Product Details

• Actors: William Alland, Edgar Barrier, Lionel Braham, George Chirello, Keene Curtis
• Format: Black & White, Special Edition, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Republic Pictures
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302484502
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,442 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Orson Welles's 1948 Macbeth is an expressionist masterpiece about a doomed man of ordinary ambition who believes an evil prophecy that he will become king. As depicted by Welles, the title character is not a warrior king or a conscience-stricken, poetic soul on a par with Hamlet; rather, he is a facile, superstitious man consigned to fate even as the character does not trust fate. For her part, Lady Macbeth (Jeanette Nolan) is merely obsessed with the unimpeded exercise of her will to power, viewing her husband's life as a tale told by an idiot. Welles has also created some new scenes here, conflating several characters into a "Holy Father" (Alan Napier) while eliciting strong supporting turns from Dan O'Herlihy (Macduff) and Roddy McDowall (Malcolm). Though the technically poor soundtrack and the occasional indecipherable Scottish brogue make the film seem a trifle compromised at times, each moment feels preternaturally alive. --Kevin Mulhall

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fair and Foul Shakespearean Rendition, March 28, 1998

By	Tyson D. Rahmeier (Roswell, GA USA) - See all my reviews

Any film directed by Orson Welles is engrossing and worth the time. MACBETH is no exception. For those of you familiar with the 1971 Roman Polanski version, Welles brought to the screen a darker, more nightmarish world than Polanski could envision. The lighting is stark and the shadows ominous. Macbeth's madness increasingly pervades the atmosphere of the entire film, making the viewer unwilling to view this film with the lights out. The restored version presents Welles's original conception; the actors speak their lines with authentic Scottish burrs (Welles was forced to redo the soundtrack by the studio brass). A fascinating journey and imaginative interpretation of Shakespeare, Welles's MACBETH remains a major additon to American cinema and reveals the classical literary talents of one of the US's greatest visual artists. END

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SHAKESPEARE AS EXPRESSIONIST NIGHTMARE, September 17, 2002

By	K. Jump (Corbin, KY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Many have cited "Macbeth" as a horror story, and whether or not that's exactly true, Orson Welles' superior production is certainly an excursion into nightmare that even a Murnau would have envied. The sets and camerawork create a world of wet, windswept badlands and dark stone mazes in which it is difficult not to believe in witches and omens and where bloodletting indeed seems the order of the day. Though a low-budget production, Welles' movie never looks cheap and his mileu never less than convincing. Welles' own portrayal of the doomed protagonist is dead-on, and while Jeanette Nolan's performance as the scheming, hard-hearted Lady Macbeth is often harshly criticized, in many ways her vampiric interpretation of the character is unsurpassed. Likewise Roddy McDowall (Malcolm) and Dan O'Herlihy (Macduff) are definitive in their roles, and Alan Napier is strong as a "Holy Friar" who is the movie's conscience. An enrapturing cinematic experience from the Weird Sisters' mesmerizing invocation to the climactic siege of Macbeth's castle (featuring a great sword fight between Welles and O'Herlihy), Welles' "Macbeth" is classic moviemaking that will endure as long as darkness moves the hearts of men and women.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great From the Master, April 25, 2004

By	D. Pope "davidallen001" (Cheyenne, Wyoming) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I own this film on VHS and on Laserdisc and I am hoping that it will soon come out on DVD. Certainly there are some technical problems with the production, but it is a 1948 film so some of that can be excused.

Welles vision of MacBeth has the texture and feel of a nightmare. The backdrops are unfinished, muddy charicatures of the objects and places they represent. Scotland is an eerie, nightmarish landscape that is constantly misty and partially unformed. The use of the b&w medium superbly creates a feeling of dread and foreboding in the audience who is drawn ever deeper into the madness of the story. This is vintage Welles, who loved to make the tone, timbre, hue and texture of every part of the movie relate to and support the story he was filming. Certainly the work of a genius.

Most people know the basic story. MacBeth (Which literally means "Son of Life"), is given a prophesy that he will become king of Scotland and tells his wife of the prophesy. Lady MacBeth then uses MacBeth's insecurities to manipulate him into murdering the true king and assuming his throne. Guilt-ridden and paranoid, MacBeth begins a reign of tyranny and sinks into madness. Finally, the English invade and end his reign of terror. MacBeth, who is shown as no more than a pawn in this story, finally gains a measure of grace and dignity when he faces MacDuff in combat. We finally see in death the couragous man MacBeth could have been - indeed was before he allowed his and his wife's greed to corrupt him - MacBeth rises above his fate and becomes master of his own destiny by crying-out the infamous phrase "Lead on MacDuff, and damn the man who first cries hold - enough".

All in all, I have been impressed with this film from the first time I viewed it and I do hope it comes soon to DVD.

A note on the soundtrack - In 1949 the studio refused to release this movie until Welles overdubbed the original Scottish Brogue with more traditional Shakespearian English-accented speech, arguing that the Scottish was unintelligible. I think the most important part of the reconstruction of this film is the return of the original Scottish soundtrack - It adds so much to the grittiness and the darkness of the movie. After two or three viewings, most of the dialog comes clear, so in the first viewing the accent is just a bit of an inconvenience.