The Tragedy of Macbeth

 

    Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Apple TV image, photo by Alison Cohen Rosa

In his lifetime he was said to be a dramatist and poet of some renown, but 400 years later William Shakespeare is a man of mystery. 

English scholars at Oxford and Cambridge passionately argue the true identity of the so-called Bard of Avon. Some say the man by that name was an illiterate real estate speculator who couldn't even sign his name. They put forward other, more cultured members of the court who might have appropriated the nom de plume to conceal their true identities. One literary conspiracy theory insists the playwright was, in fact, a woman.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Joel Coen nicely sidesteps the issue. He claims the screenwriting credit for “The Tragedy of Macbeth” for himself – but quickly acknowledges, “based on the play by William Shakespeare.”

The distinction between play and screenplay is central to this striking production. Shooting in exquisite black and white on stone castle sets both stately and minimalist, cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel is essentially an invisible member of the cast, silently turning light shafts and shadows into architecture.

Camera angles and brilliant lighting effects – two technologies unknown four centuries ago – add dimensions that might have seemed wondrous forms of magic to Shakespeare's audience, or the Bard himself.

You can watch this “Macbeth” with the sound turned off, and still get the tragedy, along with the sensation of attending a photo exhibit by a master.

Of course turning off the sound would negate the fact that “Macbeth” is among the greatest creations in the English language. It also overlooks the the other well, duh point that the lines are delivered by true screen royalty – perhaps the most powerful pairing in recent movie history.

Frances McDormand – in real life the director's wife – takes on the thankless task of reviving Lady Macbeth, the scheming, ball-busting power behind the throne of the King of Scotland. Denzel Washington plays her husband.

It's Washington's gravitas as much as his prodigious talent that equips him to usurp the role played by all of England's Royal Shakespeare immortals and claim it as his own. Making no pretext at an accent, taming Shakespeare's language to sound natural coming out of his mouth, he effortlessly spans the chasms of his character's mood swings.

The plot, briefly, for those who dozed through fifth-period English: General Macbeth, loyal liege to his king, is returning from a battlefield victory when he encounters three witches who tell him he is destined to rule Scotland. When he tells his wife of the prophecy, she's all in; when he wavers, she questions his manhood until he comes around. Their destiny requires offing the current king, which sets off a string of murders, each to conceal the last, before trying to tighten his grip on power from future enemies, women and children first.

You know things aren't going to end well. This, along with the source material's familiarity, provide the film's only shortcoming, a dilemma for the artists, as well as the audience. What are you supposed to do when your title itself is a plot spoiler? This production is so determined not to be a filmed stage play, it accidentally illustrates the shortcomings of trying to translate one medium into another while remaining faithful to the first. It's Shakespeare for an audience schooled on "Game of Thrones."

When I was in high school I had an English teacher who told us the secret of Shakespeare's greatness was “Quotable Quotes.” Reading “Hamlet” in class, every time we came upon a phrase we had heard somewhere before, we were supposed to write it down in our notebooks.

The Bard of Avon was, in other words, master of the cliché.

It would take years of recovery, otherwise known as being a college English major, to realize clichés were profound truths the first time they were written. And nobody wrote down more profound truths than that guy Will. They should have retired the language after he was done with it. Using words that well stemmed from knowing human nature that well.

Few couples in history have had more quotable quotes than Lord and Lady Macbeth, and few actors have so brilliantly captured their essence. No matter how many productions of the play you may have seen before, observing Denzel and Frances have their way with the words produces the sensation of hearing them for the first time.