17th May, 2008 Login • Register
Search This Site
Macbeth (2006) DVD Review
Macbeth (2006) DVD Credits:
Macbeth (2006) Directed by:
Geoffrey Wright
Macbeth (2006) Written by:
Victoria Hill, Geoffrey Wright
Macbeth (2006) Cast:
Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill, Lachy Hulme, Anna Anderson, Steve Bastoni, Kate Bell, Louis Corbett, Peter Davenport, Matt Doran, Nash Edgerton, Bob Franklin, Hai Ha, Rel Hunt, Christopher Kirby, John Molloy, Mick Molloy, Miranda Nation, Jonathon Pasvolsky, Simon Scott, Christopher Shen, Kat Stewart Gary Sweet, Damian Walshe-Howling, Edwina Wren
Macbeth (2006) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Macbeth (2006) DVD Release Date:
24th September 2007
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD
Macbeth (2006) Synopsis:

The Melbourne underworld, present time. Macbeth, a loyal henchman to his crime boss, Duncan, is told by teenage witches that he will one day assume great power. Driven by their prophecy, the plots with his wife to kill Duncan, and takes the leadership of the gang for himself. Maintaining his power will require more murders and violence, finally driving his surviving enemies to unite and destroy him.

Macbeth (2006) DVD Review:


There seem to me to be two major questions when choosing to put one of William Shakespeare’s plays on film; whether it will stay faithful to the locale and time period the stories were originally written and whether or not to keep the great writer’s words the same or just take the brilliantly woven melodrama. Many such as 10 Things I Hate About You and West Side Story have chosen to change both locale, time period, language and nearly everything but the plot structure, which is nearly a pre-packaged guarantee. Others, mostly made with Kenneth Branagh, have stayed faithful nearly to a fault. I tend to find that if watching Shakespeare off of stage and on the screen, I have an odd fascination with the films that keep the language true enough while completely changing the locale or time period, such as Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, Titus, and to some extent the latest adaptation for screen by screen scribes Geoffrey Wright and Victoria Hill.

Geoffrey Wright also directs this heavily stylized version of Macbeth, which seems to ride on the coattails of Luhrmann’s attempt, something that works for it most of the time, just as the case with Romeo and Juliet. Wright, who brings the same intensity that along with Russell Crowe’s intense performance made Romper Stomper such a hit in Australia, and some of the time it is focused in the right direction. Most of the time the energy is so misspent that when the action sequences begin there is no suspense built up. This hyper-energetic and over-sexualized style of filmmaking doesn’t seem to trust the source material quite enough during the dialogue scenes and only really feels comfortable when the action begins.

This action in particular is one of the biggest changes to this version of Macbeth. This being an underworld Macbeth means that the kingdom is of crime and when they fight it is with guns rather than swords. It may be modern times, or perhaps in the future, but it doesn’t really matter in the stylized world that doesn’t much resemble reality. Macbeth now speaks to the witches when he is hallucinating on drugs after battle and the witches are dressed as attractive schoolgirls. With Sam Worthington as Macbeth, there is no shortage of highly attractive young actors in these roles. Macbeth is given the cold-shoulder from his wife as his ranking in the crime family is not quite as high as she would like. She wants to be married to the boss, and other than drugs this is all she seems to care about, and eventually convinces her husband to kill the boss in order to rise to the top.

The DVD includes a making-of featurette with interviews that include director Geoffrey Wright and stars Sam Worthington and Victoria Hill.

Our Rating: Extras Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD

Macbeth (2006) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

Content Management System provided by P J Thomson - Freelance Web Design - PHP/MySQL Development