BEFORE: I just realized I missed an opportunity to drop another Michael Fassbender film in here, because I do really want to watch "Next Goal Wins". BUT I don't have a slot for it, not if I'm going to hit Mother's Day on time, because I already dropped in "Beast" between two other Idris Elba movies, and that put me a day behind, I think. But that's a comedy, and it doesn't really fit in thematically between these two films this week.
Michael Fassbender carries over from "The Killer" and I'll have to try to circle back to "Next Goal Wins", hopefully in this calendar year somehow.
THE PLOT: Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
AFTER: Ugh, I've tried to watch versions of "Macbeth" before, and they're always a tough slog. I try to keep track of who kills who, but then it just gets confusing because everybody's name starts with "mac" and I lose track and forget everything, until the next time somebody remakes this Shakespeare story. Do you know how many versions of "Macbeth" have been filmed? OK, neither do I, but I know that many many actors have played the character, including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and James McAvoy. With this 2015 version, that means EVERY actor who has played either Professor Xavier or Magneto on-screen has been in a version of "the Scottish play". It's an actor's dream of course, but I'm not really seeing why.
This version in particular, it's so damn MOODY. A lot of the characters have scenes where they just sit on the floor and stare into space while they say their lines. Surely that's not something that's common to the play, people move around on stage, they walk and they hold things and they wield weapons and stuff, but so much of this film is people just depressed and BROODING. Ugh, so boring. How long until the next fight scene? Macbeth talks about how he has "scorpions in his brain", so great, he's neuro-divergent now, or clinically depressed or he's got ADHD or something. Is that what makes him kill King Duncan? Not guilty by reason of insanity?
I kid, of course, because we all know that what drives Macbeth is his ambition, his need to rise to the position of power. Ah, but the prophecy is involved, and prophecy is a funny thing - here you just have to debate if it's self-fulfilling, because the three witches (actually four here) could be changing the events to come just by telling the prophecy to Macbeth himself. Maybe he never wanted to be king in the first place, but telling him that's what the future holds could make him view himself in a different way, and then once he knows it's possible, maybe that makes him takes steps to bring this about much sooner. We'll never know, maybe he was going to be king one day anyway through his efforts and by winning enough battles, or however they do kings over there in Scotland. But then he takes the shortcut and kills the king in Act II, so yeah, try telling someone they'll be President of the U.S. one day and then watch what they do - of course that's just as liable to mess somebody and screw with their brains as it is to focus them and put them on the path that will take them there.
Act I, of course, is just the witches delivering the prophecy - they find Macbeth and Banquo after a successful battle and they say that Macbeth will be the Thane of Cawdor and then later king, and Banquo will be the father of Kings. This is also going to screw with Macbeth's head later, because one way to read this is that Lady Macbeth will be queen, and she might be having an affair with Banquo, that would be one way for his children to become kings.
In Act II, King Duncan executes the current Thane of Cawdor for being a traitor, and that title then passes to Macbeth. OK, check that first box on the prophecy bingo card. Duncan comes over to Macbeth's place to give him the good news, but while he's there, he also declares Malcolm to be his heir. Lady Macbeth suggests they hurry along to the second part of the prophecy by killing the king. In this film a soldier's ghost appears and hands Macbeth a dagger, so now we've got both witches and ghosts interfering in politics, great. Anyway everybody seems to agree that Macbeth needs to kill the king, because Lady wants to be queen and really, this is the fastest way.
Act III, more killing as Macbeth kills all the servants so no witnesses. Macduff finds Duncan dead and Macbeth gets the crown. Macbeth then suddenly realizes he forgot to have kids, so there's no heir to the throne and if something happens to Macbeth, the crown goes to, you guessed it, Banquo and then Banquo's son, Fleance. Ah, so THAT'S how the second part of the prophecy comes about. Again, Macbeth can't just relax and enjoy being king, he's got to send assassins to kill Banquo - umm, wouldn't having a son relatively quickly be an easier solution to keeping the crown in the family? No? I guess when all you have is a sword everything looks like something that needs to be stabbed, or something like that. Banquo is killed but his son escapes, because prophecy, and then Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost at dinner. Lady Macbeth says her husband is unwell, and declares the dinner over before anybody even gets to eat.
Act IV, Macbeth goes back to talk to the witches, and surprisingly he's not mad at them for telling him his future, but really, he should be. The new advice they have for him is to beware of Macduff, and Macbeth will only be king until Great Birnam Wood comes to the castle. But there's some good news, too, Macbeth can't be slain by any man who was born from a woman, so naturally he thinks he's in the clear. Macduff flees, so Macbeth burns Macduff's wife, children and servants on steaks, and no, there can't possibly be any repercussions from that coming up...
Yeah, man those witches are MESSING with your head, bro, they tell you what's coming and then you go flying off the handle and bring about the VERY THING they told you to watch out for.
Act V is the famous part where Lady Macbeth can't seem to get the spot of blood off of her hands, but in this film, it's just her lying on the floor, feeling moody and staring into space. What a letdown. Then she wanders off and finds the witches, and soon Macbeth is told that she died, giving him yet another reason to brood, act depressed and then go more crazy. MacDuff tries to smoke out the castle with Great Birnam Wood, completing the prophecy bingo card and then there's the final battle between Macbeth and MacDuff - and I think Shakespeare was the first writer to pull that "Oh, I wasn't born, I was ripped from my mother's womb" trick. MacDuff was delivered by Caesarian section, which, news flash for Billy Shakes, still counts as being "born". Maybe there's a lot that Shakespeare didn't understand about childbirth, just saying.
Macbeth is confused at first when he tries to wrap his head around MacDuff not being "born", but he suddenly realizes the prophecy suggests that MacDuff CAN kill Macbeth, so Macbeth stops fighting back. Live by the prophecy, die by the prophecy, I guess. Macbeth allows himself to be killed, and Malcolm becomes the new king. Fleance, Banquo's son, is still out there somewhere, so I guess he becomes king sometime later? Shakespeare really left that plotline dangling, didn't he? I mean, follow up on the story and if you say something's going to happen, let's see it happen!
Look, it's been a long time since I read Shakespeare in English lit class - but maybe if you're still in school I've given you some food for thought here. Tell your English teacher you know what a "self-fulfilling prophecy" is, and you'll be ahead of the game. Basically the witches brought all this killing about just by telling Macbeth what might happen in the future, but really, no man should know too much about his own future, it's not healthy. You can hope for success, you can believe that you're going to get ahead and take advantage of the opportunities that come your way, but really, if you KNOW that you're going to be successful, then you're not going to try as hard, and you'll come to believe that you DESERVE success, and then you won't take the steps that will allow you to earn it. I think that's the point of "Macbeth", or maybe Will Shakespeare just wanted to write a play with a lot of killing in it, I'm open to that concept too.
I'm going to really resist drawing any kind of Macbeth / Trump analogy here - you'd think I'd want to go that way because "Macbeth" is about the damaging effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. But I think that would be giving Trump too much credit, he wasn't ever politically ambitious, he's just an asshole. Plus my theory is he never WANTED to be President of the U.S., and nobody was more surprised than him when he won the election in 2016. I think he was just running to increase his brand and his power, so he could sell more shitty products like Trump Steaks and Trump Water and Trump University - but damn if he didn't win by accident and then he found out he actually had to DO THE JOB. What a bummer - what supports my theory here is that as President he really did as little as humanly possible, because he knew he wasn't qualified. And it wasn't about "smaller government" or "states rights", he was just plain lazy and he wanted to play golf and eat fast food every day, so that's exactly what he did. He's no Macbeth, he's more of a Falstaff, only not nearly as jolly. Or he's just an asshole.
Also starring Marion Cotillard (last seen in "Annette"), Paddy Considine (last seen in "Child 44"), Sean Harris (last seen in "The Green Knight"), Jack Reynor (last seen in "On the Basis of Sex"), Elizabeth Debicki (last seen in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"), David Thewlis (last seen in "Enola Holmes 2"), David Hayman (last seen in "Blinded by the Light"), Maurice Roeves (last seen in "The Eagle Has Landed"), Brian Nickels, Ross Anderson (last seen in "The King's Man"), James Harkness (last seen in "Spencer"), Seylan Mhairi Baxter, Lynn Kennedy, Kayla Fallon, Amber Rissmann, Lochlann Harris, Hilton McRae (last seen in "Far From the Madding Crowd"), Scott Dymond (last seen in "Under the Skin"), Rebecca Benson, Gerard Miller, Roy Sampson (last seen in "Heart of Stone"),
RATING: 5 out of 10 banquet plates to go
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