Joel Coen’s ‘MacBeth’ Hits the ‘Damned Spot’

One of postmodernity’s greatest temptations is to mutilate, abridge, or transform Shakespeare into something contemporary. Shakespeare is, after all, a man of his time. By modern standards, he’s misogynistic (“The Taming of the Shrew”), anti-Semitic (“The Merchant of Venice”), racist (“Much Ado About Nothing”), and a propagandist for the British monarchy.Joel Coen’s new “Macbeth,” mercifully, avoids the pitfalls of radical reinterpretation. This stands in contrast to 2021’s trend of anti-medievalism in such films as “The Last Duel,” “Benedetta,” and “The Green Knight” — three films that satirize the values of the Middle Ages, and implicitly of traditional Western culture itself, and find it wanting, bigoted, and cruel.By contrast, Mr. Coen’s “Macbeth” maintains the integrity of the original stage play. There are few alterations or abridgements. It doesn’t moralize about problematic elements in the story, however, and it brings the play’s eternal themes to life with grit and weight.This film is a black-and-white, atmospheric take on the source material with Denzel Washington in the lead role of Macbeth. Of all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, “Macbeth” is the most natural material for adoption by Mr. Coen. He is cinema’s most prominent moralist and an inheritor to the old Hollywood cynicism of Preston Sturges.The themes of Mr. Coen’s “Macbeth” are unrelenting, strident in morality but also deeply human. So “Macbeth” is a natural fit for Mr. Coen. One can see his characters from “Fargo” and “A Serious Man” carrying shades of Macbeth’s hubris.Harold Bloom once called Shakespeare “the world’s only universal writer.” Artists are drawn to him in equal measure as activists are pushed away from him. He speaks to the human soul in all of its forms, now as much as 400 years ago. That’s not to say Shakespeare adaptations shouldn’t reflect their time.Lawrence Olivier’s “Henry V” reflected the hope of World War II-era Britain. Orson Welles’s “Othello” reflected the political paranoia of the 1950s. Akira Kurosawa’s adaptations such as “Ran” are apocalyptic epics that capture Cold War anxiety. Kenneth Branagh’s “Henry V” captured anti-war bitterness and world-weariness.Mr. Coen’s interest in filming “Macbeth” was personal, he told the Guardian. His wife, Frances McDormand, had been turned down by the New York theater community early in her career but had new chances to perform Shakespeare recently. Mr. Coen was drawn into the world of Shakespeare through her.“She asked me if I would direct ‘Macbeth’ on stage and I said I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what to do,” Mr. Coen said. “So she went ahead and did it anyway. It was seven or eight years ago in San Francisco, playing Lady Macbeth … directed by Dan Sullivan, who is excellent. I told her it was something that I could get my head around as a movie.”It would seem that Mr. Coen’s “Macbeth” is both a late-career challenge to the director and a small gift to his wife. The script is mostly loyal to the stage play, but he notably changes a line that emphasizes what he calls a “post-menopausal Macbeth.” “They are an older couple, past childbearing age,” he told the Guardian. “Time, mortality and the future are vital themes.”Mr. Washington brings Macbeth to life beautifully, capturing the way his belief in the prophecy about himself entitles him to power and resolves himself to murder Duncan. He tries to cement a legacy for himself and his wife that their childlessness prohibits. He also captures the regret, the drops of humanity behind his eyes that disappear as his resolve and guilt eat away at his soul.Mr. Coen’s heavy atmosphere captures the inner world of a cruel would-be tyrant as his power lust and entitlement destroys society around him. The core of the tragedy is the classic Coen Brothers story; the story of a man who wants more from life but who absurdly destroys himself in the process of seeking it. It’s both contemporary and true.________Image: The 1623 Droeshout portrait of William Shakespeare via Wikimedia Commons.

Joel Coen’s ‘MacBeth’ Hits the ‘Damned Spot’

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