 Lowest Price: $11.12 
Product Description: PLOT SUMMARY:
In fog-dripping, barren and sometimes macabre settings, 11th-century Scottish nobleman Macbeth is led by an evil prophecy and his ruthless yet desirable wife to the treasonous act that makes him king. But he does not enjoy his newfound, dearly-won kingship... Restructured, but all the dialogue is Shakespeare's. [IMDB - Rod Crawford]
++++ DVD FEATURES: This officially licensed release from South Korea is the ORIGINAL, fully restored version (which returns the 20 minutes previously cut by the studio), in black & white, 4:3 full screen, Dolby Digital Sound in ENGLISH with optional Korean subtitles. NOTE: According to the manufacturer, there is a a misprint on the package: Orson Welles' "Ghost Story: Return To Glennascaul" is listed on the back, but it is NOT included on the DVD. Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-03-21
Korea DVD Imports RULE! So does this "Ed Wood Meets Wagner" Macbeth
Any Wells lover who may be wondering whether this is a gray market washout and worth avoiding in favor of some Criterion future thing or other, relax and trust in the power of Korea to do a good job. The subtitles are removeable and the soundtrack is the original and amazingly clear. I had the old Republic VHS tape and it was rough going understanding around 30% of what was said, but I could hear every luscious shakespearean syllable this time around, and the picture is mighty fine, not Criterion level, but maybe old Criterion level, or old Kino level, and even better than some of the big studio's more lazily transferred film noirs, like BODY AND SOUL or SUDDEN FEAR. In short, dear Welles fan, pounce!
And if you've never seen it, Welles MacBeth is like a crazy 1930s German Expressionist bad acid trip, with Welles in florid ham actor mode, his Irish brogue soaring like a hawk. If you love cinema though, you will love crazy Welles drunken sweaty rampaging through his cheap papier mache caverns with his weird statue of liberty crown way more than you could ever love similar more "perfect" adaptations like say, Olivier's HAMLET which came out that same year. That film is amazing, but Olivier is just too graceful, too perfect and measured and his horrible blonde bangs. Let's put it this way, Olivier's film is much better, but Welles' is greater. Olivier is the piano prodigy who plays for the old ladies and gets all the grant money; Welles is the rebel down at the jazz joint, tearing it up in a threadbare tux with a wailin' bebop trio. Who would you rather hang out with, even if you didn't know where your next meal was coming from? Rating:
Date: 2008-01-20
Orson Welles Fan Who wasn't Disappointed
This movie is beautifully restored visually and has a fairly good reconstruction of the audio track. A shining counterpoint to the awful vinegar washed copies of "Mr Arkadin" and "The Stranger" you see available from various hack-restoration companies. This edition is a "Director's Cut" that brings the movie back from the mutilation at the hands of Republic Pictures. Its an important piece for people who appreciate the work of Welles, like myself. Welles always liked doing Shakespeare and other classic novels. Some of his unfinished or rejected ideas included "Moby Dick", the "Merchant of Venice" and "Heart of Darkness". Ironically, 35 or so years after Welles's idea to make "Heart of Darkness" into a movie was rejected, it was made into a movie, the classic "Apocalypse Now". Much of what he accomplished was far, far ahead of its time...or perhaps far, far behind the times. Either way, this cut of MacBeth shows the fecundity of Welles vision and not the slashed and burnt profligacy that was attributed to him in his lifetime. For Roddy McDowell fans, you get a glimpse of him years before "Planet of the Apes".
Drawback: No English Subtitles, only Korean ones. I guess its not a drawback if you read Korean well enough. I don't, so...
Rating: 
Date: 2008-01-09
A rather free adaptation of the tale of the Thane
Despite the claim in another review here this very free adaptation of the Tragedy of MacBeth is not at all faithful to the Bard of Avon, including the introduction of a new main character, featured for his great face and braids. In fact it leaves out several scenes and condenses many others. As MacBeth walks out to his death, we finally see Lady MacBeth wringing her hands. Nevertheless, there is much that is indeed recommendable, including the interpretations by the mainly excellent actors (MacBeth and Lady). MacDuff simply posed like a California beach boy.
The major difficulty with this production and the studios lay in their cutting out twenty minutes and erasing the Scottish accents. You will find the listing of a dialogue director her, apparently for the accent alone. I find the application of the accent rather inconsisten, with Welles at times speaking Scot and at other times MidWesterner. Perhaps the dialogue was not fully restored in this presentation.
One thing to note about this adaptation: it really gets pretty boring about a third of the way through, mainly due to the adaptation and unfaithfulness to the bard and showing us things like horsemen in the distance and bad acting. Up to that point we feel very much and very strongly an influence much later on Kurasawa's excellent and powerful and moving adaptation Throne of Blood - Criterion Collection. In fact many of the images, including the warriors and witches, appear directly reflected in that later film. Then Welles goes south and I go to sleep. We have yet to find an excellent and true production of MacBeth for film. Even Macbeth / McKellen, Dench (Thames Shakespeare Collection) falls short and from the beginning does not ring true. Welle's opening is on the other hand spectacular and true.
One interesting point upon which Welles makes us dwell is the execution of the fist Thane of Cawdor. MacBeth at first protests that Cawdor is a fine and honorable gentleman. The others say he confessed under torture. Knowing as we now do of the unreliablility of forced confessions, in which anyone will admit to anything at all just to ease the pain if only for one moment, perhaps MacBEth's madness began at that point: knowing that Cawdor is innocent yet forced to confess to what he did not do and thus put to death. For this insight alone we owe much to WElles.
One further point: the back of the box indicates a return to Welles's ghost story with Peter Bogdonavitch but I could not find it. Rating:
Date: 2007-11-02
A Classic for the Ages
I've seen other versions of MacBeth. They pale in comparison to this Orsen Welles classic that, thankfully, has been restored! Rating:
Date: 2007-09-19
Look Ma, Orson Moons Shakespeare!
Following the attack on Citizen Kane and other attempts to undermine him, Orson Welles decided he needed to prove something, ie. that he could make a film quickly and within budget. So he took his troupe over to Republic Studios -- famous for grade B westerns & serials -- and knocked this off cheaply in record time. He and his pals could probably do this classic crowd pleaser in their sleep, so it was no big deal.
The film is totally faithful to Shakespeare, has some characteristic Wellseian photographic effects, shrewdly uses black and white and is generally competent. It is tightly made and directed. Your high school students will get a sound grounding in the play with this movie. But come on, who wants Orson being a good schoolboy? His real successes with Shakespeare were when he took big chances and stuck close to his quirky, volatile genius, threw safety to the winds, as in the later Chimes at Midnight and Othello.
Nor is this Orson's finest hour as an actor. He plays Macbeth as a wacked out nutcase, somewhat distracted, with no dormant heroism whatsoever -- which is to ignore the real fulcrum which makes this mature Shakespeare play troubling, not just the murderousness and gore. Jeanette Nolan's Lady Macbeth here is a fine performance but too ladylike, and she dominates her husband rather than seduces him. Oh, the murder of Macduff's family is quite astonishing and touching -- a heart of a great idea that Orson didn't finish here, so he could turn his paper in on time and get his star from teacher.
True confessions time -- I have seen this film many times since college and will see it again. Both Orson & Shakespeare always teach you something, even at their worst, and this is hardly Orson's worst and one of Shakespeare's greatest, so great it is hard to seriously damage, short of malicious intent. Sometimes I just get a kick out of Orson's obsession with German expressionism, and the sheer goofiness of his performance here. The film is, finally, weirdly comic. I am glad it has been restored, as it deserves to be, but suspect the future will treasure it more as historical artifact than as art. 3.3 stars. |
