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Macbeth More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 14 reviews in total |
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Surprisingly effective Shakespeare on a shoestring, 23 March 2004
Author:
(dale_switzer@mac.com) from Pittsburg, Kansas USA
Fresh, luminous Helen Baxendale and the magnetic Jason Connery, a slightly more subdued, less craggily Celtic version of his famous dad, make a sexy pair of doomed partners in this low-budget Scottish production. Many ingenious touches, and some scenes, especially those leading up to the murder, among the most compelling versions of the play I have ever seen. A worthy successor to Orson Welles' cheeseparing lensing for Republic Pictures. Good stuff.
6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
There still are good actors around!, 30 April 2002
Author:
inez-1
Excellent performance. There still are good actors around! Also great directing and photography. Very true to Shakespear, and a 'must' for all Shakespear fans. Macbeth (Jason Connery) moved me to tears with his final monolog (out brief candle, out)He gave the sphere of moral decay and dark forces a human face, which makes it the more interesting. Helen Baxendale is a very credible lady Macbeth who can be very cheerfull at times and sometimes she just looks like a naughty girl, but deadly in her taste for blood and evil. If you love death and decay, and Shakespears lyrics... this is the one.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Shakespeare wrote for the accent and it must be spoken like that, 20 February 2010
Author:
tony-gibbons from Australia
Every review I have read so far seems to have missed a crucial point. Shakespeare wrote for the accent and the pronunciation just as he did for northerners in other plays. The Scottish accent changes the emphasis and rhythm of the language and affects profoundly what is said and the way it is taken. So, listen again and note the difference. The play is well done and the rhythm of the words are so much better than that provided by people using received, polite, well- enunciated English. I am reminded of the time a teacher in a school in Leicester, unknowingly, asked me, age 14, to read a piece of Walter Scott which was written in the tone of the Border. I come from the Border and when I read it as it should be read it made all the difference.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
superb production, 17 August 1999
Author:
Tanya Harrison from Norfolk, England
This low budget production of Macbeth brought the play back to life again and is by far the best version I have watched. Jason Connery and Helen Baxendale are superb in their roles and bring a humanity to their characters that makes you feel with them. There is solid support, in particular from Graham McTavish, Iain Stuart Robertson, Kenneth Bryans and Jock Ferguson is brilliant as the porter. Jeremy Freeman makes a good job of his directorial debut, and should go far. This film is well worth watching.
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Meagre version of a great play., 16 March 2009
Author:
mcjadt from New Zealand
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
MacBeth, I've always thought, is the most accessible of Shakespeare's
'Great Period' plays. Compact, focused, with heaps of violence, it
should have been the play most open to screen adaptations. I'm not
aware of a really good rendering of the story, however - the best
effort being Orson Welles's vigorous shoestring version. To the list of
MacBotches we must add the Connery/Baxendale effort.
(It seems it was not a 'film adaptation' at all, but a TV version that
was given a theatrical release, post Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet and
Branagh's Hamlet. That might explain some of its flaws, but doesn't
excuse them.)
It starts well, with a feisty battle sequence with pleasingly grisly
witches looking on. Poor old Gray Malkin and Paddock are cut from the
opening scene, but they aren't alone for long. In quick order they are
joined by the bloodied Sargent and his account of the battle, the
treachery of the Thane of Cawdor, the luckless master o' the Tiger,
even MacBeth's meeting with Duncan when he is invested as thane of
Cawdor. All of these had virtues that plead like angels trumpet tongued
against the dark damnation of their sending off, but sent off they are.
These aren't the only cuts, either. This is MacBeth in a hurry.
From the opening battle we are pitched directly into MacBeth's
encounter with the witches, which is well done. Brian Blessed,
curiously, directed the witchy sequences, and he has great fun with the
special effects as MacBeth and Banquo are told of their fates. Jason
Connery as MacBeth is awkward, obviously unsure what to make of the
verse. Graham MacTavish as Banquo, on the other hand, is capable,
making his lines natural and easy. Within a few minutes of Connery's
mumbling, the viewer is struck the urge to see the roles reversed and
MacTavish in the title role. No wonder MacBeth felt he needed to kill
him.
These first few minutes marks the high point of the film. From there we
move to Helen Baxendale receiving word of her husband. She's as lost as
Connery, and denied the beard that he gets to hide behind. Her "Unsex
me here" invocation of evil is embarrassing, not unsettling. There are
some reasonably clever touches - MacBeth's "We will speak further" is
not a sign of his hesitancy in the face of his wife's wicked ambition,
but his attempt to silence her prattling as he throws her onto the bed.
The acting of the leads is the biggest let down. Connery's method
consists of staring glazedly about the screen while he mumbles his
monologues via voice-over. Baxendale looks pinched and neurotic. An
attempt to do something interesting with "Is this a dagger" - the
fantastical dagger is a shadow cast by a cross on an altar - falls flat
due to Connery's poor delivery and sloppy direction, which mars the
production throughout. We accompany Lady MacBeth back into the murder
chamber, where she gets to stab the reviving Duncan, but the effect is
comic, not dramatic.
Big scenes are botched - the appearance of Banquo at the feast is made
incomprehensible through attempts to mix subjective rendering of
MacBeth's delusion with what those around him see, or don't see. The
second meeting with the witches is even less coherent, and the
prophetic visions are confusing. Timing seems to be an issue here -
Banquo's banquet is the centrepoint of the play, but the film moves
rapidly towards conclusion after it, giving it an unbalanced feel and
no scope for the intricacies of the riddles MacBeth is caught in to be
appreciated, or for his descent into madness to be convincing. Another
crucial cut is the scene where Malcolm tests MacDuff, and MacDuff
learns of the murder of his family. This robs his revenge of most of
its emotional force - and the character of a lot of the screen time.
He's a virtual stranger when he turns up to kill MacBeth.
A point for trying. MacTavish's Banquo earns another. The first few
minutes garners another. But that's all. From then on it's sound and
fury blah blah blah.
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
There still are good actors around!, 30 April 2002
Author:
inez-1
Excellent performance. There still are good actors around! Also great directing and photography. Very true to Shakespear, and a 'must' for all Shakespear fans. Macbeth (Jason Connery) moved me to tears with his final monolog (out brief candle, out)He gave the sphere of moral decay and dark forces a human face, which makes it the more interesting. Helen Baxendale is a very credible lady Macbeth who can be very cheerfull at times and sometimes she just looks like a naughty girl, but deadly in her taste for blood and evil. If you love death and decay, and Shakespears lyrics... this is the one.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Very good Macbeth movie, 17 April 2010
Author:
sarastro7
I have said elsewhere that only people who really know what they are
doing should attempt to do Shakespeare. This also goes for the
reviewers: only those who really know Shakespeare should attempt to
review a Shakespeare production. Otherwise ignorance will make you say
things that reflect as poorly on you as a poor Shakespeare production
reflects on its creators.
Why are many people saying bad things about the Jason Connery Macbeth?
Well, one reason is that the technical side of things is not in order.
The available versions do not have a crisp picture or sound quality,
and the movie is kept in a torch-light mood which under these
conditions tend to smudge the colors and the light somewhat. Which is a
shame, because if the technical things were in order, this would be a
very good movie. The direction is good, the acting is impressive, and
the overall style is effectively atmospheric. It is not as good as it
might have been, but it is almost as good as the Polanski version, and
has its own characteristic style. It is colorful rather than dark, but
an effect similar to darkness is achieved by the production being
dominated by reds, oranges and earth-tone colors, enhancing the
torch-light mood. The milieu and costumes are realistic and convincing,
and the Scottish accents are great. Macbeth with the proper accents is
the only appropriate way to experience this play!
As I am a bit of an idealist, who tends to see a film in its (imagined)
ideal version, I choose to look beyond the technical deficiencies of
this movie, and judge it as if I had access to a crisp and perfect
version. It is a worthy Macbeth in any case, all the more admirable for
being a well-produced movie rather than a filmed stage play. It's
really too bad about the technical defects; hopefully a more polished
version will be available one day. But an enjoyable Macbeth in any
case, and one that merits a good rating.
8 out of 10.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
What do you mean?, 24 July 2008
Author:
gokool-david from United States
What do you mean son of actor, not an actor. You don't become an actor
just because your daddy is a superstar---it doesn't work that way, not
in UK at any rate.
Macbeth (this version) is a low budget Scottish movie. You can't
compare this to the Polanski version because Polanski has all the
budgets in the world.
Jason acted throughout school, but his big break came in 1985, when he
landed the role of Robin Hood in Britain's "Robin of Sherwood"
television series. He has appeared in many films since then, including
"Shanghai Noon" and "Lord of the Rings 2″. Jason has since moved behind
the camera, forming the production company, Unconditional
Entertainment. He recently wrapped filming on his latest movie, which
stars Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ray Winstone.
And all this has nothing to do with being the son of Sean Connery. If
you think Jason said to Sean, "daddy, I wanna be in Macbeth movie that
they are going to film," and Sean said, "sure, son, whatever you say,"
and made a phone call and got his son the role, you are mistaken. In
fact, Jason Connery is being cut out of his father's will. Seeing as
how his father is Sean Connery, that's a big chunk of change Jason will
be losing out on. The reasoning behind the decision is apparently
Sean's strong feelings that his only son should learn to provide for
himself. The relationship has become fairly strained, with Jason even
threatening to change his name.
------------------------------------ Of being the son of Sean Connery,
"I realize that I'm always going to be compared to my father. There are
innuendos all the time. Should I spend my whole life justifying
myself?" ------------------------------------
So stop being a jackass and accuse him of not being able to act just
because he is son of Sean Connery (big deal!).
Watch Jason in Bullet to Beijing and you'll form a different opinion
about his acting ability.
0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Is this a Robin i see before me?, 6 November 2011
Author:
Glen McCulla from United Kingdom
From the opening title shot of a candlelit Sutton Hoo war helmet (many
might wonder what a relic of the East Anglian Vendel culture is doing
in the Scottish Highlands, but of course those searching in the dust
for thorough historical accuracy in Shakespeare are always on a hiding
to nothing - and doubtless the striking clocks in "Julius Caesar" hath
made those people mad), and the stirring strains of the pipes, we are
plunged into a "Macbeth" taking place in a Celtic twilight of hairy
"Braveheart"-esque warriors and gloomy castles, well fitted to one of
the most grim and gritty of the Bard's plays.
Old Shaky's story lines are well-known, so we may safely skip over the
plot precis. Jason Connery takes time out from being known as the
second (and second-best - nothing to be ashamed of as Michael Praed was
so good in the role) Robin of Sherwood to give us a Macbeth believable
as a seasoned warrior of Moray and trusty, if untrustworthy, vassal of
an early mediaeval king. Helen Baxendale is as luminous and radiant as
always, acquitting herself well with the accent, as my favourite Lady
Macbeth (i have admittedly still to see Francesca Annis in the noted
Roman Polanski version), swinging from highly-strung hysteria to sexy
coquettishness as she lures her easily-swayed husband to do the deadly
deed.
The other standout member of the cast is Graham McTavish (Warden
'Nicey' Ackerman to fans of sci-fi sitcom "Red Dwarf") as the
indomitable Banquo. Good direction and striking scenery in authentic
Highland locations make this a Macbeth that will not have viewers
crying "Out, vile jelly!", as they may need their eyes in order to give
it a deserved second viewing.
3 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
A nice effort, 5 December 1998
Author:
Paul Hart from Worcester, UK
I have just watched this "latest" version of Macbeth and was pleasantly
surprised with the solid acting and obvious effort that had to turn a low
budget historical piece into a fully fledged watchable
movie.
One note however, the music was very lame and added nothing to the intensity
of the film and sounded like someone with a keyboard and a bunch of samplers
as opposed to a full orchestral score. I think Paul Farrer needs to get his
act together!!!
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