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.