DVD Review: Patrick Stewart Delivers Towering Portrayal of ‘Macbeth’

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CHICAGO – There are few things more excruciating to sit through than a botched adaptation of Shakespeare. The Bard’s language is so intricately textured and poetically structured that it must be fully understood in order to be adequately delivered. An audacious mess like Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo and Juliet” recalls memories of amateur high school productions where students raced through the dialogue in order to sound naturalistic.

Luhrmann’s film is also a prime example of an oft-failed stunt: Shakespeare in modern dress. Adaptations that stick to the script while changing the scenery run the risk of distancing the audience even further from the material. The modern period detail in the sets and costumes leap out like distractions whenever the audience attempts to concentrate on the words. Yet Rupert Goold’s 2010 made-for-TV version of “Macbeth” is the rare production that actually manages to pull off the stunt, albeit with mixed results.

DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0

Goold’s picture is a cinematically realized encore performance of the acclaimed 2007 stage version that floored audiences in London and Broadway, drawing comparisons to the most revered adaptations of Shakespeare’s short yet intense “Scottish play.” Shot on location in Welbeck Abbey, this “Macbeth” appears to be set within the ’50s-era shadows of the Iron Curtain. The imagery is awash in dystopian symbology, which adds new layers of subtext to the dialogue, now evocative of Stalinist totalitarianism. It’s a neat trick, but the juxtaposition of setting and source material never quite gels. What works in broad strokes onstage doesn’t necessarily work in extreme close-up onscreen. The performances are stupendously impressive, but never once reigned in for subtlety. The interjecting of archival footage and historical undertones is more confusing than enlightening. And the sudden jumps from realism to heightened fantasy nearly always fumble into awkwardness. Of course, the live experience of a great night at the theatre can never be sufficiently captured on a recording. Despite its shortcomings, Goold’s production still manages to succeed as a fascinating, occasionally riveting experiment.

Macbeth was released on DVD on Jan. 11, 2011.
Photo credit: PBS

As the heroic general-turned-ruthless tyrant, Patrick Stewart delivers one of the most stunning performances of his career. His Macbeth is a towering stooge, as self-righteously ambitious as he is horrifically misguided. It’s easy to see how he would be alternately seduced and shamed into committing murder by the ferocious Lady Macbeth, played in a go-for-broke performance by Kate Fleetwood, who is nothing short of exhilarating. Their scenes together are among the film’s obvious high points, though it’s clear that their larger-than-life presences would fit better on a spacious stage rather than the confines of a film frame. Stewart is at his most mesmerizing when delivering Macbeth’s timeless soliloquies, drawing us into his delusions with unnerving ease. These passages of the legendary text are well suited for cinema since they allow the performers to convey nuances that simply wouldn’t be possible in a venue where only a handful of audience members could get a good look at the actors’ faces. There are even a few moments where Stewart appears to be having a ball, particularly during the sequence where he recruits two assassins while fixing a sandwich. It’s highly enjoyable to observe how Stewart can turn a stroke of the face into a strangle of the neck and a slap of the cheek.

The ensemble is uniformly strong, with Michael Feast (as Macduff) being a particular standout. One of the film’s only moments of total silence is the one in which Macduff first learns of his family’s grisly fate. This sequence is one of the few in the picture that is actually allowed to breathe, while the rest of the film is smothered in solemn exposition. The two-and-a-half-hour-plus production is so brooding and weighty that it ultimately exhausts rather than engages. It’s a work meant to be admired rather than felt. Welbeck’s underground labyrinth of lairs and hallways is strikingly reminiscent of similar spaces in noir classics like “M” and “The Third Man,” where a single gunshot can reverberate with a nuclear roar. It’s an efficiently atmospheric location, but it’s flat-out odd to hear Shakespeare’s prose echoing throughout it. The dialogue is difficult to take seriously straight from the beginning, when an injured sergeant on a stretcher exclaims, “My gashes cry for help!” Yet this production’s biggest misstep by far is its depiction of the Three Witches, whose mischievous prophecies immediately cast a spell on Macbeth. Their scenes seem to exist in an entirely different realm altogether—that of the direct-to-video horror genre. With their spastic movements and penchant for rapping, the witches render their signature chant, “Double, Double Toil and Trouble,” utterly incomprehensible.

“Macbeth” is presented in its 1.33:1 aspect ratio with pristine picture and sound quality. The disc contains no extras, though there are English subtitles helpfully typed in all caps. Just for fun, I suggest that future DVDs of Shakespeare adaptations include an alternate subtitle track written in artless English, offering blunt translations for the poetic dialogue. The special feature would prove beneficial for casual viewers who mistakenly find Shakespeare to be little more than “sound and fury signifying nothing.”

By MATT FAGERHOLM Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com matt@hollywoodchicago.com