Review of The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) by Dkapadia1 — 07 Feb 2022

Turned in.

Macbeth - Hard to watch, easy to critique.

The Tragedy of Macbeth film was not created with people like me in mind. There is much to be said about how incredible the acting, cinematography, and artistic design were from a film critic standpoint. However, from an audience standpoint, the film was difficult to watch. The square formatting of the film did not add anything to the film other than two annoying black bars. The black and white coloring is not a favorite choice of mine, especially when there are such bright whites and deep blacks make it difficult to keep my eyes on. The black and white coloring also did not help the bland and featureless sets. The sets could be described as "brutalist architecture" by more advanced and professional critics watching the movie from a professional point of view. However, from my standpoint, all I see is cheap and simple styrofoam and plaster with almost no set dressing. No paintings along castle walls, a very still and weird-looking forest that doesn't look alive, and many other dreary sets that could not create the essence of a real scenario. Every branch that the soldiers had looked almost exactly the same. Even the throne room for the king had nothing other than the throne to help decorate it. I have seen plays with better set design and prop design filling rooms up. The bare set was obviously a decision made on purpose not influenced by money, however, it worsens the experience and makes the movie less entertaining by removing a vital part of the movie experience. Many say that these choice are good because it allows for much more dreary and emotional scenes and symbolism within the movie. However, I believe that a movie in a regular format, with full color and more set pieces can allow for exponentially greater emotion. Even with all these bad things, this review would be false if I didn't mention the good scenes. The lighting within the forest was so good I almost saw color(If only there was a better way to show color). The leaves flying into the throne room were unexpected and really enjoyable. It truly shows that Birnam Wood had come to Dunsinane. Because of these few enjoyable scenes, I give this movie a 5.