Essay Example on Macbeth Film Review Assignment

As I was watching Polanski s versions of Macbeth there were many things that Polanski did in his version that enhanced the overall experience that the original play did not The costume designs in the movie really added to the medieval feel of the era Macbeth was set in In the beginning of the film Macbeth s armour was dull and simple and was fully coated in cheap chainmail armour that every soldier was wearing but at the end of the movie when Macbeth is fighting young Siward he is wearing fully plated silver armour It shows how Macbeth has progressed during the story from him simply being a soldier undeserving of fancy armour to Macbeth being king with full silver plated armor thinking that he can not be defeated The armours that Macbeth wears shows his progressiveness of his arrogance Polanski directed the play in a way that enhances the original play and gives off a smoother transition between acts and scenes Polanski was not afraid to implement changes to the original Macbeth script from Shakespeare as he saw fit One example is the rearranged order of scenes in the play of the siege of Dunsinane castle where instead of Malcolm explaining the plan to cut down the Birnam wood forest beforehand 

The castle is first shown to be a bright castle with bright colours and toys as decorations on the self and this produces the image of innocents and peace within the audience However after Macbeth’s men assaults Macduff's family the atmosphere changes within the castle where the bright colours are replaced with dark lighting and the once peaceful castle is set ablaze on fire creating a eerie and frightful feeling within the audience This demonstrates how the film s location can give enhance viewers experience The editing in this movie was surprising good considering the date that this movie came out in 1971 An example of this is when the dagger appear in front of Macbeth and guides him toward Duncan The dagger disappears and reappears as Macbeth tries to grab onto it indicating that the dagger is not real but an illusion that Macbeth sees While this was not described in the original script the added effect of the dagger disappearing and reappearing gives off a supernatural effect to the audience to keep the audience thinking of what was cause the ghostly dagger of either Macbeth hallucinating it or some magic from the witches were involved Another example of effective editing is when Macbeth visits the witches for the second time and they show Macbeth the second set of prophecies 

The many different effects used when showing the prophecies is comparable to someone taking drugs since it visually explains what the witches are prophesying with many frames of the cauldron bubbling and the timelapse of the suit of armour all with a saturated filter to create a layer of supernaturalism and creepiness The soundtrack of the movie creates and enhances the mood of the scenes One example in the movie was when Macbeth was hallucinating the dagger a high pitched bell sound was produced The high pitched sound during the scene creates the feeling of supernatural and ghostly vibes since everytime Macbeth tried to grab the ghostly sword the sound would play implying that the sword that Macbeth was trying to grab was not real and he was hallucinating it Another example is when Macbeth was stabbing Duncan there were loud instrumentals were playing really fast emphasizing that a critical moment had happened Duncan trying everything he can to escape fits well with the chaotic sounds of the instruments because of the chaos and struggle Duncan is trying to survive but inevitably the music stops when Duncan dies In conclusion Polanski's version of Macbeth was really enjoyable in the terms of creating the right moods and feelings in the difference scenes and it is a good adaptation for the date that it came out