A Review of Macbeth (2015)

Macbeth is a 2015 film which is based on William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. The director is Justin Kurzel and top casts are Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, who portray Macbeth and Lady Macbeth respectively. The film, and the play, is about a brave man called Macbeth, who learns from witches that one day he will become the King of Scotland and murders his king to take the throne. The writers who adapted Shakespeare’s play to a screenplay are Todd Louiso, Jacob Koskoff and Michael Leslie.

The movie begins with a cremation ceremony, probably of Macbeth’s child. Later, Macbeth wins a battle, and the witches reveal to him and Banquo the prophecy that Macbeth will become King of Scotland. After that, Macbeth kills the king but leaves the king’s son, which is the heir, unscathed. So, he becomes King of Scotland and stays that way until the end of the movie. The movie generally takes place in a dark and gloomy environment. The weather has a big influence on this, everything that happens in the movie takes place in Scotland and I do not remember a scene in the movie where it was sunny. Some of the elements that add gloom and pessimism to the environment originate from the bloody scenes and deaths in the movie. The peak point of excitement for me was the fight between Macduff and Macbeth in the final scene. Although I knew what would happen in the end, the dirty, dusty and foggy atmosphere in that scene combined with the death of Macbeth and declaration of the new king, Malcolm, son of the former King of Scotland Duncan, resulted in a magnificent scene. I do not think there was a sharp “change in action” in the movie, but Macbeth was not all that ambitious and power-hungry about killing King Duncan until Lady Macbeth convinced Macbeth to do it on the festive day after the war. Therefore, the conversation between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth in the first part of the movie may be the moment when a change in Macbeth’s actions occurs. The music and sound effects were also in harmony with the gloomy and dark environment, which was mentioned above. Wind sounds were emphasized in the outdoor scenes, and fire crackling was emphasized in the indoor scenes. The music was usually dramatic and tense, the instruments used were generally string and percussion instruments.

One of the themes of the movie is definitely ambition. Much of what happens to Macbeth in the movie comes from his desire for power and authority, and this desire mixed with ambition. Macbeth first kills the king to seize the throne, and after he takes the throne, he also kills Banquo because he sees Banquo and his descendants as a threat. After all of these, he gains the absolute power, but he has problems with his mental health, and his wife Lady Macbeth dies; these are almost like the effect of “karma”. He cannot hold his power for long anyway; Malcolm, whose father was killed by Macbeth, seizes the throne, as it should be. So, the movie gives a sufficiently sharp message about the consequences and harms of ambition. Another theme of the movie is fate. Although it is thought that Macbeth’s ambition affected him badly, the things that happened were actually known before. According to the prophecy of the three witches, Macbeth would eventually become king, but it was not known how. In this respect, Macbeth offers the audience an interesting understanding of fate. Maybe Macbeth would have taken the throne without the troubles of his passion for power had he not brutally murdered the king and Banquo nonetheless, or perhaps the passion for power was already present in the fate of Macbeth as an unspoken part of it.

There was no scene in the movie that surprised me because I knew what was going to happen already. However, there were many impressive scenes. The film begins with the cremation scene of Macbeth’s child; let alone seeing a dead child, seeing the dead body of a child burning is quite striking. Although the battle and murder scenes may be difficult to watch for those who cannot stand the sight of blood, I was able to enjoy their realism and effects as I had no such problem.

The adaptation of the text from the original to the movie, in my opinion, was magnificent. The movie stayed true to all of Shakespeare’s lines, so the conversations were more like literary text than everyday conversations, with lots of overturned sentences. This may make it difficult for some viewers to understand the film, but I liked the fact that it did not break with the originality and was aware that it was actually a play. Some minor changes were made to the plot, though not much. For example, in the last scene, according to Shakespeare’s text, Macduff was supposed to kill Macbeth by beheading him after it was learned that Macduff was born not from the womb but by Caesarean section. The reason for this may be the restrictions as the movie would be broadcasted in theatres.

Although the film did not receive high ratings from IMDb users, it received good reviews from critics. While Darren Bevan says “This version of the film tends to favour style and grit over everything else”, he rates the movie as 4,5 out of 5. Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian praises the actors, saying “Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard are a dream-team pairing, actors who radiate charisma, perhaps more charisma can be entirely absorbed into the fabric of the film”. I agree with these critics, since it was one of the best epic movies I have ever watched, though it is not my favourite genre.

Dated 12th May 2022 — ELIT246 (Drama and Performance)