Macbeth [DVD]

I have seen this film in the cinema , and on Netflix, the dvd is a "keeper" - for me it's a brilliant adaptation of Shakespeare's play , excellent acting , well crafted filming to create the atmosphere of the age.

A lot of people have given very negative reviews, which has left me rather puzzled.......Fassbender is magnificent, as is the entire cast, cinematography, music, and direction. The issue here for those who didn't like it, I think, is the even tone throughout. No hollywood-style shifts between scenes, landscape (pretty much everything looks threatening and brutal), atmosphere, or indeed anything that breaks the bleak world we are observing, and the equally bleak ethos. Even the violent and brutal moments, bloody as they are, sit firmly within that landscape and are part of that even tone I mentioned . Anyone looking for typical Hollywood tropes will be sorely disappointed, and instead of trying to dazzle and spoon feed its audience, this film demands their full attention. Whilst visually breathtaking, enough space is given to the dialogue and the casts emotive/narrative interpretation of Shakespeare's words. If you aren't a fan of his plays, this film is unlikely to change your mind. I wonder if that is why so many people didn't like it? Shakespeare is not for everyone, and I don't say that in a patronising way before you think I'm a snob.In its temporal setting, murder for power and control was indeed a mundane and visceral one, and the brutality and sudden violence was a fundamental aspect of that era. Some have commented on this brutality as being a negative aspect of the film, but I am struggling to see what would replace it.Anyone wanting "Die Bard" or similar will be disappointed by this - that is not to denigrate films that are entertaining and fast-paced, but this is different and as such one should enter this with a open mind. A lot has been cut from the original text, so purists will no doubt be shouting form the rooftops about that fact. However, the funeral of the couples child (not in the original play) creates an intriguing backdrop to the actions that follow, and serve to highlight the subtle (and not so subtle) references to family and children throughout. The execution scene was a good example of this, and as a result Lady Macbeth's subsequent demise was fuelled by more than just guilt at the Kings murder.For this viewer, it hits it pretty much all of the targets. Each to their own, but I hope that expectancies can be left by the door and you can just indulge not only in an acting tour de force, but an intriguing, beautiful and visceral interpretation of my favourite Shakespeare play.

Australian screenwriter and director Justin Kurzel`s second feature film which was written by screenwriters Jacob Koskoff, Todd Louiso and Michael Lesslie, is an adaptation of a play by a renowned English 17th century poet. It premiered in France, was shot on locations in England and Scotland and is a UK-France-USA co-production which was produced by producers Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Laura Hastings-Smith. It tells the story about a Scotsman who is approached by three clairvoyant women who communicates to him through whispering voices.Distinctly and precisely directed by Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated interchangeably from the main characters` viewpoints, draws a majestically literary portrayal of a mother and later aspiring Queen styled as Lady. While notable for its cinematographically and mysteriously atmospheric milieu depictions, masterful cinematography by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, production design by Australian production designer Fiona Crombie and costume design by English costume designer Jacqueline Durran, this narrative-driven, dialog-driven and monologue-driven story about Scottish royalty in the 11th century when the Wallace family came to Scotland which was made more than a millennium after the Irish people started referring to an Irishwoman as Mary of Ireland (7th century) an English Abbess named Seaxburgh of Ely (7th century-699) became Queen Consort of Kent (640-664), a Scottish son and father named Kenneth MacAilpin (810-858) became (841-843) King of the Kingdom of Scotland (800s-1700s), Danish-Norwegian York (876-954), nine centuries after Ely Cathedral (1083) in Cambridgeshire (1974) in England was granted cathedral status (1109), Kinlochaline Castle (12th century) on the head of Loch Aline in Morvern, Scotland, the Earldom of Lennox (12th century), Cardigan Castle (12th century) in Cardigan (1093) in the county of Cardiganshire (1282) in Wales and Lady Day was (1155-1752) New Year`s Day in England, a festival named the National Eisteddfod (1176) in Ceredigion (1996), Wales, eight centuries after the Joan of Arc Tower (1204-1210) in Rouen, Normandy (911) in France, a royal residence named Dublin Castle (1204) on Dame Street in Dublin, Ireland, Llanfaes Franciscan Friory (1237-1538) was created in Beaumaris, Anglesey in Wales for a Lady of Wales named Siwan or Joan of Wales (c. 1191-1257), Justice in Eyre (1236-1817), an Italian theologian named Giovanni di Fidanza Bonaventura (1221-1274) was appointed (1273) Cardinal of Albano in the Italian Republic, a Princess of Wales and Lady of Snowdon named Eleanor de Montfort (1252-1282) mothered (1282) a daughter named Gwenllian of Wales (1282-1337) at a royal palace in Abergwyngregyn, Gwynedd in Wales, a position in the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal (1875), appointed by Her Majesty on the advice of the PM, named Master of the Rolls (1286), Sanquhar Castle (13th century) in a town north of Thornhill in Scotland, the Scottish Marches (13th century-14th century), seven centuries after the Statutes of Kilkenny (1366-1983), the Most Honourable Order of Bath (1399), six centuries after the birth of a constellation virgin and Queen of the Romans named Eleanor of Portugal (1434-1467), Duke of Buckingham (1444), an English recusant Catholic named John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (c.1425-1485) was (1483-1485) appointed Earl Marshal (1165), the English Sweating Sickness (1485-1551), Earl of Arran (1467) in Scotland, the Council of Wales and the Marches (1472-1689) and the Council of the North (1472-1641), five centuries after the Protestant Reformation (1517) in a town on the Elbe named Wittenberg in Germany, a term named Justiceship (1535-45), the Council of Trent (1536-1563) in Italy, an English staunch Protestant and Chief Lady of the Queen`s Majesty`s Bedchamber named Lady Catherine Carey (c.1541-1569) mothered (1541-1562) fifteen children over a period of twenty-one years, a Scottish Earl of Arran (1529-1548) and regent to a Scotswoman from West Lothian, Scotland who journeyed (1612) to Westminster Abbey (1960) named James Hamilton (c. 1516-1575) was made (1548) Duke of Châttellerault, an English girl who later became an Englishwoman named Anne Hathaway (c.1556-1623) lived in a village named Shottery in Warwickshire, England, a Royal Charter by letters patent was granted by Her Most Excellent Majesty Elizabeth of England (1558-1601) to an Anglo-Scot surnamed Lyon for a private boys` school named Harrow School (1572) in Harrow-on-the-Hill, London, England, Greenlaw was (1596-1890) the county town of a county council named Berwickshire in Scotland, Her Majesty`s Painter and Limner (1581), Duke of Lennox (1581), Queen Elizabeth`s Men (1583), Lindisfarne Castle (16th century) in England, Elizabeth Castle (1595) in Jersey in the Channel Islands, the Edict of Nantes (1598-1685) in France, the Flag of Great Britain (1606-1801), an Englishman started (1606) creating the Tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots (1612), four centuries after Berwick Bridge (1624), the Happy Parliament (1624-1625) in England and a seventeen-year-old daughter of England and foundress named Dame Helen Gertrude More (1606-1633) who lived in Cambrai, Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie in France and was influenced by a Welsh Catholic named Augustine Baker (1575-1641), professed (1625).Made four centuries after the Proclamation of Dungannon (1641), Anglo-Irish families stayed (1641) at Swords Castle (13th century) in County Dublin, Ireland, the Irish Catholic Confederation (1642-1652), a nineteen-year-old sister of England and Prioress (1652-1665) named Dame Bridget More (c.1609-1692) who was clothed (1629) became Novice Mistress (1665) in Paris, France, a French author named François Poullain de la Barre (1647-1725) who was brought up a Catholic and became a Protestant was introduced (1667) to a theory, Boulevard de la Madeleine (1676) in France, Tom Tower (1682) in England which is named for a pitched percussion instrument named Great Tom, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital (1684) in Paris, France, an English nobleman named Edward Villiers (c.1656-1711) was appointed Viscount Villiers (1691), Earl of the Island of Jersey (1697), three centuries after the county constituency of Sutherland (1708-1918), Marlborough House (1711) in the City of Westminster (1965), an Irish MP for Dublin City (1806-1820) named Henry Grattan (1746-1820) who studied at Drogheda Grammar School (1669) in Ireland, wrote for Freeman`s Journal (1763-1924), Dumbarton Bridge (1765) on the River Leven which flows from Loch Lomond to the River Clyde in Scotland, a life named English Iris was described (1768) by an Anglo-Scottish Royalist, the English Bridge (1774) in a county town on the River Severn named Shrewsbury, Avondale House (1777) in Avondale, County Wicklow in Ireland, Dame School (1780) in a village named Orton in Cumbria, England, Women`s Petition to the National Assembly (1789) in France, Marquess of Donegall (1791), a coming together in Wales named the Gorsedd of Bards of the Isle of Britain (1792) where the Lady of Cornwall is escorted by the Sword Bearer around a circle, a French ship named “Rights of Man” (1794-1797), the Welsh Bridge (1795) in England, the Expedition to Ireland (1796) at Bantry Bay in County Cork, Ireland, an Irish song named “Sean-Bhean bhocht (1798), the Battle of Tory Island (1798), two centuries after the phrase: “More Irish than the Irish themselves.” (1803), a town named Marienbad obtained (1808) its name, the birth of a Prioress forenamed Franziska (1817-1885) in a border river named Lusatian Neisse which flows through the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany, the Red Lake (1837) in a historic region named Transylvania in Romania, a Royal Command Performance was staged (1848) in an unparished area named Windsor in England, Royal Border Bridge (1850), an act of painting named “Revolutionary Romania” (1850) by a Jewish painter forenamed Constantin which represents an essayist from Guernsey named Maria Grant Rosetti (1819-1893), an English actress named Kate Terry (1844-1924) performed (1851) at Princess`s Theatre (1828-1902) at Oxford Street, London, England, a Polish ancestress and member of the House of Mountbatten named Julia Theresa von Hauke, Princess of Hauke (1825-1895) was styled Her Most Illustrious Highness (1851-1858), a museum named the Montefiore Windmill (1857), less than a century after an English actress named Florence Maud Terry (1856-1896) started (1870) her acting career at a theatre created by an English theatre manager named Jane M. Scott (1779-1839) named Sans Pareil (1806-1930) in a street named Strand in England, an American mother from Indiana (1816) named Elizabeth Jane Dixon Irving (1831-1922) who married (1849-50) a Scottish steamship captain from a place which stands on the River Annan, was crowned (1871) Queen of the May in New Westminster (1858), British Columbia in Canada, the birth of an English poetess named Adelaide Anne Procter (1825-1864) in Bedford Square (1775-1783) in London, England, a century after a UK ship named Hannah (1826-1849) which was registered (1840) in Maryport (120s), the Ulster Canal (1842-1931) in Northern Ireland, the Queen`s Institute (1861) in Dublin, Ireland, the Tower of Allen (1863) on the Hill of Allen in County Kildare, Leinster in the Republic of Ireland, an Irish poem named “The Harp That Once Through Tara`s Halls” (19th century) and the Bristol & West of England Women`s Suffrage Society (1868-1914) where three sisters from a metropolitan borough named Newcastle upon Tyne (2nd century), England named Anna Maria Priestman (1828-1914), Mary Priestman (1830-1914) and Margaret Priestman (1817-1905) were members.Made less than a century an English actress named Mary Ann Bessy Terry (1853-1930) appeared (1873) on a stage in Manchester, England, the Isle of Wight (1890) in the English Channel, the Benedictine Confederation (1883) by an Italian Pope, a Scottish Craftswoman named Mary Seton Fraser-Tytler Watts (1849-1938) moved (1887) to Kensington in London, England where she studied at a public research university which was made (1837) in Somerset House (1796) and named Government School of Design (1837-1896), a life named “La France” was discovered (1867) by a French rosarian, an English painting named “The three daughters of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra” (1883), a cenotaph (1886) of Queen Anne of Great Britain (1665-1714) in England, a monument with a statue of Britannia named the Armada Memorial (1888) in an open space named Plymouth Hoe in England, the Local Government (Scotland) Act (1889) created the system of county councils in Scotland, the Irish Guards (1900), a century after the Browne Doorway (1625-1630) was removed (1905) to Eyre Square (1710) in Ireland, Her Majesty The Queen of Norway named Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria, Maud of Wales (1869-1938) was crowned (1906), an Irish Tenor named John Francis, Count McCormack (1884-1945) sang: “My Dark Rosaleen” (1907-1908), an Australian human being named Mary Josephine Bedford (1861-1955) who worked with the SWH (1914) was active in the Crèche and Kindergarten Association (1907) in Brisbane (1824), Queensland in Australia, an Irish Republican named Cathal Brugha (1874-1922) tied the knot (1912) with an Irish TD for the Waterford constituency named Caitlín Kingston (1879-1959), a lighthouse named Crown Point Light (1838) was converted into a memorial (1912-1926), an act of painting named “Narcissus” (1912) by an Englishman from Rome, Italy surnamed Waterhouse who lived in South Kensington, an English-Irish song named “Danny Boy” (1913) by an English KC from Portishead, Somerset, England surnamed Weatherly, an Englishwoman from a cathedral and university city named Newport in Wales named The Viscountess Rhondda (1893-1958) who made a magazine named Time and Tide (1920-1979) journeyed (1915) on a Scottish ship named RMS Lusitania (1906-1915) which sank near the Old Head of Kinsale (1853) in County Cork, Ireland, the Irish Catholic Women`s Suffrage Association (1915-1918), the renaming (1916) of a UK ship in Newburgh, Aberdeenshire in Scotland, less than a century after a German term named schadenfreude (1922), the Open Door Council (1926-1965) in England, Royal Tweed Bridge (1928), a twenty-one-year-old Welshwoman from a town in the Vale of Glamorgan (1996) forenamed Kathleen swam (1927) across the Bristol Channel, the Blue Bridge (1927) in Queensferry, Wales, a Scottish Island named Hirta where a Scotswoman forenamed Rachel and called the Lady of St Kilda lived in the 18th century, was abandoned (1930), a Scottish historian named Dame Laurentia McLachlan (1866-1953) was elected (1931) Abbess of Stanbrook Abbey (1625), the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (1932) in Stratford-upon-Avon on the River Avon in England, a United Kingdom ship named Celia (1940) arrived (1941) at Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands in Scotland, an American Duchess of Abercorn, Her Grace named Alexandra Anastasia Hamilton was blessed (1954) with a sister named Marita Georgina Phillips Crawley, a Scottish Sister from Glasgow, Scotland named Caroline Scott (1924-2014) who took the name Concordia in (1954), participated in the 93rd Searchlight Regiment of the Royal Artillery (1942-1945), the Inner German border (1952-1990), the Cheviot Hills became (1956) part of the Northumberland National Park (1956) in England and Stratford upon-Avon Grammar School for Girls (1958), a business park in County Clare, Ireland named the Shannon Free Zone (1959), the birth (1970) of a Northern Irish violinist at a place which was turned into a border town (1921), a Coldstream Bridge (1767) in the Scottish Borders across the River Tweed was (1971) Category A listed, a Scottish painter named Dame Elizabeth Violet Blackadder, Mrs Houston was elected (1972) to the Royal Scottish Academy (1826), the reconstruction of Alma Bridge (1974) over the River Seine in Paris, France and the notification (1976) of a body of brackish water named the Severn Estuary in Great Britain.Made less than a century after the designation (1980) of a city named Warsaw, a border tripoint was referred to (1980s) as the Black Triangle, Our Lady of Cardigan (1986) in Wales, a bronze (1986) by an Irish sculptor named Austin Oisín Kelly (1915-1981) in Mohill, County Antrim in Ireland representing an Irish harper who wrote songs for a young lady named Brigid Cruise and married (1720) an Irishwoman named Mary Maguire, an English long-distance swimmer named the Queen of the English Channel swam (1988) across a strait named the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, the Women of the Wall (1988), a statue in remembrance of the Council of Constance (1414-1418) in Italy named Imperia (1993) in Constance on Lake Constance in Germany, the notification (1997) of the River Teife which forms the border between Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire in Wales, a public ceremony, here the Honourable Gentleman went speechless and then temporarily traumatized after witnessing some of the worldwide broadcast, named the Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales (1997), the birth (1997) of The Most Serene Infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal in a city nicknamed the City of Seven Hills, an Irish chamber choir named An Uaithne (1987) collaborated (1997) with the Ulster Orchestra (1966), an Irish narrator said: “In pre-Christian, pre-Colonized Ireland, no King could rightfully come to power without going through a symbolic marriage with mother earth.” (1988), the Griffith Barracks Multi-Denominational School (1998) on South Circular Road in Dublin, Ireland, an American actress and singer named Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, in a narrative feature named “Limbo” (1999), sang an English song named “Dimming of the Day” (1975), a Welsh musician named Catrin Anna Finch was the Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales (2000-2004), a voice sang: “ … it`s pagan poetry …” (2001), the Wickerman Festival (2002) in Scotland, a city in Montréal, Quebec in Canada named Dorval (1667) was reconstituted (2006), an English sister forenamed Anne who was educated at Christchurch Girls` School (1877) in the Garden City (1848) in Canterbury, New Zealand and as a fifteen-year-old was detained (1954) at Her Majesty`s Pleasure, replied to a question by a Scottish author named Ian James Rankin during an interview (2007) with the answer: “I helped someone kill another person.”, Ireland Park (2007) on the shores of Lake Ontario on Éireann Quay in North America, a British Triathlete from Elgin, Moray, Scotland who was raised in Bridgend, Wales where the Welsh Marches took place, named Helen Rebecca Tucker Jenkins was on the run (2008) in the City of Glass (2008), a German ship (1981) wore (2008-2012) the name Bleu de France, Operation Grange (2011) by the MPS (1829), the introduction (2011) of an Englishwoman styled HRH The Duchess of Cambridge to public life, the University of the Highlands and Islands (2011) in Inverness, Scotland, a voice with the first letter F in her surname from New Scotland sang: “The graveyard … lines … climb the golden hill … to life …” (2011), an Australian Senator, The Honourable named Michaelia Clare Cash assumed (2013) office as Minister for Women, an Englishwoman styled HRH The Duchess of Cornwall was appointed (2013) Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, a Welsh professor from Rhondda in Wales named Christine James who was educated at University College Wales, Aberystwyth (1872), was elected Archdruid of Wales (2013), an English member of Her Majesty`s Most Honourable Privy Council (1708) surnamed Villiers laid a wreath (2014) on the grounds of Donegall Square in Northern Ireland, an Irish MLA for North Belfast and Lord Mayor of Belfast (2014-2015) named Nichola Mallon was present (2014) when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II mention the word interdependence, a Brazilian high diver named Jacqueline Valente dived (2014) into the Possum Kingdom Lake (1941) in The Lone Star State, a Welsh singer and actress forenamed Sophie started (2015) performing with Lord of the Dance (1996) as Erin the Goddess and a Scottish wife from Wick in Caithness, Scotland named Gail Elizabeth Ross assumed office (2016) as MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, this interpretation where the acute frames turns into transcending paintings with mystical atmospheric depth, depicts a substantially perspicacious study of character and contains a great and timely score by composer Jed Kurzel, English cellist Clare O`Connell and the London Contemporary Orchestra (2008).This philosophical chamber piece which is set in Scotland in the 11th century where a crash-course in Great British grief is retold, a protagonist represents the gaps in a history which is far more dividing than human beings and the cinematic achievements surpasses the tragedy, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, rhythmic continuity, opening scene, distinctly poetic dialog and the ingrained acting performances by French actress Marion Cotillard and German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender. A grand scale narrative feature.

I don't really know the story of Macbeth (to my shame), I was drawn to it by reading Macbeth, by Jo Nesbo, from the Hogarth Shakespeare series where current authors re-write the plays into modern times. Whilst reading that I read a synopsis of Shakespeare's Macbeth.The book by Jo Nesbo really pulled me in and through that I wanted to delve a bit deeper into the original story. When I studied Shakespeare at school I really struggled to read them and follow them. I have tried to read some of the plays as an adult without much success. So I thought a good way to get to know the story was by watching film and stage adaptations.Bear that in mind (ie my lack of knowledge!) when reading my review.I loved this adaptation. It gripped me from beginning to end. Yes, you could argue that it was slow, and the music annoying, but I found both those aspects added to the sinister feel of the film. The scenery was amazing and the acting was outstanding. I believed in every character and found Fassbender and Cotillard mesmerizing.The cinematography was perfect.I will definitely watch other adaptations and look forward to the differences, but for me this was outstanding.

Un chef d'oeuvre que cette adaptation cinématographique du Macbeth de Shakespeare. Mise en scène époustouflante des combats, Marion Cotillard habitée littéralement par son personnage, bande sonore en totale harmonie avec le climat ce récit épique. A voir et revoir.

Excelente pelicula con actores extraordinarios vale la pena adquirirla en la coleccion de todo cinefilo, con la imagen y el sonido increible

Dieser Film schafft die Synthese aus modernem hochkarätigen Theater und den unerschöpflichen Möglichkeiten, welche die HD-Film- und Animationstechnik offenbart. Bereits aufwendige filmische Adaptionen anderer Shakespeare Stücke (besonders Kenneth Brannagh und sein monumentaler Hamlet ist hier zu erwähnen) haben über Jahrzehnte das vorbereitet, was Justin Kurzel hier zur meisterhaften Vollendung bringt. Ich spreche von Bildstimmungen die jenseits all dessen sind, was ich je gesehen habe, einschließlich Bram Stoker's Dracula (von F.F.Coppola), der für mich nach wie vor eines der Referenzwerke in Bildästhetik darstellt, oder ganz aktuell "The Revenant". Mit minimalistischer Filmmusik und dem durchweg präsenten Ensemble fühlt man sich mitunter tatsächlich in eine große zeitgemäße Inszenierung versetzt. Der Regiseur geht hierbei nicht den Weg einer gezielten, bisweilen humoristischen Verfremdung, wie in Brannagh's Hamlet der ins frühe 19. Jahrhundert transferriert zwar unglaublich wirkt, aber eben dennoch ein Anachronismus bleibt, oder die oft zitierte Romeo und Julia Verfilmung unserer heutigen Zeit.Kurzel wählt bewusst originalgetreue Kostümierung und Schauplätze, da nichts härter und authentischer einschlägt, wie die Realität in der rauhen, schottischen Landschaft der frühen Neuzeit. Hervorragend integriert in das karstige Land und gleichzeitig strahlend überragend: Fassbender. Chamäleon der derzeitigen Filmlandschaft, Charakterdarsteller und an wettergegerbter innerer Zerissenheit kaum zu überbieten. Man könnte meinen er könne auch die Seychellen durch sein Auftreten in die nebelig-unwirtlichen Highlands verwandeln. Marion Cottilard, ebenfalls keine unerfahrene in komplexen Charakterrollen hält an seiner Seite absolut gleichauf. Ebenso der Rest des Casts, bis zu den zahlreichen Kindern ergänzen sich zu einem wundervollen Gesamtkunstwerk.Zur Ästhetik im Allgemeinen: optisch ist dieser Film mit seinen überzeichneten Landschaftsdramaturgien und den aufwendigen Szenerien eine Sinfonie des Lichts. Die Eröffnungsschlacht in kaltes Blau getaucht, spürbare Kälte, geht in ein warmes und doch unangenehmes Gelb über, als die Hexen auftreten, ähnlich der dominierenden Farbe in Alien IV - der Vergleich ist weit hergeholt aber treffend. Die Wärme nimmt weiter zu bis zum großen Sündenfall, dem Königsmord, als das rotgelb der Feuer, fast in blutrot umschlägt. Photographisch eine der größten Szenen, das Abdriften Ldy. Macbeth's in den Wahnsinn, als beinahe Standeinstellung und Streiflicht, einer klassischen Madonnendarstellung ähnlich. Das kathastrophale Ende schließlich ist nur noch rot, Menschen verschwimmen zu Schemen, nicht schottisches Hochland sondern der Höllenschlund scheint sich vor ihnen aufzutun und sie zu verzehren, der Rest ist Schweigen...Bleibt noch zu erwähnen, dass sich die offensichtliche Brutalität - und dieses Werk ist voll davon - überraschend in Grenzen hält. So wählt der Regiseur eine Hernagehensweise die eher aus dem koreanischen Kino geläufig ist, nicht die Tat, sondern die Gesichtszüge der Täter und Opfer in den Vordergrund zu rücken.Zuletzt, da es sich ja nicht um eine Filmkritik, sondern um die Rezension einer BluRay handelt: Bei meinem Player (LG BP530R) habe ich Schwierigkeiten durch das Diskmenue zu navigieren, es braucht ein paar Anläufe, bis der Film läuft. Das schiebe ich aber mal gnädig auf das Gerät und würde nie daran denken, diesen Film deshalb abzuwerten (Bild und Ton der BluRay sind überdies auch grandios).

Ok video.

"Macbeth" ist eine der berühmtesten Tragödien von William Shakespeare. In diesem 1606 verfassten Werk beschreibt Shakespeare den Aufstieg des Heerführers zum König von Schottland, seinen wandel zum Tyrannen und schließlich seinen Fall. Der Stoff wurde mehrfach verfilmt. Die sicherlich bekanntesten und besten Arbeiten waren "Schloß im Spinnwebwald" von Akira Kurosawa, "Macbeth - Der Königsmörder" von Orson Welles und nicht zuletzt die legendäre Version von Roman Polanski aus dem Jahr 1971.Der Australier Justin Kurzel, der bereits mit seiner wüsten und mörderischen Sozialstudie "Die Morde von Snowtown", einen überzeugenden und unbequemen Film ablieferte, wagte sich jetzt an eine Neuverfilmung. Dabei wird sehr schnell klar, dass Kurzel auf seinen Kameramann Adam Arkapaw (Königreich des Verbrechens) setzt, der in der Geschichte vor allem die Bilder sprechen lassen soll und auf einen hypnotischen Soundtrack (Jed Kurzel) setzt. Diese beiden Komponenten prägen den Film, der dadurch phasenweise sehr meditativ und magisch wirkt. Vor allem im ersten Teil des Films trägt dies zu einem extrem positiven Eindruck bei.Die Geschichte ist sicherlich bekannt. Der königstreue Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) zieht mit seinen Männern, manche noch ganz junge Soldaten (u.a. Scot Greenan) in die Schlacht für König Duncan (David Thewlis). Es gibt viele Verluste, aber durch das Eingreifen Macbeths auch einen Sieg für den König. Auf dem Weg zu ihm, trifft Macbeth, der mit seinem Freund Banquo (Paddy Considine) reitet, auf vier Hexen (Kayla Fallon, Lynn Kennedy, Seylan Baxter, Amber Rissman), die auf einer Heide schon auf ihn gewartet haben. Sie begrüßen ihn als zukünftigen Than von Cawdor und künftigen König von Schottland. Dem Begleiter Banquo offenbaren sie, er werde zwar nicht König sein, aber der Ahnvater von Königen. Beide sind von dieser Weissagung sehr irritiert. Dies verstärkt sich auch noch als sie die Boten des Königs treffen, die Macbeth mitteilen, dass er vom König zum Than von Cawdor ernannt wurde. Der erste Teil der Prophezeiung hat sich tatsächlich schnell erfüllt und Macbeth grübelt über den zweiten Teil des Orakels. Als er seine ehrgeizige Frau (Marion Cottilard) davon informiert, drängt diese ihren Mann zum Handeln. Dabei kommt plötzlich der Gedanke ins Spiel Duncan zu ermorden, denn der wird noch an diesem Tag zu Besuch kommen. Die Eheleute beginnen mit den Vorbereitungen, es soll so aussehen als wäre Königssohn Malcolm (Jack Reynor) einer der Mörder. Tatsächlich gelingt die Bluttat, Macbeth wird könig, aber auch wahnsinnig...Gegen Ende werden viele dramatische Steigerungen nötig sein. So erzeugt die böse Tat eine große Kettenreaktion böser Reaktionen, das mörderische Paar hat mit der Tat auch ihren eigenen Untergang beschlossen. Sie werden nicht mehr glücklich sein. Der Weg des Tyrannen ist vorgezeichnet, so schreckt der ehemals treue und ehrliche Macbeth auch nicht vor Mord der Frau (Elisabeth Debicki) und den Kindern seines Kontrahenten Macduff (Sean Harris) zurück. Fleance (Lochlann Harris),d em Sohn von Banquo gehört die klasse Schlußszene, die das historische und wuchtige Epos beschließt. Zumindest ist es interessant, dass diese sehr bekannte Geschichte immer noch faszinieren kann, auch in dieser Version von Kurzel, der sehr eigenwillig vorgegangen ist und daher auch keine Kopie von Polanski oder Welles abliefert. Seine Bilder wirken archaisch, bei den British independent Film Awards 2015 gabs dafür auch 6 Nominierungen (Bester Film, Fassbender, Cottilard, Sean Harris, Justin Kurzel und Adam Arkapaw).Zwischen 4 und 5 Sternen.