MovieChat Forums > The Tragedy of Macbeth (2022) Discussion > Boring

Boring

posted 2 years ago by Ed (526)
2 replies | jump to latest

This isn’t a very good film. It’s competent but ultimately forgettable.

Good: the black and white cinematography is quite nice and eerie. It evokes German expressionism at times. Think, Cabinet of Caligari meets Shakespeare. Some of the actors, like the witch, are darn good!

Bad: pacing is sluggish. Acting is mostly wooden. MacBeth is basically Denzel doing his usual head motion tics. Doesn’t look or sound like a MacBeth at all.

Ugly: action-less, stagey rather than ciinematic. Minimalism to an extreme. Most everyone mumbles, so turn on subtitles.

If you really want to see a good MacBeth film, try
1) Throne of Blood. Kurosawa showcases his masterful skill with cinematography, pacing, mis-en-scene. Plenty of action. Ghostly. A masterpiece through and through!
2) Roman Polanski’s MacBeth. It’s realistic, bloody, and gritty. The performances are amazing. Probably the best MacBeth film. Throne of Blood is more a loose adaptation with samurai. Choose one or watch both. You can’t go wrong.

Compared to these, the Coen film is vastly inferior. It is still one of the better or challenging films of 2021, which may be a statement in itself on how far the art of filmmaking has fallen….

[–] mechajutaro (2788) 2 years ago

This likely doesn't hold a candle to the version that came out a few years ago, with Fassbender in the lead

[–] capuchin (3209) 9 months ago

It evokes German expressionism at times.

Yes. It's visually interesting and has some striking stylistic ideas... but that seems to have been the main focus of the filmmakers. As a reading of the play it is, as you say, merely competent and therefore not terribly interesting. It doesn't really capture the passion or the madness of the story. They might have been better off with performances that also matched the style of German expressionism. Go bold, go BIG.