evening1 This graphic, very personal depiction of Shakespeare's great play is almost edge-of-your-seat stuff.You know you're in for a very special ride from the gripping start, when a trio of crisply clad, shockingly murderous nurses turn out to be the witches.Patrick Stewart's Macbeth is good though not especially interesting in his characterization. I did not like his ghoulish lurking at Lady Macduff's, though I was thankful the family's slaughter was only hinted at.I found the witches to be the dramatic heart of this production. To see them writhing over casualties in body bags was mesmerizing.I saw this with my eight-year-old son, who found it very watchable and exciting.....a quality we both equally admired in Baz Luhrmann's "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet." In all, an excellent production.

Hurricane_Theresa This is by far the best Macbeth I have ever seen. It is definitely not just a camera filming a stage production, it is a horror film. Everything from the acting to the lighting was fresh and original.Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood are chillingly superb and the supporting cast just as good. There was not a weak link.Some people have said that Patrick Stewart is too old to play this part, however there is absolutely no indication of age anywhere in the text. In fact, the age of Macbeth compared to that of his wife's actually helps support Macbeth's sudden lust for power. He is a man who was satisfied to be the star military general, but when he married a young, ambitious (crazy) woman, it gave him a reason to want more.This is a better quality film than almost everything in theaters today.

joshlhitchens I just finished watching Rupert Goold's film of Macbeth, starring Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood. As mentioned in the last post, I saw this production on Broadway and was eagerly awaiting the film version. Now I've seen a lot of great film Macbeths, including the Ian McKellen/Judi Dench version, the RSC film with Antony Sher, and Roman Polanski's. This film is the best Macbeth that you will ever see. In fact, scenes that I didn't find very effective on stage (Lady Macbeth's mad scene and and the long scene between Malcolm and Macduff) were very powerful in the movie. Patrick Stewart's performance is definitive. You can see every thought that passes through his mind. Kate Fleetwood's Lady Macbeth charted her fall into insanity with such clarity that when Macbeth is told that she has died, it's no surprise to him or the audience. You see that there was no other end to her story. The Weird Sisters, here played as Nurses who have gone over to the dark side, are truly frightening. There is no weak link in this cast, the directing is thrillingly original, and the production design is stunning. It easily could have been shown in movie theaters. This Macbeth is set during the Cold War of the 1950's, and doesn't shy away from the shocking violence of a dictatorship. Characters are brutally executed, and the murder of Lady Macduff and her children is greatly disturbing, even though you see almost nothing happen. And to top it all off, Rupert Goold has the film end with the camera panning from location to location throughout the castle (the dining room, the kitchen, the Weird Sisters' morgue) and then closes with a shot of Macbeth and his Lady in the elevator, hand in hand. So we end with the idea that Macbeth's castle isn't just drenched in blood. It's haunted.

kayaker36 Macbeth is supposed to be ambitious, murderous but first of all YOUNG with a whole lifetime in front of him as the play begins. After all, he and Lady Macbeth have as yet no children as revealed in the first act when Macbeth admonishes her to have only male offspring as she lacks feminine softness.I could not get past the incongruity of seventy year old Patrick Stewart in the part, though he is a fine actor, always physically fit and with a superb speaking voice. But that face and that bald skull...Ms. Fleetwood his co-star is herself no débutante at 38 but her "husband" is nearly twice her age! Some of the other parts, such as the comrade betrayed Banquo, had to be aged just to maintain credibility in the casting of the central role.This production achieves high marks for originality, with Macbeth portrayed as a Scottish Stalin, cult of personality and all, with 1930's costumes and weaponry much in evidence.Catch the 1971 Polanski directed film version starring young, handsome Jon Finch. Authentic to the last rawhide lacing, this still is the gold standard.