Roman Polanski's Macbeth vs. Shakear

A detailed Summary of Roman Polanski's Macbeth vs. Shakear

Critique of Roman Polanski's Macbeth

Roman Polanski's version of Macbeth, in my opinion, lived up to the Shakespeare's play. Although there were many minor changes in the play the plot stayed the same. One commendable change on Polanski's part was the way he sensationalized the violence. There weren't that many violent scenes but those few very extremely violent. I had thought myself to be completely desensitized to violence until I watched this movie.

One of the first major changes was the battle in the beginning of the movie. In the play we weren't shown the battle, we were only told of the outcome. In the movie we weren't show the whole battle only remnants of it. The one thing that stuck in my mind from that battle was when that one soldier was checking for survivors. And when he found one he beat him to death with a mace. That scene set the tone for the rest movie. In the play the first violent act we encounter was the murder of the king, whereas in the movie the battle scene was the first "act" of violence. I think this was a good addition to the story because it was an early indicator as to the darkness of the play and the direction it was going in. It gave us a taste of things to come. I don't think Polanski

added this scene simply to increase the amount of violence, but as to prepare us for the rest of the play.

Yet in the movie Lady Macbeth was seemed to be an innocent woman. The first obvious change in character was the physical appearance of Lady Macbeth. In Polanski's version she was young and beautiful. Whereas in the first play we watched she was old and ugly. As cold as it may sound beautiful people are depicted as innocent and pure. I think Polanski casted a prettier actress because he wanted to shift all feelings abhorrence towards Macbeth. He didn't want people feeling any remorse for Macbeth so he made him entirely (arguably) responsible for his downfall. Personally, I didn't care much for this change. I didn't like the fact that Lady Macbeth seemed to be less of a catalyst and more of a bystander in the story. She is not the same character that Shakespeare created.

That change to the story was a very good one. After seeing that scene one can't help but feel a great deal of hatred towards Macbeth. Macbeth became the embodiment of evil. Any feeling of remorse or sympathy for Macbeth was completely abolished.

One major change was that of Lady Macbeth's character. In the play we watched Lady Macbeth was the instigator. She was

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Approximate Word count = 851
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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