Macbeth. 1948. Directed by Orson Welles.

(9/9/00)

I don't have too much to say about this one. It certainly takes a stylized approach. The film doesn't look as if set anywhere in the real world. It doesn't give the story a background. There could have been, for example, some establishing shots showing what kind of people made up the kingdom. But we don't get any of that. In a film this is disorienting, although it might have worked better on the stage.

I found it interesting that Lady Macbeth is the one who eggs her husband on to murder, accuses him of being a wimp when he wants to back out of killing Duncan, yet she is the one who loses her mind, if you want to call it that. At least, she has nightmares and kills herself. To his credit, Macbeth sees it all the way through to the bitter end.

I think the great moment in this film comes when Macbeth learns that Macduff was not born of woman and thus realize that the powers of darkness have been playing him for a fool. That scene really worked for me. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene didn't come off at all. Jeannette Noldand just didn't bring it off.

Macbeth actually seems more like a primitive chieftan than what we normally think of as a king. He seems to be the leader of a tribe rather than a country. But we didn't get to see enough to really know for sure.

I couldn't hear a good amount of this picture, particularly the scenes with the witches. I never understood what happened to the man who was brought in between the two horses and later decapitated. His death resulted in Macbeth being given his title and that was the fulfillment of the first prophecy. But who he was and what happened to him was lost on me.