{"id":9473,"date":"2022-01-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9473"},"modified":"2022-03-10T07:56:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T12:56:57","slug":"the-tragedy-of-macbeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9473","title":{"rendered":"The Tragedy of Macbeth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you\u2019re thinking \u201cThe Scottish Play\u201d is so familiar, why sit through yet another production of it, even one directed by Joel Coen (trailer<\/a>)? Well, think again. This is a story that greatly benefits from all of Coen\u2019s noir sensibilities\u2014from the dark portrayals by the protagonists to the look and feel he gives to the Scottish highlands and its stark castles. (Available on streaming)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denzel Washington as Macbeth and Frances McDormand as his wife are in equipoise, as if personal strength were a zero-sum game. In the beginning, she\u2019s strong and he\u2019s weak, then he becomes strong in madness and she diminishes. In an exemplary cast, special mention must be made of Kathryn Hunter\u2019s phenomenal work as the Witches. She is ungainly, crude, and sly. At one point the camera seems to capture her in the process of transforming into one of the ravens circling ominously overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A striking moment occurs early in the film when Macbeth and Banquo approach the witch through the fog, and she stands on the other side of a pond, a black pillar with no reflection. The other two witches are invisible, but their reflection does appears in the pond. (this moment appears briefly in the trailer). It\u2019s an image that shakes you out of your expectations. All is not as it should be. And then some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film is the product of a powerful artistic vision, from shooting it in an almost-square format (1.37:1 aspect ratio), to eliminate any distracting elements cluttering the periphery, to choosing stunning black and white, to Carter Burwell\u2019s dark score. The castles are devoid of decoration and seem as cold as the hearts of their occupants. The mist-obscured crows, the dripping water, the knocking. Is that the sun shining through the fog, or is it the moon? Is it day or night? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near the end, when Macbeth is on the battlements of Dunsinane, and Birnam wood is indeed about to come to him, fulfilling the Witch\u2019s prophesy, he\u2019s surrounded by fallen leaves, a visual reminder of his heart-wrenching speech about what might have been: \u201cMy way of life is fall\u2019n into the sear, the yellow leaf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>  critics rating: 93%; audiences 80%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re thinking \u201cThe Scottish Play\u201d is so familiar, why sit through yet another production of it, even one directed by Joel Coen (trailer)? Well, think again. This is a story that greatly benefits from all of Coen\u2019s noir sensibilities\u2014from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Seen Macbeth? Not this stunning production! Cast is great, and unforgettable artistry. Do yourself a solid.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,366,57,104,147,785],"tags":[367,1210,1947,1946,197],"class_list":["post-9473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actor","category-drama","category-movies","category-the-morgue","category-theater","category-tragedy","tag-denzel-washington","tag-frances-mcdormand","tag-joel-coen","tag-macbeth","tag-shakespeare"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2sN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9475,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9473\/revisions\/9475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}