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Rating: 2.5 stars

All movies seen on 10/10/2007

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Macbeth (2006)

Directed by Geoffrey Wright

Drama | Action

Overview

Macbeth, loyal to his crime boss, Duncan, is told by witches that he will one day take over. Driven by their prophecy, he and his wife plot to kill Duncan, and takes the leadership of the gang for himself. Maintaining his power will require more murder and violence, finally driving his surviving enemies to unite and destroy him. A sexy, high octane retelling of this classic story.

Length 109 minutes

Actors

Sam Worthington | Victoria Hill | Lachy Hulme | Kate Bell | Steve Bastoni | Bob Franklin | Matt Doran | Nash Edgerton | Chloe Armstrong | Miranda Nation | Simon Scott | Damian Walshe-Howling | Jonny Pasvolsky | Kevin Tran | Samuel Tew | Christopher Shen | Anna Anderson | Haiha Le | Nikon Souphan | Ri-Jie Kwok | George Vidalis | Terry Lim | Gary Sweet | Rel Hunt | Norman Keller | Charles Lavea-Williams | Socratis Otto | Christopher Kirby | Ruby O'Rourke | Katherine Tonkin | Craig Stott | Corinne Davies | Saskia Sansom | Edwina Wren | Kat Stewart | Louis Corbett | Chris Vance | Jamie-Lee Wilson | Peter Davenport | Mick Molloy | John Molloy | Esther Usher | Katie James | Inouk Arnall | Siros Niaros | Jarrah Cocks | Robert Shook | Kim Gyngell | Hannah Griffith

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

This originally appeared as a review for PopSyndicate.com in 2007.

When you’ve done Shakespeare thousands of ways for hundreds of years, what direction is left to take?

However controversial it was, Baz Luhrman took a daring, modernist, gangland approach in 1996’s Romeo + Juliet. The Capulets and the Montegues were rival mafioso families who used Sword-brand guns instead of actual swords, but Luhrman kept Shakespeare’s original script. Geoffrey Wright follows in that vein with 2006’s Macbeth, an Australian-flavored, modernist approach on that tragedy.

In this version, rather than a general in Duncan’s army, Macbeth is a greasy, stubbled, long-haired gangster working for Duncan. After a drug deal with Macdonwald’s men goes sour and everyone in that rival gang is killed, Macbeth and Banquo track two gunmen to the Cawdor Club, which they seize and kill everyone. In the club, Macbeth encounters three teenage sisters, who tell him he is destined for greatness. Lady Macbeth assumes the prophecy means that Macbeth will seize control of Duncan’s gang and composes a plan to kill Duncan and his men, which Macbeth agrees to because of his twisted love for his twisted wife. After Duncan is murdered, Macbeth seizes control and then faces unrest and civil war within his new domain.

Being that it is at this point fruitless to criticize any Shakespeare (and I’m not sure I could criticize it with any acceptable level of credibility anyways), all that’s really left to examine are the director’s vision and the actors involved. As it was produced post-Romeo + Juliet, Wright’s take on Macbeth is nowhere close to unique. Both are gangland films and are filled with gunplay. But, where Luhrman’s vision was very stylized, bright and colorful as his films are wont to be, Wright takes a more traditional, realist view of the world; through dark tones and muted colors, he visually reflects the true tragedy of the source material.

Wright does differ from the original play, as expected. There are no swords or armies, just guns and gangs. The Weird Sisters are attractive teenage schoolgirls instead of haggard witches and Duncan’s son Donalbain has been completely eliminated from the story. At the same time, Wright does right by taking small moments to add to the story through silent visuals, to lend explanation and segues for later scenes. Unfortunately in this adaptation, this proto-Bono Macbeh is less brave warrior and more whiny toddler in a thirtysomething’s body who the world would be better without ever having known. Overall, it’s dark, gritty, bloody and extremely violent, but with a two spoons of emo for debatable measure.

Most of the actors do right by their roles, although some of the lesser known-characters flitting around the difficult dialogue find mouths full of marbles instead. Sam Worthington as Macbeth plays it close to the vest with the role, with an undercurrent of rage and drug-induced madness simmering underneath, but Macbeth’s lies are played unbelievable and inappropriately calm relative to Duncan’s murder. The real gem in the piece is Victoria Hill as Lady Macbeth; she is absolutely riveting to watch as the Eve to Macbeth’s Adam. She is like a murderous Paris Hilton, and like that socialite, gives you a sense of unease anytime she’s on screen.

The special features are nothing to write home about; there’s only a making-of featurette that is almost all dry interviews.

Shakespeare can and should speak to all generations, but the question should be asked: how many variations in set and stanza can there be before there’s no point to a new version? Wright’s Macbeth is a worthy experiment, but it’s more Underworld-flavored Scarface with the added arrogance of unnecessary Shakespearean dialogue.

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