“Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” the witches whisper in the mist. Foreshadowing chaos to come, it’s one of the famous lines of Macbeth, Shakespeare’s great tragedy about one man’s ambitious rise to power and bloody fall from the top. Speaking in their language of mystical contradiction, the witches’ intentions aren’t clear, but those of director Justin Kurzel certainly are. The Australian director’s take on the famous Scottish king is grim, deadly serious and visually astonishing. With its Middle Earth-like setting, ceaseless bloodshed and grandiose tone, it’s Macbeth for the “Game of Thrones” generation.
Rather than kick off with the warfare or witchcraft for which Macbeth is known, the film opens on the image of a deceased infant. A narrative invention by Kurzel, it is the child of Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) and his wife (Marion Cotillard), and perhaps, it is loss that impels their ruthless rise to the top. It might also be the babe to which Lady Macbeth references when she later says, “I have given suck, and know/ How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me.”
Unusual for a Shakespeare adaptation, the first 10 minutes of the film are nearly wordless. Kurzel lets the fog, the mountains and the grizzled faces of his actors do most the talking. And then come the swords. They clang and clatter in restless motion, slowing down only to pierce a chest or slit a throat. The battle is brutal and not pleasant to watch. It plays out like an ugly reminder of the violence that continues to plague the world. Co-opting the reputation of one the greatest storytellers who ever lived, Kurzel and co-writers seem intent on portraying the unstoppable, masculine id that causes men to steal, betray and murder. For all its raw power in word, sound and sight, Macbeth is a dangerous story and its lesson is not a pretty one.
After his victory on the battlefield, the witches hail Macbeth as the future King. He’s not sure what to make of their prophecy, but the opportunity presents itself a couple nights later when extant King Duncan is asleep in his tent. Lady Macbeth tells her husband to stab King Duncan, and he follows her advice. They blame the servants and, lo and behold, Macbeth gets crowned the King of Scotland. The only thing he has to worry about is Banquo (Paddy Considine), a friend and fellow soldier. The witches told Banquo that he was the father to a future king so Macbeth thinks he needs to kill Banquo’s son, who is really just an innocent kid. Hence, Macbeth has turned into a power-crazed murderer.
Fassbender, with his virile gait and mad scowl, makes for a hard, masculine Macbeth. Unfortunately, his toughness and midnight horseback rides tend to overshadow the complexity of his words. Cotillard is good, but her transition from mourning mother to despotic queen is too abrupt. The emotions are somehow not convincing.
Filmed on location in the Isle of Skye, a Scottish island known for its lochs, moors and peaks, Macbeth’s photography does the impossible by trumping Shakespeare’s text. Cinematographer Adam Arkapaw adheres to a noticeably “True Detective” style, emphasizing the bleakest weather conditions imaginable and then connecting them to the depravity inherent in Man’s Soul. Indeed, Arkapaw was the D.P. of all eight episodes of “True Detective” season one.
Asked if he believed in evil, Kurzel replied, “I do. I think there’s a precipice that we stand on looking down on it, and it’s paper thin. We know we can’t come back if we jump, but we’re drawn to it anyway.” The evil of which he speaks is perfectly clear in the eyes of his protagonist. Yet as much as Shakespeare wrote movingly of slaying, burning and backstabbing, he wrote about more than that too. He wrote about Macbeth’s realization that life is meaninglessness and even worse—it must end. “Life’s but a walking shadow…it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” With statements like these at his disposal, Kurzel should have paid less attention to the knife and more attention to the organ it stabbed.