A little more than 400 years ago, at the turn of the 17th century, William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright in the history of the English-speaking peoples, brought forward the tragedy of "Macbeth" to please King James I, who was also James VI of Scotland. The story tells of a tragically ambitious Scottish lord, his scheming wife, and their downfall at the hands of three evil witches. Notwithstanding a few alterations by respected contemporary Thomas Middleton, Shakespeare's work survives him by four centuries, and continues to enrapture audiences worldwide. In 1971, director Roman Polanski brought to the world his deeply personal adaptation, brimming with realistic violence. It's quite clear that this film is Polanski exorcising the demons of his wife's brutal slaying. English actors Jon Finch and Francesca Annis star as Lord and Lady Macbeth, with an able (if indistinct) supporting cast; make no mistake though, this movie belongs to Finch and Annis. Annis' portrayal of the shrewish Lady Macbeth has been the focal point of much debate, with many considering her too soft, but I find her performance to be quite good. Finch is even better, bringing Macbeth's tortured, tragic, and ultimately tyrannical character to the screen. Scotland in this movie is a brooding, shadowy backdrop, and colour appears only with the arrival of the gaudy English army, coming to dethrone the tyrant Macbeth. Polanski and noted Shakespeare scholar Kenneth Tynan modified the Bard of Avon's texts, splitting up scenes and transferring lines from place to place, but the effect works perfectly. A worthy worthy of a 10/10.
Review of Macbeth
