Macbeth (2006)

Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 10/07/2008 Run time: 110 minutes Product Description

A great adaptation, but a little slow.

This is as close an adaptation as you can get. The director changed a few things that made sense to him. One such example is that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had a child die before the beginning of the play. The "witches" were also little school girls that only Macbeth can see. Also McDuff raises Banquo's son at the end. That makes sense since you never found out what happened to either before. This brings some closure. August 29, 2008

Appeals to a more youthful audience

I am an English teacher, and I have always found Macbeth a tough sell with high school students. This modern take on the classic is the only film version available that appeals to a younger generation, and it uses the original text fairly effectively (albeit with many cuts). Think of this as the Macbeth equivalent of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, but without Luhrmann's visual sense of humor.

Yes, this Macbeth has its drawbacks, namely gratuitous nudity and an inexplicable orgy with Macbeth and the witches (I skip over these parts with my students). Overall, though, this film captures the violence of the play in a more contemporary context and, through visual cues, actually provides plausible motivations for the characters (e.g. Lady Macbeth is a suicidal drug user after the death of a son). Worth a look, but not for purists. July 15, 2008

Terrible

I bought this thinking that I could show it to my high school students--maybe a new twist on the text. However, not only was it poorly done, it was completely inappropriate for high school students. It seemed as if every time Lady Macbeth spoke, she needed to do a line of cocaine. In addition, Macbeth receives the witches' prophecies while having an orgy with them. So ridiculous. It was overacted and had tons of gratuitous violence. Yes, Macbeth is a violent play, but did they need to make the murder of Lady MacDuff sexually gratifying to her murderer? It just seemed way too over the top. May 2, 2008

What you see it what you get... but no subtitles.

It should be obvious from the promotions, reviews, and the cover graphics that this is intended to be a modernized adapatation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. If you liked the Romeo+Juliet movie with L.DeCaprio/Claire Dannes, and the Ethan Hawke/Julia Styles version of Hamlet, well this is the latest installment along those lines. I found the physical action in this Macbeth too distracting to enjoy the artistry of the dialogue. In that respect, Romeo+Juliet did a much better job.
Also, be forewarned: there are no English subtitles for the hearing impaired available on this disc. April 12, 2008

A retelling of a classic in contemporary style packed with high drama

Under the lively acting of Sam Worthington and the Union Station group comes a retelling of a classic in contemporary style packed with high drama. Here Macbeth is henchman to a crime boss, and the story is told by teenage witches whose prophecies drive his life. It's presented in letterbox, comes with a featurette which includes interviews with the actors and closed captioning, and is a fine pick for any library interested in bringing the classics to life with a contemporary twist. March 4, 2008

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