Macbeth

Mckellen's use of tone shift and facial expressions are the reasons he is such a renowned actor. This elite acting paired with such great directing makes for a thrilling movie. It is exemplified in the dagger scene using shadows and the dagger along with the close up into a slow pan to show McKellan's contemplativeness. Overall a great film and a great watch for fans of Shakespeare or Mckellen.

An incredible "black box theatre" production of Macbeth featuring some of the finest Shakespearean actors England had to offer. The stripped-down production involves the actors stepping out of a circle of chairs to perform their scenes in the center of the "stage". Both McKellan & Judi Dench are amazing -- in particular, watch McKellan's stunning moment when he acts out the scene where Macbeth sees his murdered friend Banquo: McKellan turns into a truly horrified, snarling, drooling animal & it's chilling! A must for any fan of Shakespeare, the play & a must see for anyone thinking of going into theatre directing or production -- shows what a great cast can do with almost nothing!

I was looking forward to this, everyone was raving about it. Then there was a short documentary before it about Trevor Nunn's vision for the play and I got worried. He said that he wanted to get away from the Blasted Heath and Witches that had become linked to the play. I hate to point this out to an important director but Shakespeare wrote them in. So I watched with fear as to what would be done to the play. The witches were there in an altered form, and Macbeth himself says something about it being a blasted heath, so I'm supposing that passed through Nunn's cuts.

Other than a director who messed with the play, it was indeed quite good, the actors were very good, especially Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Macduff, Malcolm, Donalbain and Ross, but I couldn't shake off the fear of what the director would do next.

As for Lady Macbeth's famous scream, yes it conveyed the horror of what was going on but it also sounded like a kettle boiling. Judi Dench was very good though.

This is probably "Macbeth" as Shakespeare really saw it produced -- no fancy scenery, no elaborate sets, just stunning actors conveying everything Shakespeare intended to convey by the power of their own speech and actions.

The defining moment for me is the banquet scene, where McKellan manages to go from icily cynical schemer to stark raving maniac on seeing Banquo's ghost, and then back again to schemer and then yet back again to broken, frightened shadow of a man by the end of the scene, without for a moment over-acting and without us, the viewer, even seeing Banquo's ghost.

The only false note I think the production had was Judi Dench -- as others have said here, she is of course a splendid actress and her sleepwalking scene was wonderful. But part of what drives Macbeth in the play is Lady Macbeth's threat to withhold sexual favors and her denigration of his masculinity if Macbeth doesn't act more "like a man" and go through with the murder of Duncan (conveyed in this version by her avoiding Macbeth's attempted kiss in the "milk of human kindness" scene), and frankly in this production Dame Judi lacked the sex appeal that would make this viable.

Still, a bravura performance and certainly the best Macbeth I have seen filmed.

Dead solid perfect handling of the Shakespeare chiller with greats McKellan and Dench giving their all in stellar performances. A brilliant scene involving Dench as Lady Macbeth in a breakdown that is so haunting, but so incredibly real. She lets out this god awful scream that frightens but also conveys to us beautifully the emotion and loss that this character has just endured. An astonishing achievement.