Rating: 
Summary: Truly Inspiring
Review: I can't recommend this enough. I teach Shakespeare to 6th and 8th graders, and this movie absolutely engrosses kids of this age. Polanski makes every nuance of the play clear, and the acting is superb. We read a little of the play, work with it, then I show just that part of the DVD. (I have to leave out very few scenes because I teach in a public school, so no nudity allowed.) I wish Polanski would tackle other of Shakespeare's plays.
Rating:
Summary: very good
Review: this movie was done extremely well. john finch did excellent as macbeth. the gore was well used. i was surprised that the movie kept my interest...but it really did
Rating: 
Summary: Macbeth
Review: Overall i thougth that the movie was decent. Considering the movie was made in the 70's it was poorly put together and i felt that some of the scens ruined my images form actual play macbeth. the final fight scen was not very good in the book it was potrayed as very powerful proud fight but in the movie the fight was chessy and not very powerfull i mean people where kicking eachother that is not the way a huge fighty should be. However i liked how the movie mad ross the thired murderer It was a very good idea that just seemd to fit and i also liked how in the final scen Donaild Bain whent to see the witchs it tied history in nicly and left the ending a littel more open and i liked that. Over all the movie was not really my idea of a great movie but those of you who are into old movies with fighting and gore its probably a good movie for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Macbeth Review.
Review: Well, what can I say. The movie itself was well done. The incorporation of the dark and halogenic atmosphere portrayed in the original play was well matched in this production. The acting was very stable and excellently delivered, and the use of the silver screen makes it possible for the average individual to understand Shakespeare more, even though the language is still bloody impossible to figure out... However, the film had setbacks: for instance, the music sounded terrible, much like a quadropolegic monkey was being pushed through a pipe organ. As well as that, many scenes were left on the cutting room floor and not expressed in the film, leaving some innaccuracy to be seen. Nonetheless, it was an excellent film with very high standards for being a quality piece of Shakespearean work.
Rating: 
Summary: macbeth review
Review: Roman Planski did a generally good job at portraying macbeth as a film. I understand that the movie was made in the 1970's so it was kinda bad quality and some scenes were poorly made, for example the scene with the floating dagger and the fight scene at the end between Macbeth and Macduff. It kind of ruined my idea of it. But nonetheless it was an alright movie. I really enjoyed how Polanski showed the witches, and the added scene at the very end where it shows Donald Bain going to visit the witches, leaving that bit of open interpretation. It was an interesting way to end it.
Rating:
Summary: macbeth
Review: Roman Palanski did a generally good job at portraying macbeth as a film. I understand that the movie was made in the 70's so it isn't the best quality. Some scenes were poorly made for example when Macbeth sees the floating dagger infront of him, and the fight scene between Macduff and Macbeth at the end was quite disapointing because it kind of ruin my idea of it. But nonetheless it was an alright movie. I really enjoyed how Palanski showed the witches, and at the very end of the movie, when he added that last scene where you see Donald Bain going to see the witches, ending it with that bit of open interpretation. It was interesting how he did it.
Rating:
Summary: Macbeth
Review: The movie Macbeth was a good movie. After reading the play the characters were exactly what i thought they would look like. The movie followed the play well. Some parts were added into the movie that were not in the play so it was kinda neat to see some extended senses. The movie was good to watch and made the play more sense because it's easier to see what's happening in the play on t.v then reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Branagh can not top this one..
Review: While Branagh may have pretty much held the top place for bringing the most Shakespeare productions to the silver screen, it is still Roman Polanski who has the best production of the lot. This is Macbeth in all its violent and bloody glory, the way it was meant to be seen!
Rating:
Summary: Dark and Bloody
Review: Not to say that MacBeth SHOULD'NT be portrayed as a dark and bloody tale (because it is one of the most dreary of Shakespeare's popular tragedies), but it seemed that Polanski took the graphic nature of this play to an unnecessary violent and graphic extreme. There is an usual amount of unnecessary nudity in this movie-- Lady MacBeth's washing of her hands scene, the scene with the witches, and the scene with the young boy in MacDuff's home. The violence at the beginning of the play, as well as the fate of MacBeth, is quite gory. The movie dialogue, the setting, and the acting are all exemplary, however. The visual scenery set in a dreary castle and backdrop of Wales brings forth the true mood that is effective for the play's premise. MacBeth comes to life as a tragic hero; we see the transformation of someone in power becoming more ambitious as the movie progresses after his meeting with the witches (and learning of the three prophecies). Certainly the delusion of MacBeth and guilt of his conscience are eminent with Polanski's usage of special effects (the ghost of Duncan, the dagger he sees in front of him). MacBeth's frame of mind and digression are depicted in his thoughts in the form of asides and soliloquies. The film is an illustration of how ambition and want of power can lead to the downfall of individual or individuals, and this message is heard loud and clear in Polanski's version. Not a bad version, but it could have been "gored" down a little.
Rating:
Summary: It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood
Review: This is seriously one of the most powerful, strongly atmospheric movies I've seen in a while. I love Jon Finch, I love most of the actors in this film. Finch has a way with Shakespeare that makes it sound as if he was born speaking it. I love that... I just watched the first twenty or so minutes of a Shakespeare film and cringed a bit at the bulky way the language was handled by the lead actors. Anyway, it's amazing to watch Macbeth handled by such capable people - Polanski and all the actors and everyone, apparantly, who worked on the film. It's so powerful to watch Macbeth take a headlong plunge into madness and eventually be deserted by everyone, left alone on his cold stone throne. As for Francesca Annis's Lady Macbeth -- really, I think she's quite good. It's all a matter of director's interpretation, you know, how a character is to be played. My Shakespeare professor and I have been discussing hers for a while now, and I agree that Lady Macbeth never seems to be as bad as she says she is, while Macbeth far surpasses her in cruelty by the end. She is the only one of the pair with "the milk of human kindness." Shakespeare did write her eventually going mad, and if your Lady Macbeth plays tough for the whole play and then suddenly cracks, I think it could be done, but would be hard to pull off. Her sleepwalking scene is very well played in this film, I do believe. That's another thing -- the nudity. Everybody seems to want to blame the nudity on Hefner and the violence on the Manson family. But, funnily enough, this movie contains the least sexy nudity I've probably seen on film. As for the blood, well, it is an extremely bloody play -- Polanski isn't making it up. This is a film that does not shy away from the darkness that runs through this late play of Shakespeare's. I'd just ask the viewer to try to ignore Polanski's life at the time of filming and the fact that Hefner produced and then try to imagine the film without the blood or the raw nudity. That coven scene is suffocating and near painful to watch. Macbeth looks like he desperately wants to flee, and we can understand why; he stays, however, because of his maddening, driving desire to know what will happen to him. There are certain scenes of this movie that I just love to watch. I love that Macbeth takes on the entire English army by himself. There's no opposition, they just come in, and there he sits, all replete with himself and his confidence on his throne. Even though he is outnumbered about 10,000 to 1, he places his crown on his head, boldly announces his name, and the soldiers are terrified to fight him. The long battle with Macduff is also fantastic; it's fairly realistic. These men aren't superheroes, they run out of breath and they run out of weapons, eventually forced to resort to tripping and smashing each other into the walls. I'm going to discuss the end assuming that most people know that Macbeth is a tragedy -- anyway, another great effect is the shots we get while Macbeth's severed head on a pike is run through a cheering crowd, and we see shots of the people through an upward angle, as if from Macbeth's eyes, as if his head could still see. Chills. This, dear friends, is a horror movie. Rent it (or buy it), turn off all the lights, and watch it (i cannot stress this enough) without interruption. This is the one of the best Shakespeare adaptations I have ever seen. Just as a sidenote, what exactly IS banquo doing on the cover of the film (Also on the DVD and the main menu)? One of life's unsolved mysteries.... "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
Who struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot; full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
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