The Filmed Legacy Of... MacBeth!

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Check it out, a new trailer for the upcoming 2015 release of MacBeth.

This looks like it might be ok, if a bit Braveheart in spots. Either way, MacBeth has always been my favorite Shakespeare piece and it's spawned some good movies.

The two I go back to the most, probably not surprisingly, are the Polanski picture...

....which I actually saw for the first time in a high school English class, and Kurosawa's Throne Of Blood.

But there are plenty of other adaptations of MacBeth out there.

I've seen the Welles one and liked it.

Anyone see any of the others? Thoughts? Recommendations?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814203/?ref_=fn_al_tt_10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434541/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119591/?ref_=fn_al_tt_7

Is the Sean Connery one any good?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400618/?ref_=fn_al_tt_8

The whole thing is on youtube but the quality kind of sucks.

[George Barry Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close George Barry]

I would not recommend the 1983 TV production with Nicol Williamson as Macbeth. I've seen a half a dozen versions, but none that I've really cared for outside of Throne Of Blood, and that is a Macbeth take off.
We should go back/sideways in time and do our own production.
A forty year old or younger Oliver Reed as Macbeth, I think, would be ideal casting.
As for Lady Macbeth:
A forty year old or younger Barbara Steele might be a safe choice. Too safe?
If we want to be a bit risky, how about a forty year old or younger Joey Heatherton as Lady Macbeth. Imagine Joey's voice prodding Oliver along through the play. It would seem endless. Too risky? Perhaps.
Let's not forget the first on stage Lady Macbeth was played by a man, so let's be traditional.
An any time in the last twenty five years Crispin Glover gets my vote.

PS: The 2015 Macbeth movie you posted looks interesting. Marion Cotillard may be very good as Lady Macbeth.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

A forty year old or younger Oliver Reed as Macbeth, I think, would be ideal casting.

I'd be first in line for that. Steele opposite would be a good choice too.

Marion Cotillard may be very good as Lady Macbeth.

Agreed. Not sure if I'll actually leave the house to see this on the big screen - maybe for a cheap matinee screening - but I'll definitely check it out on Blu-ray when it comes out.

[Scott MacDonald Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Scott MacDonald]

There was a version made in the 90's in the guise of a mob film called Men of Respect that was terrible, and really tried to basically shoehorn the story into the framework. Throne of Blood, the Welles' film, and the Polanski are all magnificent, there was a pretty bad, but watchable version that came out of Australia about a decade ago.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Well, it's not film but a local burlesque group is doing a performance of MacBeth in NYC tonight.

[George Barry Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close George Barry]

Well, it's not film but a local burlesque group is doing a performance of MacBeth in NYC tonight.

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Ian,
Please post your review as soon as you can. Thanks

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

Ian,
Please post your review as soon as you can. Thanks

With pics!!!

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

Throne of Blood, the Welles' film, and the Polanski are all magnificent,

There's the rub. THRONE OF BLOOD and Polanski's MACBETH I've been lucky enough to see on the big screen at least once, and they're both amazing films. Welles' MACBETH is very good too.

I was watching HEROIC PURGATORY a couple of days ago and thought there seemed to be echoes of MACBETH throughout it, though of course it's not an adaptation of the play.

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but Ken Hughes' JOE MACBETH is quite an entertaining 'updating' of the play to the 1930s, a precursor to MEN OF RESPECT.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Anchor Bay is putting this one out on Blu-ray 3/8/16....

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Saw this new one in the arthouse Cinema actually. Pretentious, boring drivel. Why everyone has such a fucking boner for Shakespeare I will never understand.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

Saw this new one in the arthouse Cinema actually. Pretentious, boring drivel. Why everyone has such a fucking boner for Shakespeare I will never understand.

Well, as MACBETH proves, he gave good head...

[Randy G Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Randy G]

Heard good things. Fassbender is always a pleasure to watch and I've heard that most of the supporting cast are Scottish which should add to it.

I quite liked CORIOLANUS by Ralph Fiennes with Gerald Butler, Brian Cox, Jessia Chastain and Vanessa Graves. As you can imagine with that cast the dialogue is delivered well and the updating of the era doesn't feel forced. Always helps that this is one of the more violent and profane plays by Shakespeare.

Certainly a much better adaptation than the disappointing TITUS which bungled his most violent and horrorific plays. The film should have been approached as a horror film not the typically overblown poor man's Ken Russell squib we got from the director.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

I quite liked CORIOLANUS by Ralph Fiennes with Gerald Butler, Brian Cox, Jessia Chastain and Vanessa Graves. As you can imagine with that cast the dialogue is delivered well and the updating of the era doesn't feel forced. Always helps that this is one of the more violent and profane plays by Shakespeare.

CORIOLANUS is very good. In terms up updated adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, aside from the cultural translations (eg, Kurosawa's THRONE OF BLOOD), I've always liked Michael Almereyda's HAMLET. I can't deny the pleasures of FORBIDDEN PLANET either, to be honest.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

I liked Coriolanus more then this new MacBeth. In that one, they at least acted like one acts in films. MacBeth was plagued by theatre style acting. Great cinematography though, it looked gorgeous. But pretentious as hell and stale as well, cause of the style of acting and line delivery.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Anyone familiar with this? I have to admit, I'm curious....

https://www.amazon.de/Dario-Argento-...bluraycom04-21

"This score undoubtedly marks an important turning point in Verdi's operatic writing, because it brings to the foreground the characters' introspective, psychological aspect, which would be the fundamental feature of most of the maestro's later creations. This recording documents the production staged at Novara's Teatro Coccia during the 2013-2014 season, with Dario Argento tackling for the rst time the direction of an opera. Verdi's masterpiece was not new to the director from Rome, who had used it as backdrop for his 1987 lm Opera, set at the Teatro Regio in Parma, indeed during a staging of Macbeth. From the master of thriller and horror one could only expect a direction in line with his previous lm-making background, and from that point of view, this Macbeth does not fail expectations, with its bloody, indeed gory scenes; they are, at any rate, consistent with the dark and brutal character of Shakespeare's tragedy. But aside from all of that, Dario Argento's direction reveals extraordinarily theatrical qualities, greatly enhanced by the conducting of Giuseppe Sabbatini who, on the podium, takes tempos that fit perfectly the unrolling of the drama. "



Looks like that German Blu-ray has English subs.