How is Macbeth like Charlie Sheen?

When reading any book of Shakespeare students often think why am reading this? Or rather how does this relate to ANYTHING modern? Well that answer is not easy but I will try and tell you... You see Shakespeare was a clever man when he wrote books he didn’t just write them for audiences in his time period but rather he made sure that all of his characters reflect real HUMAN ideas and react like humans would regardless of the time period! Thus When I read Shakespeare instead of wishing I had anything else in my hands I try and compare them to things that have relevance and so should you...



So Charlie Sheen?

Yes for the sake of this blog the hero in Shakespeare great play Macbeth (Macbeth :) Shall be compared to Carlos Irwin Estévez better known to us as Charlie Sheen! Now before we begin comparing Mr. Sheen to Macbeth lets find out what Macbeth represents/ is... Macbeth is a thane whose ambition to be king leads to his downfall. Despite being promoted by king Duncan Macbeth desires to be king simply because it was prophesied to him by three weird sisters. This drives him to murder the king Duncan and steal the crown! However after killing the crown he is forced to kill more and more people and goes from being a king to a tyrant! All this time he is slowly losing his sanity as the guilt of committing murder consumes him. Now let’s look at Charlie sheen: Charlie sheen was a star in the hit series "Two and a Half Men". However, despite all of this he began to make some poor life choices; the usage and consumption of illegal drugs and other substances and "biting the hands that feed him! As a result of this he was then told he could not attend any ore shootings. He then demanded a "raise" of 50 percent (keep in mind at this time he was the highest paid actor 1.25 million per episode) He was then replaced by another actor. In the end he is perhaps most noted for a series of famed "meltdowns" in which he spewed hate and essentially went mad on camera!



Notice any similarities?

At their core both Charlie sheen and Macbeth are men who despite having "all they could ask for" still desired more as a result of their ambition! They are both men who "bit the hand that fed them" and then proceeded to suffer! They are men who whilst admired by many fell from grace...men with fatal flaws that lead to their eventual "demise"! Well if you didn’t understand my comparison find another book :) but for the rest of you I hope that this helped you see how powerful and meaningful Shakespeare writing is... Then and now! 

MACBETH THEN AND NOW

 

When watching Rupert Goold’s Macbeth starring Sir Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleet Wood I could not help but think of how the play must have been for those living in Shakespeare's time must have felt when watching the production... you see while many of the lines used in the film were true to their original form the scenes were completely redone in order to make the play "connect" to modern audiences in doing so it at times had to draw a great deal of inspiration from other popular movies in our time: saw, paranormal activity etc.. Perhaps however it drew the most of its influence from one of my favorite movies: Downfall. As I watched both the movies I found that while the dialogue and story were completely different the characters appearance was remarkably similar you see the costumes worn by the actors were almost identical! It really! Added to the atmosphere and theme of the movie!

In addition to the very realistic costumes and over all production value to the movie, the biggest selling point for me however was the special "horror" effects that occurred primarily during the scenes with the witches. While the whole movie had an air of dread, the most freighting scene for me however occurred in the first scene: where the witches plunged their hands into the messenger's heart and removed his heart. That scene simply set the tone for the remainder of the movie. At the end of the movie I pondered what the scenes would have to be like for the audience who watched the play during the Shakespeare's lifetime... I can only assume that in order to make the play seem scary they would instead of drawing on special effects (as we do now) Shakespeare's probably drew more from the people fear of the supernatural for instance take the scene in which the witches begin to talk and "revive" the bodies allowing them to speak, the part in which the witches were speaking were not as shocking as their actions: dancing, moving, spasm etc. However I can presume that in Shakespeare's time the words the witches said were probably much more impact-full then they are now to a modern audience. All in all I am very pleased with this production and I believe it is a faithful recreation of the original masterpiece...albeit with a twist so that it can appeal to a wider audience.