Our Thursday Lead-In

First UP:

Macbeth 2006 Starring Sam Worthington as Macbeth and Victoria Hill as Lady Macbeth.  Directed by (gritty) Australian Geoffrey Wright. 

Despite it’s meager 4.8 rating on IMDb, this rendition of Shakespeare’s ultra-violent “Scottish play” is a modern send-up that really does do homage to the original intended violent stage directions.  It should be noted that the screen adaptation for this movie was penned by Lady Macbeth herself…Australian thespian Victoria Hill.  It is likely to come as a shock that such a violent modern vision--reworking murderous royalty into violent crime families, complete with a psycho-sexual hit man, came from the mind of a woman.  But then again we also have Julie Taymor’s Titus to contend with here today. 

Women, it seems, do some fair work in the violence category.  There is nothing even remotely funny or amusing about in this screenplay; it’s all over the place with illegality and uncompromising murder.  Hell, even the 3 “witches” are Meth addicts!  Contrast that with, say, Stanley Kubrick’s filming of the novel A Clockwork Orange, which has so many funny and “snickery” moments in which the viewer can kind of hide for a second or two from the rape, murder and thievery; here violence it meant to assault full on.  There are no hiding places, or moments of respite.  Only naked avariousness and murderous greedy advance, complete with full screen child murder.

Of course no one knows for complete surety how violent the original performances were, but it is widely believed that they were much more violent than any modern live performance of this play is; where the “Kenginston gore” was real blood.  Also, of course, these plays were not simply just written and set in stone from the first; but, rather, they were developed over time with each passing performance.  Which brings to mind that the violence contained in Shakespeare is unique to modern cinema, because it was developed at the blood-cravings of a 16^th century (not necessarily well-off) English audience in the pits!!  That’s right, before there was the “mosh pit,”  there was “the pit” for so-called “one-penny” spectators to stand and bay for more and more blood—double-down violence, if you will. For more click here.

As far an opinion of the technical merits of the film; for me personally, I am not a huge fan of the protracted slow-motion ending.  It seems to me that cutting that in half, for emphasis sake would have highlighted the revenge action a whole lot more.  I have seen a fair number of complaints about the use of HD cameras to shoot the entire film.  For my taste, I do not find this in any way a detraction or distraction from the story, simply because it is an ultraviolent play that is rough around the edges to begin with.  The newer HD digital cameras seem to highlight this roughness well.  As for the performances, I think they are all universally quite good.  Sam Worthington, of course, has since gone on to become a serious movie star, who, thank goodness, also happens to a great actor.  My own personal vote for this on IMDb was 8 out 10.

Screw your courage to the sticking place...  Lady Macbeth