{"id":17618,"date":"2021-12-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=17618"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:13:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:13:19","slug":"review-the-tragedy-of-macbeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/review-the-tragedy-of-macbeth\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Tragedy of Macbeth<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s not that it\u2019s surprising that Joel Coen\u2019s adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s The Tragedy of Macbeth<\/em> is so visually arresting \u2013 he and brother Ethan haven\u2019t exactly been slumming it, craft-wise, in the thirty-plus years since they burst onto the scene with Blood Simple<\/em>. But that film\u2019s aesthetics had the razzle-dazzle energy of new filmmakers with something to prove, and Macbeth<\/em> has much of that same quality, perhaps because Coen feels like he\u2019s starting over. So he\u2019s playing and pushing, with light and sound, right out of the gate, shooting in the boxed-in, square \u201cAcademy ratio\u201d in luminous black and white, making breathtaking use of silhouette and darkness, and paying homage to any number of stylistic influences (film noir, German Expressionism, and\/or the work of Orson Welles, who himself shot a highly stylized Macbeth<\/em> in 1948).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more than winking or playing connect the dots, Coen seems to have chosen black and white for its starkness \u2013 for what it does to his images of dripping blood, or birds circling overhead. And it allows him to paint his settings in darkness; the uncluttered design sets scenes more with lighting than set dressing. (The cinematographer is Bruno Delbonnel.) So he ends up with something that is neither merely film nor theater, but a mutation of both, taking advantage of the wide berth of expressionism we allow work on the stage, as well as the tools (visual effects, shock edits, etc.) of the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, all of this breathless praise of the film\u2019s look and style isn\u2019t meant to imply that it is a mere stylistic exercise. As ever, it is an actors\u2019 showcase \u2013 quite literally in this case, as co-star and co-producer Frances McDormand convinced Coen, her husband, to make the film after she played Lady Macbeth onstage in 2016. Acting Shakespeare in this 21st century is an act of translation; the language is ours but not, and thus a good Shakespearean actor must build that bridge, conveying the meaning of the more obscure vernacular via intention and physicality, and finding the emotional through-line that makes the work so timeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simultaneously, it\u2019s an act of interpretation, of taking the well-known passages, turns of phrase that have become common currency, and making them fresh and meaningful in context. And this is where McDormand and her Macbeth, Denzel Washington, really deliver. Witness, for example, his delivery of the oft-quoted \u201cis this a dagger\u201d speech, the forces of hesitancy and blood thirst that seem to wrestle in each syllable that tumbles from his mouth. And then watch, in the following scene, how he plays that first murder \u2013 the deadness in his eyes, betraying how he\u2019s made himself numb to the horror of the act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Washington has always been an actor of unparalleled physical ferocity, so his force here is unsurprising but still remarkable; in one jaw-dropping sequence, he goes into a swordfight unarmed, and comes out of it like a Kurosawa character. But the knots of grey in his hair and beard tell their own story, and the weary resignation of his \u201ctomorrow and tomorrow\u201d speech borders on nihilism. It\u2019s a spectacular performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also nails the character\u2019s descent into madness, and isn\u2019t afraid to go all out with it; \u201cOh full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife,\u201d he tells her, and we believe it. The actors\u2019 parallel interpretations of their outcomes are a fascinating study in contrasts  – Washington makes Macbeth\u2019s madness weak and pathetic, but McDormand makes hers frightening. Her early scenes make expert use of her specialty of gritted-teeth impatience, and she finds all sorts of interesting variations on the character\u2019s cynicism and ambition (her delivery of the \u201cThat which hath made them drunk\u201d speech is delicious). In this beautiful pairing, Coen takes advantage of both what we know about these roles and what we feel abut these two actors. What a thrill it is to discover, this deep into their distinguished careers, that there is still more that they can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coen also penned the screenplay, and it\u2019s a highly streamlined, efficient adaptation, moving like a freight train at a scant (for Shakespeare) 105 minutes. Yet the machinations of the plot are conveyed with clarity (both visually and verbally), and Coen wisely keys in on the notion that it is, first and foremost, a thriller \u2013 and thus creates moments as stylish and striking (and, frankly, showy) as anything in Blood Simple.<\/em> He plucks out the moments of bleak horror and comic relief (Stephen Root, in his one scene as said relief, nearly steals the movie), but doesn\u2019t shy away from the real terror here, the overwhelming scene of dread and death creeping around every corner (\u201cEach morning\u2026 new widows howl\u201d). That feeling is further underscored by the elegant and elegiac gloom and doom of Carter Burwell\u2019s music, and comes to a head in the final fight, whose conclusion literally made me gasp, it\u2019s such a juicy intersection of grace, gore, and symbolism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tragedy of Macbeth<\/em> initially seemed (at least to this viewer) a peculiar choice for Coen\u2019s solo debut, but it now seems inspired. By using a durable (borderline foolproof) text, he was able discard script concerns and instead focus on style and performance. In both areas, his \u201cMacbeth\u201d is all but flawless. \"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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