The Plays of William Shakespeare - Macbeth (2001)

The clearest and most understandable Shakespeare productions ever made. Staged as seen in the 16th Century, featuring award-winning performers. A tale of murder, greed and untimely death. Starring Jeremy Brett, Piper Laurie, Simon MacCorkingdale and Barry Primus. 150 minutes.

A wretched adaptation. Is this a dagger I see before me? Come, let me clutch thee!

Fans of the absolutely wonderful Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, and David Burke and Edward Hardwicke as Watson undoubtably long for more examples of the deceased Brett's distinct, eccentric intelligence.

Brett has been gone for 13 years now, and there are very few filmed examples of his work. There are even less currently available on DVD or VHS in America.

But one in-print choice we have foisted on us is a mysterious cheapo 1981 LA production of "Macbeth" - starring Jeremy Brett as the Big Guy! Sounds promising - maybe unbeatable - but, alas.

Piper Laurie, as Lady Macbeth, is desperately bad. I thought I recognized her as one of the stars of "Designing Women" or "Golden Girls." I now believe myself wrong, but the fact that she PLAYS Lady Macbeth like a Golden Girl or a Designing Woman speaks for it's campy ackward hysterical self.

Jeremy Brett is effective at scenes and soliloquies involving self-doubt, self-hate and fear. I was transfixed at these brief moments. But he also had a nasty tick of licking his lips, glaring his teeth and losing me instantly.

The other supporting actors are uniformly bad. Many peripheral characters (what we see in movie credits today listed as "panicky intermediary #3") are LA bimbos that are waiting for That Phone Call. The three witches are (as another reviewer cleverly stated) rather "funky", looking like stage-ins for a Banarama stage show. At least they looked like they were having fun, swaying back and forth as untalented witches do. When the witches prophesize that Macbeth will be the Thaine of Cordor, and that Banquo will be the father of kings though he will not be one - these prophecies are the crux/prediction/whole darn point of the entire play. I wish the director had thought to have the witches say these rather important lines on stage, instead of behind the stage in muffled echo. With the poor VHS to DVD transfer, and the poor original choreography, you can't hear the damn witches. But! They dance. And can they dance! Disco inferno-style!

Banquo is reasonably well-played, in that the actor seems to understand the rhyme of Shakespeare's writing. He's compelling - even if he looks like Che Guevara trying to settle down and start a family. Which points up another screw-up - the costume design is poor, unflattering to the body, and all-around crummy.

I cannot share impressions on the stage direction, as I am convinced there was none.

So it's insufferable campy failure. I've watched it twice - never made it past Banquo's ghost at the supper. If you should see this film, you may fight the urge to hate Shakespeare ever more, but if you watch - and better yet own - the brilliant Ian McKellan & Judy Dench production (filmed in England by people who know Shakespeare), you will again see the true perfect bloody power of what I believe to be one of history's greatest plays.
March 30, 2008

short 2 hour version is missing one or two key scenes.

you know i've seen many renditions of Macbeth and in some plays he comes off almost as a Hamletlike Macbeth,(conflicted to abstraction)In this version he comes off just plain MEAN!! His wife mean and cold. Actually the worse the acting job in portraying this hellish couple,the more real to life. They just aren't likable people,brutal and agressive.However this version did cut out the critical scene when MacDuff tries to sway the English power against Macbeth. This is important because no matter how bad Macbeth is,the English worry that Macduff could be worse,so they put Macduff through a test of character.To the English,Macbeth is "the Devil we know",as opposed to the one we don,t. This is a major scene in the play and to omit it is a mistake. But the good note is that the Hell porter man is there in all fullness complete with drunken accents. February 6, 2007

Does the job well enough

I picked up this DVD to help my son to supplement his reading of the play for his high school Lit class. The play is staged quite simply, and is shot basically the way one would see it on stage, with few tracking shots or camera tricks. The set is quite spare -- a few columns here and there for the actors to walk around. The costuming is simple and mostly traditional.

The back of the DVD claims that the actors avoid speaking in English accents, which is supposedly an aid to American listeners. Frankly, this did not help me much, as some of the actors still spoke in "stagey" English and not in contemporary accents. The production stayed very close to the written play, which was suitable to the purpose I had in mind -- give me a sense of the play without lots of adaptations and scene cutting.

I thought Jeremy Brett did a fine and muscular job as Macbeth. However, I often found Piper Laurie (as Lady Macbeth) hard to understand. The witches and their familiars get more stage time than a reading of the play might suggest. This does not detract from the action, but suggests the continuing presence of their malign influence on Macbeth and others. The rest of the cast was quite competent and intelligible.

I don't agree completely with the very low ratings given by many reviewers. This Macbeth is a workmanlike and straightforward rendering of "The Scottish Tragedy." Taken for what it is, it is quite acceptable, if not exemplary. January 9, 2007

Too much 'Method' in this madness

Method actress Piper Laurie made me laugh out loud when she began the "Come you spirits" speech as if she were trying to summon Blanche DuBois and Medea in one go. Can't imagine Mr. Brett's excuse for as abysmally poor acting. For even worse Shakespearean acting (and yes, it's not the same as playing any other texts) see two Star Trekkers (Ohura and the Russian guy) and a General Hospital star (Luke) in this series' "Antony and Cleopatra". Not a larfing matter in the end. June 22, 2006

APPALLING DVD despite great actors

I love Jeremy Brett and Piper Laurie. Their combined talents offer what few enjoyable moments there are to be found in this Macbeth, but they unfortunately can't salvage this atrocious production. Seeing it is enough to turn someone off Shakespeare. (Should that happen, Al Pacino's delightful LOOKING FOR RICHARD is the perfect antidote to restore passion for the Bard). But I digress. I want to issue a warning to all who might assume the DVD version of this Macbeth would be superior to the VHS. In this instance, tape was simply transferred unto disk with no remastering or enhancements, and there are no extra features. The visual and audio quality is appalling. I regret buying this DVD when I already owned the VHS (..like I said, I love Jeremy Brett...) The only advantage is being able to skip the boring parts to get to the monologues. But that isn't saying much. April 23, 2003

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