I’m not a Shakespearean nor do I remember any of the Shakespeare plays I read in my high school English class. But the most recent screen adaptation of Macbeth, titled with the play’s original name The Tragedy of Macbeth, written and directed by Joel Coen is not a play nor a live recording of one.
Still from The Tragedy of Macbeth
Still of the character Ross (Alex Hassell)
Still from The Tragedy of Macbeth
What stood out about this film depiction of Macbeth is how it translates to the horror film genre. The clever angles, curvilinear spaces, and shadows create a sense of claustrophobia in Coen’s Scottish landscape. Characters hide in the shadows, are caught in the light, and the wanderings of their mind transform into an untethered visual reality. Through a myriad of listening to the Wyrd sisters and his wife, Macbeth gets what he wants but at the expense of going mad with power.
As the viewer, I found the variation of camera angles and close ups added to a haunting sense of disorientation in the film. The creative decision to depict in black and white limited how far my interpretation could go in the universality of Shakespeare’s tale.
The sparse use of special effects such as the night fog and water reflections of children speaking to Macbeth convinced me more of the terror of the story. But that belief quickly dropped at the climatic scene of Macbeth’s death. Perhaps there were editing choices that could have been reconsidered? At least in trashy slasher films, the directors are fully committed to their aesthetic of gore and horror.
From Orson Welles, Roman Polanski, Justin Kurzel, and Akira Kurosawa, there have been many screen adaptations of Macbeth. I found that the sound design in Coen’s differentiated his film from the others. Sound functioned as a plot device and as marker of events; possibly a marker of madness for both Macbeth and his wife. From the sounds of crows flying over to their cawing to water dripping on the floor to footsteps, sounds moved the story forward and returned back to pivotal moments in the past. Every sound was intensified as Lord and Lady Macbeth descended deeper into madness, including another commanding performance by cinema all-star Frances McDormand.
Still of the character Macbeth (Denzel Washington)
Still from The Tragedy of Macbeth. Left to right: Banquo (Bertie Carvel) and Macbeth
The brilliance in Denzel Washington’s performance is the subtlety in his acting as a vexed Macbeth; raising his forehead, eyebrows, or eyes that reveal more of Macbeth’s mind than his dialogue. Washington’s acting has a range of emotions that at times, becomes comical. In the scene when Macbeth believes that he sees Banquo alive, the blend of Shakespeare’s prose and Washington’s choreography of fighting what is actually a crow presents an absurd display of folly, evident by the puzzled reaction of Lady Macbeth and guests.
Still of the character Wyrd sister (Kathryn Hunter)
Oh my god. KATHRYN HUNTER.
If Denzel Washington is amassing all the film’s praise for his performance, Kathryn Hunter deserves equally as much. Washington’s performance would not have been as seismic without Hunter’s malevolent performance of the Wyrd Sisters. In the beginning of the film, it is Hunter’s voiceover that sets the tone of the plot, moving first the chessboard pieces that will unfold the story of Macbeth. Her performances reminded me of Andy Serkis’s performance of Gollum in LOTR, a character with multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia. Kathryn Hunter is the only actor in the film who plays multiple characters. All she does effortlessly with her acrobatic movement, an unforgettable voice, and a craft well beyond her acting contemporaries.
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