Customer Reviews

Macbeth / McKellen, Dench, Royal Shakespeare Company [VHS]

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This production highlights the Christian v. pagan elements, and in other ways deals in opposites (men's v. women's perceptions, solid v. spirit worlds, etc.), but without beating you over the head with it. The witch scenes are amazing--the production borrows from Irish "bog people" imagery with the witches' stick puppets representing Macbeth's visions, with a little borrowing from Carlos Castaneda's peyote trips, and maybe the minimal "circle" staging of Equus. Minimal props and furniture; the actors carry it all the way, brilliantly. I can't imagine anyone doing a better, visceral, more committed job with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth than McKellan and Dench. It could sell huge--for a Shakespeare film--if only it wasn't probably too obviously a taped stage production (it doesn't try to be otherwise). A couple of turtlenecks among the costumes betray the 70's-era staging, but otherwise the costuming is great and doesn't date the production. If you a) are a fan of Ian McKellan and/or Judi Dench and b) appreciate great Shakespeare performances and want to be "in the know" on what's considered the definitive Macbeth staging of the past couple decades, this is the one.

I purchased this tape after it was featured in an interview with Ian McKellen on Inside the Actor?s Studio and I decided I had to have it for my collection. This is a very simply staged version of Shakespeare's most violent play, and against this basic black canvas you witness two of the greatest stage actors of all time. The queen knighted both McKellen and Dench after this production, and rightfully so. They are both national treasures, as they should be.

This film is worth watching for these two outstanding performances alone, and for the beauty of the language, unencumbered by complex technical effects. Trevor Nunn has chosen to highlight the emotional deterioration of MacBeth and his Lady for this production, and I wonder if that choice was made because he had these two incredible actors for this production, or if he chose them for this purpose (a variation on the chicken/egg theory of theatrical production).

The "apparitions" (Banquo, dagger, et al) occur in MacBeth's head only -- McKellen's amazing ability convinces you that he sees bloody, murdered Banquo seated at the table, although we do not see him. (Believe me, this is infinitely preferable to some other Banquo apparitions I've witnessed in other productions.) Dench is, quite simply, the best actor alive to ever trod down the even road of the Bard?s blank verse. Period. Her Lady MacBeth?s degeneration is set in motion from the first letter-reading scene, climaxing in the most jaw-dropping sleepwalking scene ever.

Shakespeare has never SOUNDED better?much of this recording would work equally well as an audio-only version.

Other reviewers have done a remarkable job in explaining what works about this notable production; allow me to share what bothered me about it:

The camera work: looked and felt like an old episode of Dark Shadows with much-too-tight camera angles. I wish that, C-Span-like, the TV director had simply trained a camera on the stage and then we could watch how Nunn utilized the small space of this theatre. So many tight shots of the actors? faces deprive us of seeing what they are doing with the rest of themselves, and how the others in the scene are reacting.

Bob Peck as MacDuff: autistic, rather than artistic. I know the British are famous for their reserve (but the Scots certainly aren?t), and sometimes less is more onstage when it comes to emotion, but Peck?s greets the news that his wife and children have all been murdered with the same amount of indignation that he might incur at the news that someone drank the last beer in his fridge. It?s a choice that doesn?t seem to work, and this goes against Shakespeare?s own text: (?But I must also feel it as a man?), which makes MacDuff one of the first completely emotional strong, sensitive males on the stage. Even when he murders MacBeth, Peck comes across as only slightly peeved.

Accents: Nunn has chosen to have some of the ?character? parts (the Sergeant, the Porter) performed with heavy Scottish brogues?and they are difficult to understand for the average listener. (I?m quite used to these accents and I had a hard time with some of it.) I like the authenticity, but sometimes one should sacrifice authenticity for coherence.

If you like Shakespeare, good acting, or need to learn this play for school, buy this version. It comes closer than most others toward depicting what the main characters are all about, and the language is beautiful and terrifying. If you are studying acting, McKellen and Dench?s performances will probably convince you that you have no talent whatsoever.

Shakespeare's plays, I find, often tend not to come off too well on screen. The essence of these works is the language: it is Shakespeare's blank verse that contains the drama. But all too often, this gets lost on the screen. However, this much acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company production, directed by Trevor Nunn, gets it absolutely right. The sets are minimal; the lighting is imaginative, but dark; the camera movements and editing are unobtrusive: nothing distracts from the verse, which - needless to say, given this cast - is beautifully spoken. The costumes are taken from different periods in history, and so do not tie the action down to any particular time; but there is a unity both in design and in purpose.

The atmosphere is intense and claustrophobic from the very beginning. Judi Dench presents a Lady Macbeth who, right from the start, is terrified of the spirits she calls upon to possess her. Ian MacKellen presents us with a figure on the verge of insanity, and possibly beyond: this Macbeth has to convince himself that "all is but toys", for otherwise, he could not go on living with the burden of such guilt. It is terrifying to see these figures descend further into the depths of evil and madness. Somehow, all horror films seem a bit tame after this: the evil does not come from the monster outside, but from the monster within ourselves.

In brief, this is not prettified Shakespeare. If you are looking for spectacle and opulence, it would be best to look elsewhere. But if you are looking for an intelligent reading of one of the great undisputed masterpieces of drama, then you need look no further.

This production is decades old, but will continue to be a classic. The settings are spare, the costumes are minimalist and stark. The acting is truly scarey. Ian McKellan tends to be a bit twitchy for my taste as an actor, but here the twitchiness works very well. Spitting, fuming, puking even at one point, he wrestles with a terrible evil he has hatched inside himself. I imagine it would have been hard to sit through in the theatre with no intermission.

Judi Dench - a goddess to me - is alternately terrifying and heartbreaking as Lady MacBeth. Her sleepwalking scene has a desperate, lost quality to it, and the scene climaxes in a bottomless cry from her heavy heart which gives me goosebumps just to think of it.

A young Roger Rees (just off his stint as Nicholas Nickleby - does anyone here but me remember that one, or am I dating myself?) plays Malcolm, perhaps bringing some inadvertent comedy to the production. Malcolm's scene where he comdemns himself for his lust and then admits that he's a virgin. To me, it's a hoot, but maybe I was just letting off tension steam from the rest of the play.

The witches are creepy, too. Now I know why they call them "weird" sisters. Really weird, with even more drool and twitching.

All in all, I think this is the best MacBeth that you'll find on tape. It's just a matter of whether or not you can sit through it without jumping out of your skin. Highly recommended. A classic.

If you require elaborate scenery, costumes, or special affects to appreciate Shakespeare, then this production is not for you. If all that you require is outstanding acting to bring Shakespeare to life, then you'll likely enjoy this production. The performances of Ian McKellen and Judi Dench are outstanding. Judi Dench's depiction of Lady Macbeth's descent into madness is riveting.

Acting aside, the great thing about this production, is that it presents Macbeth in much the same way as it would have been seen by William Shakespeare. Some comment on the stripped down nature of this production, without appreciating that in the original productions there was virtually no set and little in the way of costumes. Oh, and no women. Far from being an esoteric adaptation of Macbeth, this version is much closer to what theatre goers would have witnessed in Elizabethan times.

Staged for a very small theater in 1976, director Trevor Nunn gives us an exceptionally bleak production in shades of black, grey, sepia, and the occasional red of spilled blood...with no sets and minimal props, and lots and lots of mist. The costuming is pared down to a simple "non-descript" look, and overall, it's very effective.

With a fine cast of Royal Shakespeare Company members backing them, Sir Ian and Dame Judi shine brilliantly as the devilish couple. McKellan looks handsome and his disintegration is mesmerizing...his big scene with the witches is fabulous (and terrific witches they are ! Susan Dury, Judith Harte, Marie Kean). Dench is phenomenal! I love the inhuman wail she lets out in the sleepwalking scene. It's chilling, and unforgettable.

There are so many intriguing Macbeth productions available, like the Orson Welles film, and the visually entertaining Polanski/Jon Finch version, but this "bare bones" one is my favorite, where the play's the thing.

Let me start by telling you what I don't like about this production. The costuming is annoying - a mixture of styles for no reason that is clear to me and to no particular effect. And that's it. Everything else about this production works beautifully.

Ian McKellan and Judy Dench are absolutely magnificent. Their slide into evil is absolutely convincing, the anguish it causes them is completely natural. All the ambition and cruelty that we expect are there, mingled with a tenderness and regret that are often missed by lesser actors. The supporting cast is all good, though not uniformly so; some are excellent, some merely good.

The witches are creepy in a repellant rather than a scary way. The supernatural elements of the play aren't played out with special effects, but rather take place in the minds of the characters. I think that works well - hags over cauldrons and gauze wearing ghosts get pretty cliched. Here the boundary between supernatural and madness is left completely blurred.

I expected the set design to be a negative - I'm not fond of dark and mostly empty sets. At first it bothered me, but later I found that I was focusing entirely on the actors and completely failing to notice the absence of detailed background. The darkness fits the mood of the play and makes everything that is there on stage stand out. The sets may be initially off-putting, but I think they're a wise and artistically sound approach.

In spite of the senseless costume design, this is a solid five.

The set is sparse, dark, and perpetually fog-filled. A Caravaggio-inspired lighting scheme picks out the actors' faces from the deep shadow around them. Shakespeare's words, in this context, take on a visionary vividness. This is essentially a filmed version of the legendary stage production put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1976. Despite the absence of many requisite "cinematic" elements, it is also by far the most satisfying adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth (not including Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood') that I've seen. With actors the caliber of Ian McKellen and Judi Dench, lavish sets and props would be an afterthought, even a distraction. Instead, they control the screen with their fierce, combustible passion.

Through his actors, Nunn preys on the audience's imagination. Instead of spoon-feeding us a steady, predictable diet of horror show gore and carnage, Nunn emphasizes the imagistic poetry of Shakespeare's language. The language, channeled through such superior interpreters as McKellen and Dench, takes on an expressionistic life of its own. "Full of scorpions is my mind," Macbeth confesses to his wife. The horror is internal, not external, and Shakespeare's words have a terrifying immediacy that only the imagination can do justice. The barren set is a mindscape, a blank canvas on which the audience paints its own fears.

It's ironic that of all 'Macbeth' versions this is the least explicit, least violent, but is the most difficult to watch. I felt drained by the end. McKellen and Dench give such powerhouse performances the effect is of watching the complete mental disintegration of two people happen before your eyes. Impenetrable shadows surround the characters, literally and figuratively. Nunn strips the play of all extraneous trappings and what is left are the words. When the author is Shakespeare, that's not a bad way to go about it.

Without question, this version of Macbeth featuring two of the finest actors to speak dialogue is one of the most compelling, chillingly stark renderings of the bard's bloody drama ever captured on film. An actual staged production, the Trevor Nunn film posits the Macbeth world in a land of black shadows broken occasionally by the luminescent faces of the poor souls who populate that world. The characters come from darkness and they return there. In envisioning the play this way, Nunn emphasizes the sad vulnerability of human beings who must act out their little roles only to vanish in the great swallowing mystery of time and eternity.

Ian McKellen's Macbeth is one of those tortured souls: a real human being riddled with arrogance and aspirations but at the same time tormented by morality and fear. McKellen's performance is not of a monster but of a human being teetering on the brink of good and evil. Once he loses his delicate balance, McKellen's Macbeth becomes cold and statuary, a soul realizing its own destruction, its own sinking into the great gulf of blood it has spilled. McKellen manages to capture Shakespeare's vision of a Macbeth who is always self-aware, always conscious of his own evil and its consequences.

Judi Dench's Lady Macbeth makes a similar transformation, except in her journey, she moves from cold, malevolent she-devil to sadly broken, guilt-ridden madwoman. Dench's performance is the show's dramatic star, its center, its barometer for guilt and its exacting consequences. The sleep walking scene is one of the finest depictions of guilt and human culpability one is likely ever to see performed and reason enough to award this production five stars.

Both McKellen and Dench humanize their characters, never letting them slip into the extremes of monsterdom. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth appear here as our brother and sister: equipped with minds and souls capable of knowing good but also capable of choosing evil, or perhaps capable of letting evil choose them. Their relentless self-awareness is the one quality of Shakespeare's play that makes it so chilling: great figures losing their better selves and having their eyes open during the loss. To commit evil and know it--such is the awful plight of these hapless souls--and Nunn's production, buoyed by remarkable performances, renders that plight disturbingly our own.

I was lucky enough to see this production of the Scottish play in the theatre, and it retains its place as one of the most thrilling evenings at the theatre in my life! Both Ian McKellen and Judi Dench gave extraordinary performances of great power and beauty. Though no dvd or film or video can match the live experience this dvd comes very close to doing so. Filmed in close up a lot of the time the viewer is right there in the middle of the action, the plotting, the murders, and the excitement. The poetry of Shakespeare's language cannot be bettered, nor better delivered, with all the actors speaking their lines as if they had just thought of them. If you like great theatre and acting this is one your collection cannot be without.