The Tragedy of Macbeth Review: The Minimalist Style Enhances The Surreal Aura Of The Text

Cast: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand

Director: Joel Coen

Streaming Platform: Apple TV+ (click to watch) 

Filmyhype Ratings: 4/5 (four star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

The Tragedy of Macbeth Review: There is a thread of melancholy in the air as we write this review of The Tragedy of Macbeth, the 2021 adaptation coming to Apple TV +after being presented in some festivals, with an adjoining limited release in the United States and some other countries (the writer saw it in theaters in Austria just before Christmas). Melancholy because, for the first time since 2004, only the name of Joel Coen appears in the credits, and this time not for contractual reasons: if previously the regulation of the directors’ union was involved (to have more than one name it is necessary whether they are an established duo), at this stage it is because Ethan Coen, the other half of the so-called “two-headed director”, decided to retire from the cinema, leading to an artistic break that could already be perceived before the official announcement, when in 2019 the two brothers participated in festival masterclasses but always each on their own. The Tragedy of Macbeth, the full name that many tend to reduce to the name of the protagonist/antagonist alone.

The Tragedy of Macbeth The Story

The story of Macbeth is the one we know, of the Scottish nobleman (Denzel Washington) who, as a reward for his bravery in battle, finds himself with an extra title, the previous owner of which was stained with high treason towards King Duncan (Brendan Gleeson). Only those three mysterious women (Kathryn Hunter) have prophesied that one day he will also be the ruler of the whole of Scotland, and it begins to give him head, also thanks to the intervention of the ambitious and brutal wife (Frances McDormand). Thus begins a vicious circle of madness and blood, which will jeopardize the balance of power of the nation and the health, physical and mental, of many of the participants, starting with Macbeth himself who, in the grip of all paranoia, no longer knows who to trust. But there are doubts in other parts of the kingdom as well as to his ability to reign, and it may be a matter of a short time before the situation deteriorates irreversibly.

The Tragedy of Macbeth Review

Why another film adaptation of Shakespearean Macbeth, some wondered (ignoring the fact that in the theater it is customary to make different versions almost annually). The answer lies in the compatibility between text and director: known for their characteristic dialogues, the Coen brothers, when they made direct transpositions of third-party works (see the entries Not a country for old men and The grit), have always worked on starting from sources which, in terms of tones, atmospheres and language, seemed to have already come out of their imagination. And so it is also with the Scottish drama, when seen in the original language (which Apple allows very easily): the language of the Bard, in the transposition of Joel Coen, has a naturalness combined with a surreal quality that never highlights its presumed archaic patina, giving conversations a blatantly modern energy. The actors’ interpretations also contribute to this: each faces the text with his own voice without giving himself over to excessively theatrical diction, with delightful contrasts between elements such as the American and bold tones of Washington and the more tired, recognizable Irish, of Gleeson (very interesting also the work done on witches, with an effect that is literally one and three).

But there’s also the exquisitely cinematic factor, with Coen armed with a team of formidable collaborators (including cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel and composer Carter Burwell), creates a world deliberately fake, artifact and rarefied: shot entirely in soundstages, with fictitious fog banks to render the Caledonian climate in an environment that has nothing of the land of Macbeth, the film is at the same time very theatrical, with Limited sets and attention to performance captured in agonizing close-ups, and anything but a filmed show, thanks to black and white photography which, combined with the Spartan visual apparatus, harks back to German expressionism to accentuate the horror component some text. A cabinet of Doctor Caligari where madness reigns even more sovereign, as it is moved by very real external forces.

There is something symbolic in the choice of the Bardo tragedy as the first solo work for Joel Coen, who perhaps at some point will have recognized himself in the figure of Macbeth, in particular in the fateful moment of the soliloquy on tomorrow, a fatalistic speech carried forward from someone who can no longer count on the person who until a few moments before was essential for the positive outcome of any business. But if for the insane usurper hope ends soon, for the director this atypical but not too much feature film is the umpteenth confirmation of a talent that, even without fraternal support, is free to express himself fully, with sounds and fury, giving us a content and at the same time a dizzying journey inside the human psyche. A journey out of time, which in this capacity acquires a universal and at the same time deliciously modern meaning. Next stop, for those who are scrolling through the menus of the platforms: Dunsinane.

The Tragedy of Macbeth The Final Words

Joel Coen interfaces alone with the Shakespearean tragedy par excellence, a profound, gloomy and debated drama about the lust for power and the nefarious consequences of the most despicable actions. Macbeth is a profoundly obsequious film of the word and of the dramaturgical dynamics of the Bard, as well as a conceptual summa of the most beautiful transpositions of the past – especially that of Welles and Kurosawa – thus arriving at a formal perfection as beautiful as it is gloomy and icy. Thanks, moreover, to the immaculate black and white photography by Bruno Delbonnel. Perhaps it lacks personality and amazement, a defect perhaps due to the fears inherent in the solitary brother Coen in dealing with such a glorious and important work, but also thanks to the interpretations of Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand and Kathryn Hunter.