Polanski's worldview of brutish power-plays couldn't be more at home in Shakespeare's medieval times
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12/06/09
Macbeth (1971)
87
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:20
Rotten:3
Average Rating:8/10
Consensus: Roman Polanski's Macbeth is unsettling and uneven, but also undeniably compelling.
Runtime: 2 hrs 21 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: William Shakespeare's immortal play about a Scottish warrior (Jon Finch) whose wife's lust for power transforms him into inhuman monster is given it's rawest, most brutal screen treatment in this... [More]
Starring: Jon Finch, Nicholas Selby, Francesca Annis, Martin Shaw
Director: Roman Polanski
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Reviews for Macbeth
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03/26/09
Top CriticClick to read the article
10/18/08
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10/18/08
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10/18/08
Polanski elicited naturalistic understated performances from his actors which bolstered the play's realism while bringing the poetry down to earth. Some would argue he brought it too far down.
07/03/08
Top CriticThe wide-screen visuals swamp the dialogue, and the thematics have been turned inside out -- but that's what movie adaptations ought to do.
07/03/08
Top CriticPolanski has increased the film's barbaric realism and fills the screen with blood, mud and brooding atmosphere.
07/02/08
Top Critica bloody, rip-roaring good time
08/27/06
Polanski's evident desire to elicit understated, naturalistic performances from his cast also underplays the poetry of the play...
06/24/06
Released just two years after Polanski's then pregnant wife was brutally murdered by members of the Manson family, and morbidly preoccupied with violence and cruelty
03/24/06
Something of a disappointment.
12/06/05
Polanski's movie is the quintessential film version of the Scottish play.
11/07/05
No review available.
06/16/05
An over-the-top bu highly effective adaption of the Shakespeare classic with Polanski's disctinctive touches.
03/25/05
With its apparent fixation on murder and cruelty, it is difficult to overlook a number of the unsettling autobiographical details in the film.
11/01/04
This is an original film by an original film artist, and not an 'interpretation.'
10/23/04
Top CriticNo review available.
10/20/04
The film's bear-baiting, barnyard pageantry is less convincing than its clammy locations.
05/04/04
Top CriticForces Shakespeare into the modern terrain of sickly spiralling sensibilities, with blood, lust, and madness at the forefront.
03/16/04
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