Macbeth
by Roman Polanski
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DVD details
Actor: Francesca Annis, John Stride, Jon Finch, Martin Shaw, Terence BaylerDirector: Roman Polanski
Brand: Sony
Writer: Roman Polanski
Producer: Andrew Braunsberg
Producer: Hugh M. Hefner
Producer: Timothy Burrill
Producer: Victor Lownes
Writer: Kenneth Tynan
Writer: William Shakespeare
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 140 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-05-07
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of Macbeth
DVD Review: Best Witches Ever
Summary: 5 Stars
What can I say....this is a great Macbeth. It's all good.
My favorite thing is Polanski's concept of the witches. They do much witchcraft but no magic. They act like Medieval witches we are told acted. They bury a severed hand with a dagger in it....and a battle takes place there. They hand Macbeth a beaker full of goop with psilocybin mushrooms floating on top and he hallucinates the 8 Kings. They chant and spit and hop and laugh at naked sabbats....it's great!
Speaking of nudity....
This seems to be a problem (along with the graphic murders) for those one and two star reviewers. None of this is gratuitous however. The blood is there, prompted by the script itself ( Who's have thought..... And it can never be washed away) and by the very environment and culture. The nudity is easily explained. Lady Macbeth sleeps nude and so when she sleepwalks....she's nude. Now in "reality" a queen might actually sleep in a bliaut or some kind of chemise, but her nudity is also symbolic. She is after all exposing herself and, for the 1st time in the play, being openly honest. I think it's perfectly justified. The witches are all naked because that's what supposedly happened at sabbats, as they raise a demon or the devil himself to have intercourse with (Like Rosemary's baby, y'know)
It's funny, I remember when the film came out the main complaint was Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's age. "They're supposed to be middle aged!" my professors lamented. It says nothing about that in Shakespeare that I can find. And this image of youth tempted and run amok is the lesson from the Manson family Polanski wanted to get out there.
DVD Review: Macbeth is Manson.
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie was directed by Roman Polanski who did it shortly after his pregnant wife was murdered by the Charles Manson cult. When you witness the scenes in where a family is brutally murdered and the final scene of villian facing victim- you have to see it through the pain that is Roman Polanski.
There is nothing else like it.
DVD Review: Amazing Film
Summary: 5 Stars
Especially for its time. I saw this movie in 1968, when it was rated "X" on the old ratings system. It is SO well done it's almost legendary--unless you're too young to appreciate what it might have meant to an audience in 1968.
The "poorer" reviews here seem to be coming from a younger crowd of reviewers. Perhaps they are disappointed that Polanski chose to put his own mark on "The Scottish Play" and it isn't "by the book." Perhaps they are simply young and lack the real-life experiences that make the play such a classic. Or maybe youth has become inured to the true horror of interpersonal violence because of its current prevalence both in film and daily life.
Whatever the reason, I say, "Watch it again when you're 60 or so." Your opinion might change.
DVD Review: Finch is amazing!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is Jon Finch's greatest film role, and he may well be the best actor ever to prance around soliloquizing MacBeth that ever was.DVD Review: Mr. Yochum's Senior English Class
Summary: 4 Stars
Being a bit of a film fanatic, I was expecting from Polanski an excellently directed interpretation of Shakespeare's classic tragedy. Fortunately, this famous director fully delivered. Besides the success of direction, I also believe that the cinematography, location, and art direction were very well done.
All in all, I thought this film was a generally captivating version of the play, but I believe there was an occasional scene that was in need of an editing eye. Shakepeare's classic soliloquies are obviously acceptable in the plays themselves, but if given the opportunity to portray emotions more clearly through cinema, I think the writers or director should have taken more advantage of the chance.
I would definitely recommend this film to any Shakespeare, Polanski, or just basic retro film fans. (not to mention 12 grade english classes)
Description of Macbeth
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/07/2002 Starring: Jon Finch Run time: 141 minutes Rating: RRoman Polanski's adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy remains one of the most infamous for a number of reasons: the copious amounts of bloody gore, its expert use of location settings (filmed in North Wales), and Lady Macbeth's nude sleepwalking scene. Despite its notoriety, though, this does remain one of the more compelling film adaptations of the Scottish tragedy, if one of the more pessimistic takes on the story of Macbeth and his overreaching ambition. If you think the play is normally a bit of a downer, you haven't seen Polanski's bleak version of it, made in reaction to the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson "family." Jon Finch (Hitchcock's Frenzy) is an forceful Macbeth, bringing out the Scot's warrior instincts, and Francesca Annis is a memorable Lady Macbeth, but the main thrust of the film belongs to Polanski's and noted British playwright and critic Kenneth Tynan's take on the play: extremely violent, nihilistic, and visceral; this is down-in-the-dirt, no-holds-barred Shakespeare, not fussy costume drama. Pay close attention to the end, a silent coda that puts a chilling twist on all the action that has come beforehand and foreshadows more tragedy to come. --Mark Englehart
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