So another day and a day closer to Halloween! So we give you another one of our 50 days countdown to the big day. Today is day 45 and only a single film into the slot for the nights viewing. And what a film it is indeed. Made two years after his wife and child were brutally murdered by the Charles Manson family, MACBETH is THE adaptation of one of the bards greatest work. Now you might ask, how does this fit into a Halloween night. Well think of it as a night for the intellectual, the artist, the thespian. All be it, a blood soaked, violence filled, brutally upsetting one.
WHATS IT ABOUT?
Macbeth is a tale as old as time. He is one of the kings favourite. A warrior of skill and intelligence. On the up at a rate of knots. After hearing three witches proclaim that he will become a lord and then a king, he shrugs it off as idol speak. When said glories are dished out to him, he cant escape the throbbing needs and desires to achieve more. This leads to paranoia, guilt, murder and revenge.
WHY SHOULD WE WATCH IT FOR HALLOWEEN?
Clocking in at 2 and a half hours, it is an intense, unbalanced and bleak watch. Taking much of the play and condensing, contorting and conditioning it to the will of one of the greatest film makers of all time. Add to this the utterly unforgiving tone of the film, it is a perfect Halloween film for anyone with an interest in Shakespeare on film or performance in the eye of the lens.
WHAT SHOULD WE LOOK OUT FOR?
Personally some might see it as delayed bereavement. This might lead to a level of intrusive viewing at the piece. But others see it as Polanski enacting a type of catharsis. Polanski shifts much of the blame and guilt away from Lady Macbeth, makes Macbeth as much a victim as a murderer and frames the film in a Scotland, bleak and desolate. The whole film becomes a soaked and saddened nightmare, splattering and sheering limbs and blood across the frame. It is hard to draw away from until its final frame and even harder to forget.
BUY IT NOW
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Roman Polanski, with 3.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Toil and Trouble: Making “Macbeth,” a new documentary featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Andrew Braunsberg, assistant executive producer Victor Lownes, and actors Francesca Annis and Martin Shaw
- Polanski Meets Macbeth, a 1971 documentary by Frank Simon featuring rare footage of the film’s cast and crew at work
- Interview with coscreenwriter Kenneth Tynan from a 1971 episode of The Dick Cavett Show
- “Two Macbeths,” a segment from a 1972 episode of the British television series Aquarius featuring Polanski and theater director Peter Coe
- Trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Terrence Rafferty
