Macbeth
(2006/Starz/Geoffrey Wright version)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C
Well, my fellow droogies, what say it's time for a bit
of the old ultraviolence, eh? Aside from a couple of the
history plays or possibly Titus
Andronicus, what better play from the Shakespeare canon to Goth up
than Macbeth?
Adaptations, updatings and bowdlerizations have gone
on since the generation following the Bard and recent cinematic
versions have only been rivaled, in numeric terms, by the Jane Austen cottage
industry. In terms of quality, Ms Austen has been treated more
civilly than the ubiquitous Will. We have Hawke's and Branagh's Hamlets, DiCaprio's Romeo, Fishburne's and
Eamon Walker's Othellos, Julia Stile's Kat(e), and now Sam
Worthington, doing his best Jack White imitation, as Macbeth.
A morose, abysmal, slightly off-centered Macbeth.
This one is a fast, violent, sexy, ugly, incomprehensible
bloody mess. Literally.
As with many productions, both theatrical and
cinematic, everyone is looking for a new angle. And, as with many productions,
that new angle is in your face upfront: a concept or a placing of the work
in a context radically different from the original. As these types of
productions progress, the newness falls away and we are returned, sometimes
jarringly, back to the original and that is the case with Macbeth. The context is the Melbourne Australia gang underworld;
the spin is a not so subtle combination of Asian gang and Goth
sensibilities.
And you thought you'd heard it all.
What works here is they have decided to keep the
original language. Well, that's what works for a Shakespeare buff; what works
for this film's imagined target audience is hard to say. Director
Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper, fer chrissakes) is earnestly
working away at something,
perhaps it is after all a sensibility. It opens in a graveyard with the
Weird Sisters, tricked out as just pubescent high schoolers with a thin
gloss of Goth, going through their witch gyrations and nary a word is
said. Cut to the carnage of gang war and the viewer, familiar with
Macbeth, realizes that this is the power struggle that will propel the
"hero" to the top. Still, there is not much
vocalizing. And then, five minutes or so in comes the language and
the dichotomy is revealed. What those unfamiliar with the play
might realize is anyone's guess because, without the context of
the original story, it seems the viewer would be hard put indeed to understand
what all the jabbering is about. Truly this is a case of 1 and 1
equaling zero.
As with any Shakespeare adaptation, there some things that
translates particularly well. The overall story remains in tact though
there is some abridgement of the original. After a rough,
fitful start, the film settles into a steady pace and that is not
necessarily good news. Lady Macbeth (Victoria Hill, also co-screenwriter)
starts comatose and, thankfully, builds very nicely to the point of a
credible performance. The "Unsex me here" soliloquy is a
high spot of the entire film, bringing out the motivation, vulnerability
and all encompassing ambition that is at once her persona and her downfall.
Duncan (Gary Sweet), too, gives a solid performance; otherwise, there is a
general functional disconnect between actors simply mouthing words without
the commensurate emotions that spark them.
In a nice touch we
actually get to see the ingredients that make up the witches’ brew: eye of
newt, fillet of snake, poison'd entrails, tongue of dog etc.
Unfortunately, these are being tossed into the cauldron by the now naked,
barely pubescent Goth gals and, when Macbeth stumbles on them in
the night, things get all sexed up.
This is the kind of Buffy the fanboys really wanted to see;
Shakespeare it ain't. Birnam Wood, on the other hand, comes to
Dunsinane rather cleverly in a logging truck, Trojan Horse style: everyone
jumps out with their assault weapons; let the carnage begin!
In the end, we are left with cliché in hand: stylized,
slo-mo slaughter, Bonnie and Clyde/Sam Peckinpah style,
though the Shane MacGowanish kilt for Macbeth gives the Scots their
props nicely. Overall, Macbeth
is neither as hyperkinetic as DiCaprio's R & J, nor as moody as Hawke's Hamlet, but probably
closest in kinship to the BBC TV production of Othello, with Macbeth as the London police commissioner
in what is essentially a reconfigured crime drama. Macbeth
is nowhere near as successful, however, and the reason is simple.
Romper Stomper, fer chrissakes.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is looking good
for the format, despite the cinematography of Director of Photography Will
Gibson (see the HD-DVD review for Wolf
Creek elsewhere on this site) that is the same, tired,
darkened-with-no-point stylized look that is beyond played out. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is occurrently
active, but the sound design has very limited memorability or character.
The extras are lamentable; all concerned, director
and actors, with the possible exception of Victoria Hill, would have
been better served if they kept silent. The sound and image throughout
the film is, respectively, loud and brash and a music video could have
been pulled out of any two minute section in numerous of spots.
Oh, and then there is the tagline: something wicked this
way comes.
Indeed.
- Don Wentworth
