Critical Review of Another Version of Macbeth

Shakespeare’s play Macbeth has always been an audience pleaser; it is packed with action but also addresses deep questions.  Macbeth, a Scottish noble and warrior, is told by three witches he is destined to be king.  Egged on by his wife, Macbeth murders the rightful king, Duncan, and seizes the throne.  The violence does not stop there.  Macbeth murders again and again, thinking it will bring him stability and peace of mind.  As the country descends into chaos, the other nobles, and the true king, Duncan’s son Malcolm, plan a revolt.  With such an intriguing fast-paced plot it is hardly surprising Macbeth has been filmed as a movie many times.  

Director Geoffrey Wright’s 2006 version, featuring Macbeth as a troubled gangster, is the most recent.  Some viewers may enjoy seeing the story modernized in this way.  But Wright’s film mainly demonstrates how difficult it is for a modern film version of Macbeth to balance action and special effects with the underlying intellectual themes. The basic plot is difficult to follow, the characters never develop, and the special effects are excessive.  Overall, this version is more along the lines of a vaguely ridiculous horror film.

Wright’s Macbeth has only one feeble virtue; it does represent the violent and bloody aspects of Shakespeare’s play. Macbeth stabbing Duncan is shown in gory detail, as is the suicide of Lady Macbeth and the murders Macbeth’s opponents.  However, the numerous blood-spattered walls do not convey the serious, tragic chaos of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, only a pathetic attempt at drama.
Besides doing away with all intellectual aspects, the basic plot structure is almost impossible to follow.  The movie opens with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth mourning their dead son, something that never happened in the original Macbeth, but then never returns to this random addition to the plot.  The witches are too busy flirting with Macbeth to even clearly reveal the prophecies that are essential to the story.  There are random car chases shown with gangsters in sun glasses shooting at each other in slow motion.  Even people who have studied Shakespeare will find this hard to follow.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, characters make choices that are clearly right and wrong.  Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are virtuous in the beginning but their minds and morals deteriorate as the play unfolds.  Other characters, like the true heir to the throne Malcolm, reach maturity and morality by the end.  This complicated characterization and change is not displayed in Wright’s version at all.  From the very beginning all the characters seem crazy, drunk, high and immature.  Sam Worthington, as Macbeth, is not the noble warrior his character is at the beginning of the story.  Worthington is shown drinking after killing several people and is soon cheerfully engulfed in pink smoke where he flirts with the witches.  Lady Macbeth, played by Victoria Hill, is first shown lying in bed, possibly drugged.  She is far from the strong, calculating, and intelligent presence she is in the original.  By the end everyone comes across as a murderous, drunken jerk.

The play ends with Macbeth lamenting his own death, leaving the fate of his kingdom unclear.  The calm prosperity that is supposed to be restored by the rightful king is not mentioned, but the audience is still sure to be relieved as this ridiculous movie is finally over.

Macbeth, a brilliant play by William Shakespeare, touches on the psychological consequences of crime as well as the physical ones and is an engaging action-packed story.  Unfortunately, Geoffrey Wright has directed a movie version of Macbeth, that contains, not the tragic deterioration of a country and its leading couple, but only bloody, confusing chaos.