Movie Review : The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
Sustaining a career in filmmaking lies very much the art of fostering good will between you, the people who finance your film and the people who pay to see it. If you manage to balance all that, you’ll be more or less free to make the films you want. No one except perhaps Joel Coen asked to see another adaptation of William Shakespeare’s iconic play Macbeth in 2021, but since he’s very good at entertaining people in a profitable way, it ended up being done.
The Tragedy of Macbeth was unlikely to exist and was even more unlikely to be good, but it happened anyway.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, The Tragedy of Macbeth tells the story of Scottish army officer Macbeth (Denzel Washington) who becomes upset with his king Duncan (Brendan Gleeson) after gloriously triumphing in the battlefield and seeing a reward he deemed is assigned to the king’s son, prince Malcolm (Harry Melling). His wife (the extraordinary Frances McDormand) convinces him to commit regicide and everything slowly goes to shit from there.
What is the point of watching Macbeth in 2021?
This question haunts every Coen brothers fans who is on the fence about watching the movie and understandably so. It is very much unnecessary, which is also somehow why it’s good. What makes this adaptation so fascinating is the clash between the lyrical language and the cinematographic language. It feels both modern and timeless at the same time, kind of like an Ingmar Bergman movie would? It very much feels like an inspiration to this movie.
Ultimately, Macbeth is Macbeth. What matters is how it is presented and Joel Coen created for the characters an ethereal paradigm solely built out of sound stages. It doesn’t look realistic at all and it’s the entire point of it. The Tragedy of Macbeth is presented as a fever dream. A tragedy that happens in some kind of purgatory between two worlds. It very much feel like a stage play, a movie from the 1940s and a nightmare all at once. It’s super disorienting.
I am very poor with Olde English (in case you didn’t already know, English is my second language), but I didn’t need to understand it in order to follow The Tragedy of Macbeth. I’ve read/seen like twelve adaptations so far (probably like most people) and the casting and the visual paradigm told the entire story in itself. I wouldn’t say it’s the best adaptation I’ve ever seen, but it’s probably top 3. Nothing can top Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 adaptation Throne of Blood.
Black Macbeth
The other elephant in the room regarding The Tragedy of Macbeth is the casting of Hollywood legend Denzel Washington in the lead role, who is… you know, a Scottish soldier. It’s very much a non-issue because Macbeth is only set in Scotland because the characters say it is. Washington was predictably and ridiculously good and offered and dreamlike finale that perhaps even topped Kurosawa’s. Denzel is iconic at playing these characters who lose their shit.
No, the most striking casting choice was Denzel and Frances McDormand playing an OLD couple on screen. Both actors are well in their sixties and that stylistic choice really embodies the burden on Macbeth’s shoulders. He sacrificed all these years for King Duncan. He’s an old, battle worn soldier and he’s denied the supreme honour at the last possible moment? That specific choice made this Macbeth more relatable than any of his predecessors.
*
Objectively speaking, you don’t NEED The Tragedy of Macbeth in your life. But it’s a fun movie that you should watch solely based on your preexisting enthusiasm for the director and the actors’ work. They simply shine and make it more contemporary than any other adaptations. It’s also a treat for the eyes. It might not change your life, but it’s going to make you appreciate Joel Coen’s craftsmanship even more than you actually do. Sometimes the execution is what matters.
