NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Charles O. Slavens Macbeth... a member of the one percent who got it all though his actions as a violent, unrelenting and un-apologetic warrior.... an accomplished killer. However, once he murdered the king and assumed the throne, he discovered that he did not know how to govern. His inability to shoulder the true trappings and responsibilities of power led to his destruction. In light of the threats to today's - July 2017 - governmental horrors.... does this sound familiar????

Will Conley The "Out, damned spot" bit was killer.The "Out, out, brief candle" bit was worth the wait.Stewart's performance overall was stunning. Captain Picard was fun to watch and you could detect Stewart's gravitas in it; Dr. Xavier didn't stretch Stewart in the least and it was just a sweet paycheck for him, which I fully applaud him collecting. But this here is what Stewart was built for. The man is a beautiful monster in this performance.The whole cast was nearly pitch perfect.The witches were gloriously horrifying. The "Double, bubble, toil and trouble" bit was innovative and fun.Watch Lady Macbeth transform from a supremely manipulative banshee from Hell into a guilt-wracked suicidal lunatic.If you don't understand what's going on all the time, you're not alone, and take heart: this film's visuals help you along much of the way, without treating you like a moron.As for the script itself -- it's Shakespeare: raw, economical, polyrhythmic, full of slyly naughty jokes to try and catch, and full of linguistic innovation. Few writers have displayed such freedom with the language. If you're a writer, I advise you to take a cue from Shakespeare and just start breaking rules and making up new ones. This version of Macbeth should inspire you to do that.

hte-trasme This BBC production is upsetting, unnerving, often horrifying, unforgettable, and very difficult with which to find flaw. It's set it Soviet Russia, with Macbeth as a Stalin-like figure, engendering imagery that is both horrifying and picture-perfectly realized. One of the great advantages of this film is that is it a (very cinematic) recorded version of a stage production after a long and successful run -- so each member of the ensemble cast in intimately familiar with his or her role and its nuances. Rupert Goold proves himself both a "visionary" director and an actor's one, as every performance is shudderingly truthful and inventive -- and both performances and settings are rife with small interpolations that only add substance and effectiveness to the production -- Macbeth talking to the two overwhelmed murderers while making a sandwich, Banquo killed on a train, the porter bitter and delivering his speech while drinking and watch Soviet parades. Chief among the cast, of course, is Sir Patrick Stewart, who immediately cements himself as a great Macbeth. He displays extraordinary dynamism, range, understanding, clarity, and emotional truth in the role. His Macbeth is forceful and powerful but at the same time vulnerable and uncertain. We feel first his struggle, then his guilt and of all his pervading mania for certainty. The moment just before his death when he finally dismissed his grasping at the vision of the (unnervingly nurse- attired witches) for that certainty with a still "Enough" is astounding. I have difficulty imagining a more affecting rendition of the "tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" speech than Sir Patrick's absolute nihilism here. Suzanne Burden is also a horrifying Lady Macbeth; her honest hunger for power through her husband, her recoil at his disruption of dinner with his vision of Banquo making her not sympathetic but comprehensible as a real human and thus the more uncanny. Michael Feast also deserves special mention as an excellent Macduff, carrying off an amazing silence after he learns the death of his sons. The Soviet trove of imagery is rich, enhancing the play with suggestions of history that we may know (Siward happens to remind me a lot of Shostokovich here) lending it a well-realized look of decay and hopelessness. Devices such as the Stalinist-style portrait of Macbeth, the rolling tape, the bugs, &c are recreated with precision, fall into that "uncanny valley" with their level of familiarity and hint parallels with the events of the play without intruding on them. In all, great production and direction as well as performances from a tight ensemble cast -- all brimming with creativity from all edges -- create a great production of the play that is a searing, nightmarish vision, complimented by a performance in the lead role that seems to me to be for the ages, and is now my favorite of those I've had the chance to see. There have been and will be many performances of Macbeth that are _different_ than this one, but I doubt I'll see one that is _better_.

kayaker36 Macbeth is supposed to be ambitious, murderous but first of all YOUNG with a whole lifetime in front of him as the play begins. After all, he and Lady Macbeth have as yet no children as revealed in the first act when Macbeth admonishes her to have only male offspring as she lacks feminine softness.I could not get past the incongruity of seventy year old Patrick Stewart in the part, though he is a fine actor, always physically fit and with a superb speaking voice. But that face and that bald skull...Ms. Fleetwood his co-star is herself no débutante at 38 but her "husband" is nearly twice her age! Some of the other parts, such as the comrade betrayed Banquo, had to be aged just to maintain credibility in the casting of the central role.This production achieves high marks for originality, with Macbeth portrayed as a Scottish Stalin, cult of personality and all, with 1930's costumes and weaponry much in evidence.Catch the 1971 Polanski directed film version starring young, handsome Jon Finch. Authentic to the last rawhide lacing, this still is the gold standard.