“Following a London West End run in December 2007, a sold-out limited engagement at the Brooklyn … The movie features a claustrophobic environment full of brutal executions … I love Shakespeare, and have seen various adaptations of his plays. Just a joy to watch. The pyrotechnics of the performers ends up drowning out the simplicity and directness of Shakespeare's message: the guilt of conscience placing limits on blind ambition. The results are enormously impressive—in certain ways more so than the original stage version, memorable though it was—and I rank it alongside the 2008 “Macbeth” co-directed by Teller and Aaron Posner, which was webcast in June, as the best way to experience at home Shakespeare’s supremely great, eternally relevant tragedy of ambition run amok. They missed the egg part, this is a huge oversight as it was the best line in the play! As a film, it also falls between two stools, as it is shot neither naturalistically, nor with the brilliant invention of Baz Luhrmann's 'Romeo + Juliet'; rather, it feels like a stage play jazzed up with the occasional camera trick. Sir Patrick Stewart performs the role of a lifetime. High-concept Shakespeare productions too often fail to illuminate the play’s text, but this staging, in which the Stalinesque Macbeth and his vulpine wife (Kate Fleetwood) kill their way to the top of the churning heap of totalitarian power, plugs into the play smoothly and coherently. The answer is provided by the much younger Ms. Fleetwood, whom we are clearly meant to see as Macbeth’s trophy wife and whose unleashed fury is truly horrifying to behold. It's set it Soviet Russia, with Macbeth as a Stalin-like figure, engendering imagery that is both horrifying and picture-perfectly realized. Shakespeare’s plays rarely come to Broadway, and when they do, it tends to be in the form of star-driven productions imported from England. And now it's promising to make Shakespeare once again a hot Broadway author and, not so incidentally, nab a Tony or at least a Tony nomination for Patrick Stewart. I am always interested in the ways a Shakespeare adaptation can be morphed on the screen. Some of the decisions made by the director are cringeworthy and completely pull you out of the film. 5.0 out of 5 stars. Patrick Stewart at the Gielgud Theater in London, where he starred in a “Macbeth” that opens next month in Brooklyn. In light of the threats to today's - July 2017 - governmental horrors.... does this sound familiar???? | This BBC production is upsetting, unnerving, often horrifying, unforgettable, and very difficult with which to find flaw. i have seen macbeth probably 20 times over the last couple decades (it's one of my favs). The Chichester Festival Theater’s “Macbeth,” starring Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood, which opened in February at the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of … British actor Patrick Stewart attends a news conference for "X-Men: The Last Stand" in Cannes, May 22, 2006. In Kenneth Brannagh's version of 'Hamlet', for example, I really enjoyed Derek Jacobi's ambiguous Claudius; but in this story, there is little other than war and death. Granted, its box-office success was due in substantial part to the presence in the cast of a TV star, Patrick Stewart. PBS Great Performances will air Macbeth starring Sir Patrick Stewart October 6, 2010.No copyright infringement intended.For non-profit use only. This production of Macbeth by director Peter Goold and with Patrick Stewart as Macbeth, is a transfer from the Chichester Festival Theatre where it received acclaim from audiences and rapturous comments from critics. A visually brutal adaptation of a theatrical production that combines the experience of stylized European director's theater with the documentary-film imagery of war, Stalinist totalitarianism, dystopian landscapes. But to me, it only works if you also update the dialogue. Seldom can Shakespeare's murky Scottish tragedy "Macbeth… Patrick Stewart's Macbeth starts as a reflective soldier who pauses before using the word "murder", and develops into an insecure monster whose most chilling tactic is a dangerous levity. That Lady Macbeth would instantly sicken when Macbeth the King becomes the real 'man' she derides him for NOT being in the first 1/5--is utterly believable. You see that there was no other end to her story. Here’s How They Work, Israel's Final Covid Vaccination Push: Live Music, Free Drinks, China Suffers Worst Sandstorm in Decade as Economic Activity Soars, News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. Everything from the acting to the lighting was fresh and original. This Film of Macbeth makes me hungry! For me, both Orson Welles', Ian McKellen's, Jeremy Brett's and now Patrick Stewart's versions rate no higher than a 7 out of 10, and that goes for Kurosawa's Throne of Blood as well. To be sure, the fundamental problem of Mr. Stewart’s casting is underlined by the close-ups in which he is so frequently seen, for he is an old Macbeth—67 when the production opened—and it is hard to imagine why a man of his age would finally summon up the resolve to take such fateful action. For two weeks starting May 15, PBS has released several concerts, Broadway musicals, and plays for the general public via streaming. As always when watching Shakespeare, one is stunned by the sheer number of brilliant phrasings that have entered general usage from his works. Reviews roundup: Macbeth After its sell-out success at Chichester's Minerva earlier this year, Rupert Goold's production starring Patrick Stewart has transferred to … Watch the full film of Rupert Goold’s Macbeth starring Sir Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood.. This performance will not stand the test of time in the same way that Ian McClellan's Richard III will. Indeed, if this was once popular entertainment, one can only regret the undemanding nature of modern tastes. | It easily could have been shown in movie theaters. Unlike the Teller-Posner “Macbeth,” which made extensive use of spook-show stage magic, this is a purposefully earthbound staging, one in which everything is plausible, even the three Weird Sisters, whom Mr. Goold has turned into renegade surgical nurses who kill their patients on the operating table, a gleefully sardonic touch. He eyes Banquo nervously from the start. Filming the play in and around Welbeck Abbey yields up results far more visually rich than endeavoring to cram the production’s various locations onto a unit stage set. I could not get past the incongruity of seventy year old Patrick Stewart in the part, though he is a fine actor, always physically fit and with a superb speaking voice. Thursday, 27 September, 2007. First off is the key element of casting. The supporting cast is as good as you’d expect—I especially liked Michael Feast, who played Macduff on Broadway and who reprises his performance here—and Adam Cork has contributed a score that summons up the shade of Shostakovich to startlingly apposite effect. Patrick Stewart is superb as Macbeth - an ordinary soldier infected with and destroyed by kingship - he seems just about to start to enjoy being king in the scene where he and his wife are majestically sitting on horseback, but no - he's planning the murder of his friend Banquo, so he's not happy at all. Plot: A nobleman murders and usurps his King before being destroyed by his enemies and himself. Really worth the sit. Kate Fleetwood's Lady Macbeth charted her fall into insanity with such clarity that when Macbeth is told that she has died, it's no surprise to him or the audience. Patrick Stewart's interpretation and presentation of the Macbeth character is dynamic and cover's a wide range of expression. So we end with the idea that Macbeth's castle isn't just drenched in blood. Stewart is nearly flawless as MacBeth, as one would expect. It was a masterful and dynamic performance. External Reviews It is definitely not just a camera filming a stage production, it is a horror film. It is a scary environment; it is a humans-sized environment. What seemed to work in Richard III, placing Richard as a Totalitarian Dictator of the modern era, for this production of Macbeth placing Macbeth as European Dictator, just ends up being a mannered play. Theatre Review: PBS’s Film on Stage Presents Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ Starring Patrick Stewart. As they talk of sword fights, they brandish machine guns and weapons of far more lethality. Consequently, I am difficult to impress when it comes to individual film or DVD productions of the play. FAQ Credit... Steve Forrest/Insight-Visual, for The New York Times They're good, but considering how marvelously Shakespeare CAN be staged or filmed (think Branagh or Taymor), they are just not THAT good. Theater Review (Brooklyn, NY): Macbeth with Patrick Stewart I used to say Patrick Stewart was responsible for one of the great theater experiences of my life. I just finished watching Rupert Goold's film of Macbeth, starring Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood. His inability to shoulder the true trappings and responsibilities of power led to his destruction. Nor do I think that the brilliance of Shakespeare's darker plays are usually well-handled by directors. After all, he and Lady Macbeth have as yet no children as revealed in the first act when Macbeth admonishes her to have only male offspring as she lacks feminine softness. However, in my opinion, Stewart's co-star, Kate Fleetwood, just about steals the show. It makes perfect sense that the underlings of a dictator should circle him like sharks, waiting for the right moment to strike, and Mr. Stewart’s Macbeth, part ruthless power-seeker and part guilt-haunted tool of his still more ambitious spouse, is a hopelessly divided soul whose doom is foretold by his irresolution. It ranks with Ian McKellen's Richard III (1994/5) as a definitive production in an "updated" setting. | It stood to reason that the BBC would film Mr. Goold’s “Macbeth” at the end of its extended travels, not as a “capture” of a live stage performance but as a full-fledged made-for-TV movie shot on location at England’s Welbeck Abbey. After all, he and Lady Macbeth have as yet no children as revealed in the first act when Macbeth admonishes her to have only male offspring as she lacks feminine softness. Patrick Stewart is superb as Macbeth - an ordinary soldier infected with and destroyed by kingship - he seems just about to start to enjoy being king in the scene where he and his wife are majestically sitting on horseback, but no - he's planning the murder of his friend Banquo, so he's not happy at all. This is one of my favorite of Shakespeare's plays--one of the first I studied in high school. Characters are brutally executed, and the murder of Lady Macduff and her children is greatly disturbing, even though you see almost nothing happen. Patrick Stewart is featured in the title role, with Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth. His Macbeth has a hesitant and sometimes seeming incomplete descent into pure evil. We’ve finished the first round and now we’re down to the last two…and today’s championship match-up: the 2015 film, directed by Justin Kurzel with Michael Fassbender (the #5 seed) vs. The nuance that Goold gets from his actors on meaning and tone is terrific to watch. Real human ambition & regret & resolve are actively demonstrated--no grand pronouncements. Now I've seen a lot of great film Macbeths, including the Ian McKellen/Judi Dench version, the RSC film with Antony Sher, and Roman Polanski's. As a Shakespearian actor, he manipulates Shakespeare's words so that they ring authentically, as if we are hearing them for the first time. Goold sets up Macbeth’s events in the Post World War II world with his main character, Sir Patrick Stewart, somehow represent a cruel dictator like Joseph Stalin, leader of The Soviet Union. Now I have to say TV's Captain Picard was behind two of them. It was a masterful and dynamic performance. This film is the best Macbeth that you will ever see. It's haunted. Her performance here is truly the best I have seen since I saw Judith Anderson give a TV performance a long time ago. Goold has inserted stock footage of planes and tanks into several scenes. You can see every thought that passes through his mind. Sharing these visions with his wife, the two commence immediately to work towards this fate – with villainous murder and deception as the tools they choose to employ. Metacritic Reviews. You see how perfect the play is, how dead on. Try as he may, his face barely contorts as he makes his way through the … On the other hand, Mr. Stewart is also a stage actor of distinction, and Mr. Goold’s high-concept modern-dress production, which transplanted the action from 11th-century Scotland to an unnamed Soviet-bloc state, served the play exceptionally well. What I enjoy the most about this rendition of Macbeth is how bone chillingly scary it is. This does not detract from the original play; the climatic fight between Macbeth and Macduff is done via knives, right after he thoroughly douses himself in alcohol and prepares for death. The first time Macbeth appears on the creen, he is portrayed in a war scene with a very Joseph Stalin- … Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2019. The richness of Shakespeare's plays, and the vagueness of their settings, lends them to many adaptations and interpretations. There is no weak link in this cast, the directing is thrillingly original, and the production design is stunning. User Ratings His Macbeth has a hesitant and sometimes seeming incomplete descent into pure evil. This is a Macbeth that is, at times, as much SAW or The Ring as it is the wordplay. It is true what Patrick Stewart says, in the 'extras' on this film: in the last 20 years or so we have discovered that Shakespeare was a Screenwrite.