Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" is distinct in its own way

I first became acquainted with William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth when I was still in highschool, but I was actually able to read the play when I was already in college. Unlike Shakespeare's other tragedies - Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Julius Caesar - the central character in Macbeth appears to have no redeeming traits at all, someone who's being motivated by pure ambition, greed and worldly intentions. That's probably why Macbeth makes for such a fascinating character study, an epitome of what we call the "anti-hero". And film is a medium where Macbeth's complex character can be best explored (aside, of course, from the theater, for which it was primarily intended). 

I was able to see 2 cinematic adaptations of the play: Akira Kurosawa's majestic "Throne of Blood" and Roman Polanski's visceral "Macbeth". But it was the first time that I was able to see on the big screen itself one such adaptation, by way of Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel's version, having the same title as that of Polanski. And seeing this latest version of Macbeth on the big screen couldn't have been better. Kurzel's "Macbeth" may not have the grandiosity of Kurosawa's and the insanity of Polanski's, but it's nevertheless visually-stunning, impeccably-acted and savagely-wrought, staying as faithfully as possible to The Bard's play, with its luminous screenplay written in actual verse, with all the sublime beauty and archaic terms of Shakespeare's prose. Kurzel actually makes the economical move of focusing entirely on Macbeth's (Michael Fassbender) and his wife, Lady Macbeth's (Marion Cotillard) relationship to one another and to the milieu that surrounds them, with all the strife, power-struggle and violence. 

This has the advantage of us being able to get somewhat more "up close and personal" with the film's forefront players, making our encounter with them to be more on a psycho-emotional level. After all, more than a political treatise (like Julius Caesar), the play is essentially a character study, a delving into what motivates ambition and the craving for power, as well as the nature of guilt and punishment. And as any Shakespeare play can be an actor's showcase for his/her craft, Fassbender and Cotillard make use of the privilege to engrossing effect, especially considering the basic nature of Kurzel's adaptation. These talented European actors are no strangers to essaying difficult characters onscreen with insight and complexity ("Hunger" and "Shame" for Fassbender, "La Vie en Rose" and "Two Days, One Night" for Cotillard), so it shouldn't now come as a surprise if they're still able to breeze through the challenges of portraying a Shakespeare character. The master playwright always intended his protagonists and villains to be larger-than-life, yet the beauty of, let's say, Fassbender's performance as the Thane-who-would-be-King is that, even if it doesn't "loom large" as compared to that of Toshiro Mifune or of Jon Finch, it still registers strongly and effectively, for the fact that the actor is able to make the most out of the stripped-down nature of his character, as intended by the director. Putting across onscreen the tortured soul of the anti-hero with dignity and conviction (the same way that he did with the other troubled characters he portrayed) and delivering his verses (the speeches and soliloquys, including the famous "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" after Lady Macbeth's death) with impassioned gravitas, Fassbender's Macbeth comes off as not exactly an abhorrent monster, but as an individual caught up in the conflict between the compulsion to obtain power and the necessity to maintain it and put it in check, something which invites our understanding and compassion, however uncomfortable that may sound. 

After Tom Hardy in Brian Helgeland's gangster film "Legend", Fassbender's turn in "Macbeth" is the next best performance by a foreign actor that I saw in the cinema this year. 

And as mentioned earlier, just like Kurosawa's and Polanski's versions, Kurzel's "Macbeth" doesn't lack in visual wizardry, despite the economical storytelling employed by the director and his screenwriters. While it may not have something like Toshiro Mifune being pressed by arrows against the wall or Lady Macbeth sleepwalking in the nude, cinematographer Adam Arkapaw ("Animal Kingdom", True Detective Season 1) nevertheless provides us with some expressive slow motions, enthralling panoramas and suggestive color hues, which make everything feel like a subliminal fever-dream. The final act for instance, where Macbeth and Macduff (the slain King Duncan's loyal Thane) face each other, is bathed in smoky bloody red, as if to suggest that "to hell thence" is the murderous and traitorous anti-hero's ultimate fate. 

This latest version of Macbeth doesn't profess to be a post-modern update on the classic literature. Rather, it stays as faithfully as possible to the spirit of The Bard's play, being savage, gloomy and lean in its own distinct way. 

Michael Fassbender craves and murders for power in Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth"