The Coen Brothers' filmography is laden with stories of people unknowingly plotting their own downfalls, so it's perhaps fitting that Joel Coen's debut as a solo director is a retelling of the Scottish Play, a work renowned for its portrait of a man in self-inflicted moral freefall. And yet the thrill of The Tragedy of Macbeth lies not in how the story is told, but in how it's specifically adapted for the screen. If you're the kind of person that values faithfulness in your literary adaptations more than anything else, then I think The Tragedy of Macbeth could be the film for you. Coen obviously isn't the first director to take this story on (see also: Welles, Polanski, Kurtzel and my personal favourite, Kurosawa), but he's arguably the one who has stuck the closest to the source text to date, providing the most straightforward cinematic take on the play.... possibly ever?
For example, the dialogue here is nearly exactly how it appears on the page, a decision that will undoubtedly take a little getting used to for some, but the film keeps the context clear enough that the lack of any real translation doesn't really matter. This isn't a film that's interested in diluting its source text just to draw a wider audience, and Coen makes sure that he's doing it justice straight from the start. The film won't meet you halfway if you're not already familiar with Shakespeare, but that also means that it bears massive rewards for anyone willing to put the work in. If you engage with this film fully and meet it on its terms, then it presents you with the purest and most honest understanding of the story of Macbeth possible, perfectly preserving each of the story's rich themes, and it's worth the price of admission for that purity alone
Although if I had to criticise the film's approach to its text on anything, it's that maybe it's a little too straightforward of an adaptation, and what I mean by that is that the film's narrative doesn't do anything new or different with the source. It's your meat-and-potatoes Shakespeare adaptation, at least in terms of the dialogue, characterization and larger context. To be fair, it's not trying to revinvent the wheel, but fans of Coen's previous work with his brother may be disappointed with how wholly the filmmaker immerses himself in the source text, totally shedding his own narrative voice in the pursuit of authenticity. Still, it's worth it in the end, because it really takes an artist of Coen's caliber to understand how best to adapt such a weighty, thematically charged text, and again, the aim here was to bring Macbeth to the screen as faithfully as possible, and I think it succeeds at that for the most part
The film doesn't mess around with the source text too much, but I didn't say it doesn't bring anything new to the table. Because it's adapting the story to a purely visual medium, the film takes full advantage of the conventions of screen storytelling to create the most eye-watering images in recent memory. Drawing heavily from German expressionism and silent cinema-especially silent horror- the film knows that the strength of an adaptation lies in its ability to, well, adapt itself to its new medium, and to that end, it's a massive success. Coen and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel are masters of their respective forms, consistently topping themselves in terms of how inventive and expressive each of the images are, and the monochromatic presentation lends a sort of irony to the story's moral focus by literally painting Macbeth's descent in black and white. For as faithful as the dialogue is, the film knows that the real advantage of cinema is the ability to communicate through imagery rather than straight text, and that's where this adaptation shows real wisdom, letting the words speak for themselves, and making more room to craft some eerie, thematically loaded tableaux that gives The Tragedy of Macbeth a uniquely cinematic edge
Of course, any production of Macbeth lives and dies on the strength of its Thane of Glamis, and it's here where Coen comes out swinging by casting Denzel Washington as the doomed nobleman. He's no stranger to playing men isolated by their violent tendencies, and so he feels right at home in bringing Macbeth's corruption to life. Washington's trademark intensity really lends a lot of weight to Macbeth's cowardice and underhandedness, and he perfectly matches the straight-faced faithfulness of Coen's script. It's the exact kind of dedication to the craft that you'd expect from such an accomplished thespian taking on a well-established role, and it makes for a thrilling contrast with Frances McDormand's take on Lady Macbeth. Where Denzel honours the fundamentals, McDormand demonstrates such an intricate knowledge of her craft that she can knowingly and playfully subvert the role completely, totally laying bare every beat of the character's arc from the start in a way that almost feels like she's playing every scene with her ultimate fate in mind
The rest of the cast are excellent too, although special mention to Kathryn Hunter and Stephen Root, both of whom demonstrate what I really enjoyed about this adaptation's interpretation of its supporting players. Root imbues his one-scene wonder with enough film-stealing comedy to remind the audience why he's one of the best character-actors in the game, while Hunter is undoubtedly the film's MVP as the weird sisters, underscoring their otherworldliness with unnerving acts of contortionism and a real physicality that again sees the film demonstrate real confidence in its visual language
The Tragedy of Macbeth is totally committed to bringing the play to the screen in the most faithful way possible, but constantly finds new ways to make the story resonate purely by putting in onscreen. Coen and his ensemble give the words of the Bard enough space and authenticity to work their magic while frequently showcasing their own skillsets as well, and the result is reliably excellent work all round. So reliably excellent in fact that I'm going to go ahead and give The Tragedy of Macbeth an 8/10
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