Film review: Macbeth (1997) directed by Jeremy Freeston.

Today I am gifting you with my review of the 1997 film version of Macbeth directed by Jeremy Freeston. This version of the play opens with the fighting scene, which in the play is scene two. This is a scene that is loud, with all the men fighting with one another and charging at each other to kill in a field. That is until Macbeth comes along. The noises all stop and it goes silent until he strikes down an opposing man and all that can be heard is the final striking with the sword being delivered. Only then do we get the witches from amidst the smoke.

These witches give off an appearance of peasantry, as though they are poor women. I state this based on their outfits, which are nothing special. When Macbeth and Banquo first meet the witches their appearance changes to ghastly and not fully there to emphasise they are supernatural. This time they are also have blackish make up which I like because it contrasts their paleness. In general the costumes and make up was well thought out throughout the play. Take Lady Macbeth - when we first see Helen Baxendale's Lady Macbeth, we can see she is wearing a red dress. Red connotes passion and blood. We can later that she ends up with bloody hands and arms after the death of King Duncan.

This is a moment that always baffles me. Lady Macbeth comes up with this idea of killing the killing because of what Macbeth reveals about the witches' words. Then she cannot through with it because the king looks like her father, so Macbeth does the deed. Then when he comes back with the daggers, all confused, she goes back as she takes charge of the situation. I often wonder who is the stronger and who is the weaker of the two. Of course I think Lady Macbeth proves to weaker in the end after her dramatic ending. Death is common throughout the play though suicide is not common. We see multiple death scenes however hers we do not, we only hear it. I might also add that a few scenes before we do not see Lady Macduff's death either. At least we saw Banquo's. The only thing with his death that bothered me was how Macbeth was not informed that Fleance had escaped, unlike in the play.

But still, it is a excellent version of the play that is highly gross (just watch Banquo's ghost haunt Macbeth) and tense throughout. The setting had good choices, such as the Macbeth residence looking like a castle. The characters were great too. Overall, this film was very good and I am giving it a 8.5/10.


Until next time,


Thomas.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bookshops I have visited - 3: Oxfam Bookshop, Coventry.

Image
Welcome back to my blog everyone. It is that time of the month where I give you the ins and outs to another bookshop that I have recently been to. This time, it is the Oxfam Bookshop in Coventry city centre. When I was on my travels, I found myself in Coventry. Now having lived and studied in the West Midlands, I knew about this bookshop. Funnily enough this was not my first visit here. Just as I remembered, they have a nice range of books and music despite being on the slightly smaller side. I noticed they still had a little collection of Doctor Who stuff! I am a big Doctor Who fan. Anyway, as I went nosing around, there was one book that caught my eye. It was this book: Sculpted: Poetry of the North West  (2013) edited by Lindsey Holland and Angela Topping. There is an introduction by David Morley who I have read before as a poet, teacher and editor. The important thing here though is that I picked up a poetry book and April (in case you were unaware) is National Poetry Month! I ...
Read more

Bookshop visit 11: Lions Charity Bookshop, Hailsham.

Hi! Sorry for the delay in the blog post, the internet keeps playing up for me so I could not post yesterday when I planned to. For my blog post I am off on another bookshop visit. This time I found myself in the East Sussex of Hailsham where down Market Street in Hailsham. It is near North Street and High Street which is good for people visiting by bus or catching a train and then a bus to Hailsham as it has no train station itself. When you enter the bookshop it can come across as quite small. Despite this, I see the bookshop as small and mighty. You never know what you are going to get and that is what I like in a bookshop. Normally, it is fiction that I go for though they have some other stuff as well. I will say that if you want something specific then you cannot guarantee to get, though that often goes with a lot of second-hand bookshops. I must point as well that paperback books are priced at £1.20 which to me is a steal! Can you imagine wanting to get some Margaret Atwood books...
Read more

Fictional book review: Cat's Eye (1988) by Margaret Atwood.

Image
It's me again... Your favourite book reviewer back with another Margaret Atwood book to review. This time I thought I would tuck into Atwood's 1988 novel Cat's Eye . This novel is gripped with spectral memories of the narrator's past, it is a bildungsroman. A bildungsroman is just a novel that goes through a character's life, from being a child, to growing up as a young person to becoming an adult. Great Expectations  (1861) by Charles Dickens is another example. Anyway, the narrator, Elaine is haunted by Cordelia who I will not give too much about her away. This novel threw me, many times. We had Elaine and her various friends. First we were introduced to Carol, then Grace and finally Cordelia. But it is Cordelia, who's presence is felt throughout the novel. The thing is, I cannot understand why. Without giving too much away, Cordelia was hardly being nice to Elaine and I just expected that as Elaine grew up that she would move on; that she would not have Corde...
Read more