"Nothing is but what is not." With that ultimate statement of nihilism, Macbeth establishes himself as one of literature's (and cinema's) blackest villains. But what makes him memorable is not just his ambition and bloodlust, but also his conscience and imagination.
Almost immediately we hear of Macbeth's great exploits on the battlefield. However, before Scotland's King Duncan can announce Macbeth's reward for such valour, the three "weird sisters" let Macbeth know that one day he will be king. When Duncan gives Macbeth the title of Thane of Cawdor, he can't help but feel disappointed. Isn't he meant to be king? As played by Jon Finch, Macbeth is intriguingly complex; he is ambitious but, "without the illness that should attend it." Finch gives a convincing performance of a once good man devolving into a paranoid amoral madman.
Macbeth's tragedy is that he is unable to wait and see if "chance may crown me king." The reason is simple, his delightfully wicked wife Lady Macbeth. She knows her husband's greatest hurdle is not the title of king, but his unwillingness to do anything evil to attain it. He is, "too full of the milk of human kindness." Lady Macbeth spends much of her time driving all kindness out of her man by verbally assaulting his manhood. Unfortunately, as portrayed by Francesca Annis, Lady Macbeth seems less sinister than simpering. We never witness her transformation from loving, doting wife to fiendish shrew, so her character is only half-realised.
Polanski creates an imposing, rugged landscape. The castles look as stark as one might imagine those in the13th century to be. Polanski also makes shrewd decisions when rearranging, eliminating and 'embellishing' scenes from Shakespeare's play. "Blood will have blood," he has taken quite literally.
With the single (glaring) exception of the depiction of Lady Macbeth, this is a worthy addition to the Bard's cinematic canon.
Now ... if we can only find the film we can watch it!!!!!
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