Macbeth [1971] (DVD)

Yes, Playboy - the soft pornographers - really did stump up the money for this movie. Playboy have been known to do some worthwhile things, and this is one of them. Polanski's Macbeth is a great contribution to the body of recorded performances of Shakespeare. I suspect that the mixture of Polanski and the firebrand critic, Kenneth Tynan, (another fruitful partnership behind this movie) must have been pretty sparky! Firstly this production foregrounds the violence implicit in the play without becoming obsessed with violence. Secondly, Francesca Annis offers a stunningly interesting insight into evil. She demonstrates how effectively evil ...  Read the complete review

Polanski basically follows a traditional interpretation of Macbeth to all intents and purposes, but this is almost a relief after watching too many directors with their own 'angles' on Shakespeare. This is set in the traditional medieval period in a bleak and windswept Scotland, and the film captures the atmosphere beautifully. It is quite a stark and violent take on Macbeth and the landscapes, and settings offer much to the nature of the story that take it beyond the page and onto the screen. The acting is first-class, and you even get the bonus of trying to spot a very young Keith Chegwin in what I think was his acting debut.. ...  Read the complete review

Despite the very convincing comments of e.g. vhart and Athanasius_Green I have to say, I STILL don't like this version of Macbeth. Maybe it's that we had to watch it back in school when I was still struggling to understand it (English is not my mother tongue). Maybe it's the "Playboy productions presents..." at the beginnig that did it for me and made my feminist heart harden against this film... :-) Who knows. Well, I'm going to be fair about it though: First of all, I think it's a rather conventional, conservative approach to the material which makes the film useful for school purposes etc. the setting is unspectacular, rather ...  Read the complete review

This is definatley the most accurate and best portayed MacBeth in the history of celluloid. Im not to fond of it becasue its a bit too hard hitting and gruesome for me, but directore Polanski really new what he was doing and I was really impresed with tis the first time I saw it, just his pure insight is amazing. The film shows medieval life as it really was, it was a nasty and bleak time to live. Life was uncomfortable and inadvanced and disease and murder ruled. The play is given a very thougtful edge here and Polanski has some very interesting ideas about how it should be interpereted, in paticular the characters. This is definatley reccomended for those ...  Read the complete review

I watched the film of Macbeth in a slight panic the night before my English Literature GCSE. Although I find Judi Dench quite irritating, it was worth sitting through her performance just to find out what actually happened in the play. Can you guess I hadn't finished reading it? Although the teacher had warned us that the film version changed several parts of the story, it all seemed to make sense and I passed my GCSE with no problems. If you are not a big Shakespeare/Judi Dench fan, it's probably not worth watching unless you have an English exam the next ...  Read the complete review