This is an entertaining rendition of Bill's dark and moody play.
Shakespeare's play about the rise to power and overthrow of Macbeth is not something to be made even more heavy by too mush subtext. Let's leave that for the Scholars who tear apart Shaky Bill's works with over zealous need to analyze this plays.
MacBeth is not a hero, he's a villain, plain and simple. A villain plagued by his guilty conscience that deprives his of his wholesome sleep and eventually his mind and enjoyment of life. He resorts to very masculine measures to assure his usurped throne and retain some dregs of life. Violence, plotting and eventually black magic. He is torn between wavering guilt and dynamic force to change his wretched state. In the end he sub-comes to a monomaniacal assurance of his own power and to a fatalist view of life. (MacBeth is not a profound character study like Hamlet, and any such "in depth" speculating only takes away from the performance) These two things tear him asunder. What makes him so appealing and tragic is his manly defiance and power.
Nicol Williamson portrayal of Macbeth incorporates all these things, most of all Williamson captures MacBeth's masculine force. People might argue that his acting is reminiscent of a 19th vaudeville villain, So what! (So it isn't as inventive and ceremonial as Ian Mckellen's excellent McBeth.) I loved the way Williamson ranted and sneered and his theatrical gesticulations that bordered on over-acting, but it takes a great actor to play a ham enjoyable and Williamson acting was excellent and enjoyable. (Many things seemed heat of the moment,which I like)
The Rest of the cast was adequate, though Ian Hogg's Banquo used what I call the "Shakespeare finger" a bit to much an some of his acting was strained. Tony Doyle as MacDuff too, his acting lacked in any real enjoyable dramatics, I did not find his lamentations concerning his murdered family moving. The gatekeeper wasn't funny at all(well, not that Shakespeare's humor is funny, frankly I find it dull) If you want a good solid "comic" performance of the gatekeeper watch Ian McDiarmed in the Trevor Nunn directed version.
As for Lady McBeth. I found Jane Lapotaire's interpretation strange, yet not bad. I agree there are discrepancies between Shakespeare's meaning and her performance, but She was incredibly seductive as Lady MacBeth. Which made her inducement to MacBeth to murder Duncan a great sensual piece of acting. (Who can say no to a bad girl, right.) Though her madness in the end lacked some of the dignity and power of Judy Dench's version of the role.
This version of MacBeth is not a simply a good version you can enjoy intellectually by yourself, but one that can be enjoyed with your friends drinking beer 'n booze, eating pizza, due to it's "go-for-the-guts" virility. It'll have you cheering on MacBeth as he murders, plots and rages. In fact this movie is a great instructional video how to be a real man, in an age where metro-sexuality castrated most men.
"...Give to th' edge o' th' sword His wife, his babes and all those unfortunate souls that trace him in his line." Heck, yeah!!!!
Shakespeare's play about the rise to power and overthrow of Macbeth is not something to be made even more heavy by too mush subtext. Let's leave that for the Scholars who tear apart Shaky Bill's works with over zealous need to analyze this plays.
MacBeth is not a hero, he's a villain, plain and simple. A villain plagued by his guilty conscience that deprives his of his wholesome sleep and eventually his mind and enjoyment of life. He resorts to very masculine measures to assure his usurped throne and retain some dregs of life. Violence, plotting and eventually black magic. He is torn between wavering guilt and dynamic force to change his wretched state. In the end he sub-comes to a monomaniacal assurance of his own power and to a fatalist view of life. (MacBeth is not a profound character study like Hamlet, and any such "in depth" speculating only takes away from the performance) These two things tear him asunder. What makes him so appealing and tragic is his manly defiance and power.
Nicol Williamson portrayal of Macbeth incorporates all these things, most of all Williamson captures MacBeth's masculine force. People might argue that his acting is reminiscent of a 19th vaudeville villain, So what! (So it isn't as inventive and ceremonial as Ian Mckellen's excellent McBeth.) I loved the way Williamson ranted and sneered and his theatrical gesticulations that bordered on over-acting, but it takes a great actor to play a ham enjoyable and Williamson acting was excellent and enjoyable. (Many things seemed heat of the moment,which I like)
The Rest of the cast was adequate, though Ian Hogg's Banquo used what I call the "Shakespeare finger" a bit to much an some of his acting was strained. Tony Doyle as MacDuff too, his acting lacked in any real enjoyable dramatics, I did not find his lamentations concerning his murdered family moving. The gatekeeper wasn't funny at all(well, not that Shakespeare's humor is funny, frankly I find it dull) If you want a good solid "comic" performance of the gatekeeper watch Ian McDiarmed in the Trevor Nunn directed version.
As for Lady McBeth. I found Jane Lapotaire's interpretation strange, yet not bad. I agree there are discrepancies between Shakespeare's meaning and her performance, but She was incredibly seductive as Lady MacBeth. Which made her inducement to MacBeth to murder Duncan a great sensual piece of acting. (Who can say no to a bad girl, right.) Though her madness in the end lacked some of the dignity and power of Judy Dench's version of the role.
This version of MacBeth is not a simply a good version you can enjoy intellectually by yourself, but one that can be enjoyed with your friends drinking beer 'n booze, eating pizza, due to it's "go-for-the-guts" virility. It'll have you cheering on MacBeth as he murders, plots and rages. In fact this movie is a great instructional video how to be a real man, in an age where metro-sexuality castrated most men.
"...Give to th' edge o' th' sword His wife, his babes and all those unfortunate souls that trace him in his line." Heck, yeah!!!!