NYFF 2021 Film Review: The Tragedy of Macbeth
Joel Coen breathes foreboding life into the well-tread tale of Shakespeare’s Macbeth
My coverage of this year’s New York Film Festival begins with Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. An abridged, yet faithful, adaptation of William Shakespeare’s famed play, Coen’s black and white stunner gives captivating reason for its own existence. With stark, gorgeous visuals and dynamic performances, The Tragedy of Macbeth finds crevices and spaces unexplored in a familiar story. Minor spoilers ahead…
Who needs another adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth? Translated across hundreds of versions - dozens for the screen - the Bard’s famed play has been tackled by the likes of Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, and Roman Polanski. The last iteration to grace our screens was Justin Kurzel’s 2015 violent, realist bloodbath. A visual feast replete with the stunning, glowing hues of the battlefield and the sanguine pools of betrayal, Kurzel’s Macbeth seemed to reside at the hypermodern endpoint of cinematic Shakespeare. What’s left? It turns out, a lot; with Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (Coen’s working solo this time, without his brother Ethan), there’s vivid proof that life still pumps through the doomed Scottish king’s veins.
Walking into the theater, I had no idea what to expect from Coen’s take on the source material. What kind of devious twist in the storytelling awaited? Well, it turns out, none, really. Lean, abridged, and efficient, Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth hews closely to Shakespeare’s verse, faithfully reconstructing - and truncating - a narrative familiar to anyone who passed middle school lit class. A dark tragedy of a throne won through murder, betrayal, and wile, only to be lost to unbridled hubris and the clever wording of prophecy, Macbeth finds the titular king (Denzel Washington) and his wife Lady Macbeth (Frances McDormand) slowly driven to madness by their underhanded machinations. This latest incarnation isn’t reinventing Shakespeare, nor is it trying to; instead, Coen’s vision of Macbeth finds the nooks and crannies in a centuries-old work - through line-readings and gorgeous presentation - to inject its sense of craft.
“…with Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, there’s vivid proof that life still pumps through the doomed Scottish king’s veins.”
Shakespeare is likely not the first thing that comes to mind when Joel Coen is mentioned, but the tale of Macbeth fits strangely well within the venerated filmmaker’s “no free lunch” cinematic universe. Like Fargo, or No Country for Old Men, or Burn After Reading, The Tragedy of Macbeth is a tale of comeuppance begat by greed and circumstance. It’s a wise choice to put some mileage on the lead roles, with Denzel Washington’s gravitas and ruggedly grey features colliding perfectly with his portrayal of a weary thane-turned-regent, and Frances McDormand’s doggedness conveying a last-chance Hail Mary for power rather than a young woman’s ambition. Wizened and weathered, there’s a desperation in their eyes to cling onto glories past. Washington and McDormand both give searing performances, investigating facets of their thespian range we don’t get to see very often.
Where 2015’s Macbeth bathed in the glories of combat and the brutalities of war, Coen’s version is much more an exercise in atmospheric foreboding. Much of The Tragedy of Macbeth’s portentous mood is thanks to director of photography Bruno Delbonnel and production designer Stefan Dechant. Its 4:3 Academy aspect ratio claustrophobically frames Delbonnel’s staggering monochrome compositions full of smoke, mist, and haze; Macbeth looks like it’s reaching back through time to grasp at German Expressionism - tall, domineering archways are bathed in shadows, brutalist walls angle into pure nothingness, and capes and robes billow as puppetry against every stark backdrop. The Tragedy of Macbeth is a gorgeous paradox - it would be stunningly beautiful if it didn't feel like the abyss was going to swallow you whole and spit out your bones.
“With stark, gorgeous visuals and dynamic performances, The Tragedy of Macbeth finds crevices and spaces unexplored in a familiar story.”
Of course, Macbeth’s primary draw is to watch Washington and McDormand inhabit these iconic roles, but the film is stacked with a murderers’ row of arresting performers. Kathryn Hunter’s turn as the witches - a trio of essential players in Macbeth’s lore - is fleeting, but memorable: a contortionist scrying the future, she employs some clever visual tricks to deftly relay her sinister nature. The film is also methodical at stacking the deck against Macbeth; Corey Hawkins seethes in his performance as the wronged and vengeful MacDuff, and Harry Melling is a nervous ball of energy as Malcolm, heir apparent to the slain Duncan (Brendan Gleeson). Alex Hassell - in long-standing Shakespearean tradition of Ross being the narrative’s wild card - portrays the mercurial messenger with requisite slyness.
Favoring gorgeous symbolism, The Tragedy of Macbeth sidesteps the large-scale battles that typically come in its bloody third act, but that doesn’t mean its hands remain clean. Wince-inducing neck trauma comes early and often, and at one point, a screaming child is hurled into a pit of fire - the film’s peppered-in violence acts as garnish on this bleak, bleak world that Joel Coen has translated. There’s little new in the text, but Coen is remarkably adept at reading between the lines to carve out a new identity with scorching performances and incredible vistas. Like Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane, The Tragedy of Macbeth consistently finds ways to stun and surprise.
