The Scottish Lord Macbeth, chooses evil as the way to fulfill his ambition for power. He commits regicide to become King, and then furthers his moral descent with a reign of murderous terror... Read allThe Scottish Lord Macbeth, chooses evil as the way to fulfill his ambition for power. He commits regicide to become King, and then furthers his moral descent with a reign of murderous terror to stay in power, eventually plunging the country into civil war. In the end, he loses ev... Read allThe Scottish Lord Macbeth, chooses evil as the way to fulfill his ambition for power. He commits regicide to become King, and then furthers his moral descent with a reign of murderous terror to stay in power, eventually plunging the country into civil war. In the end, he loses everything that gives meaning and purpose to his life before losing his life itself.
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- Donalbain
- (as Raymond Bellew)
- Seyton
- (as Larry Zahab)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsJust before Lady Macbeth says, "When you durst do it..." the boom mic shadow falls onto her face and blackens it.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Take Thirty: Sean Connery on Being Bond (1965)
Say what one will of Almond's adapted screenplay, I believe it's just as if not more concretely regrettable how the cinematography frames the visuals for us. The camera almost always zooms in to depict actors from the waist up, if not from the chest up; just as often the frame is tighter still, and it's only an actor's face that we see. This is a decision of film-making that definitively shrinks the viewing experience, for we get little sense of characters' positions on the set, or movements, or the relationship between their positions and movements. The spotlight of actors' faces could feasibly have been employed to draw forth the psychological aspect to the tale, or at least focus on the heightened emotions that are involved; that's not what Almond did here, however, so the novelty only serves to shortchange the visuals. Even more to that point, we see little of Horst Dantz's costume design, including crowns that would be fit for a Witch-king of Angmar - and not nearly enough of Rudi Dorn's set design. The earnest simplicity of the sets is somewhat brutalist and beautiful as they are defined by sharp angles and blockiness; with shrewd use of lighting, the art direction lends an eeriness to the proceedings of the sort that would be a primary facet of Joel Coen's 2021 movie, 'The tragedy of Macbeth.' Or rather, this would be the effect, if not for how much the cinematography takes away from what we see of the sets.
'Macbeth,' as a play, is nothing if not a bloody tableau of murder, madness, and lust for power. Even on paper the narrative is characterized by harsh, buzzing energy, and the characters by thrumming vitality - the Lord and Lady not least. Something substantial would be sorely missing from any iteration of the play in which the performances were not marked by searing, fiery passion. Thankfully, this is not a shortcoming of Almond's picture, for the vibrancy of the acting is far greater than can be said of some more well known interpretations. Everyone appearing herein is terrific, and the portrayals may well be among the highlights; Sean Connery and Zoe Caldwell, above all, deftly command the lead roles, and to be honest I'd liked to have seen still more of them in these capacities. But ah, that's the crux of the matter: the cast is splendid, the sets and costume design are lovely, and the words of Bill Shakes are timeless. All these qualities are forced into very small, vexing corners by both the peculiarly restrictive camerawork, and maybe even more by Almond's direction which enforces the unseemly gallop, a heavy-handed gait that actually seems to increase in strenuous velocity as the digital timer advances. There is unyielding strength in every component part, yet the most fundamental building blocks of the construction here so desperately ill-considered that they siphon away that strength until this 1961 feature becomes but a fleeting shadow of its ideal self. To wit: Connery and Caldwell give great performances, but their scenes are robbed of the gravity that they should carry.
I don't outright dislike this. I think it's far lesser a title than it should have been, however, and the entertainment to be had therefrom is ultimately kind of middling. We get what we came for, sure, but it's hard to be more than partway satisfied with the end result. There are worse ways to spend one's time, and there are indeed worse realizations of 'Macbeth,' but there are also far better ways and far better realizations. Unless one has a specific impetus for watching this, there's sadly just not much need to bother seeking it out.
- I_Ailurophile
- Nov 15, 2023
- Permalink
Details
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1