Started with a 10, down to a 6

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2020)

I have probably watched 10 different MacBeths in my life, ranging from the Playboy Productions one which smacked of Sam Peckinpah's influence on goriness, thru plodding attempts to "adapt" the play to different times, nations, and even non nations, to honest attempts to tell the rather gigantic story. Patrick Stewart's was sort of wonderful, but, my God, 20th century Russians? Am I taking crazy pills? "have we eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner?"
ANYWAY, THIS performance starts off with sheer elegance, actors actually taking time with their lines, the historical context perfectly re-created...and then the vision begins to waste away. By the end of the play, the director/or writer's pyromania literally replaces facts in the original Work. Why? It just comes off as narcissism. The killing of MacDuff's wife and young children by burning is, well, kinda sick, since it was not even IN the original. And acting like burning embers flying around are the equivalent of carrying tree limbs as camo is downright ludicrous. Now, you have to understand that MacBeth is a much bigger play than can comfortably be performed in 3 hours, and this movie is 113 minutes. Edits are inevitable. But we were hoping common sense was inevitable, too. This is not a comic book, guys!
This is effing Shakespeare!