allegiance of the actors as to place is far less important than the telling of a powerful tale of ambition. Sam Worthington makes an enigmatic yet strong Macbeth, well paired by Victoria Hill as his conniving and ultimately mad wife Lady Macbeth: the two form a chemistry that serves the original intent of the author well. The many characters who rise and fall in the wake of the ambition of Macbeth tend to blend a bit because of the condensation of the script, but Gary Sweet as the doomed Duncan, Steve Batoni as Banquo, and Lachy Hulme as Macduff are particularly fine. The three witches whose predictions drive the play here become nude seductresses and are well interpreted by Miranda Nation, Chloe Armstrong, and Kate Bell.

The battle scenes are appropriately gruesome and the musical score that accompanies this film is an odd mixture of rock and piano transcriptions of Beethoven symphony movements. With the bracing cinematography by Will Gibson it all works well. Unfortunately the Shakespearean language can become lost with the heavy Aussie accents and subtitles would have been helpful. But if your television set has that subtitle option available, this small defect can be overcome. Yes, it helps to know the original play well in order to fully appreciate the transposition, but the script and cast and director make a fine case for involving even the uninitiated into the power of MACBETH. Worth your time, this. Grady Harp