Vee's+Macbeth+Final+Draft!!

__**Macbeth Final Draft::**__

//Macbeth// was a tragic play written by one of the greatest British poets and playwrights of all time, Shakespeare. The story of //Macbeth// is believed to have been written around the year 1603 to 1607. It was the shortest play that Shakespeare ever wrote during the time when King James I was in power. During that time, people who worked on stage lacked the technology and knowledge to make special effects. Therefore, actors played a very important role to deliver the message and feeling to the audience. The speeches tended to be much longer and complicated compared to the present day. The content of the story itself involves a lot of blood and violence, tragedy, and conflict.

In my opinion, Macbeth is a very psychological and complex play. For example when Lady Macbeth mentions, "Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?--Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him." This quote displays her guilt and how dirty she feels about herself. It was quite surprising for me how Shakespeare could wrote something so complicated and abstract even in his time, when psychology and the understanding of the human mind were rarely understandable to people.

There is a huge difference between the modern film productions and the original version of Macbeth. The remade versions are more understandable because of the special effects that people were incapable of doing back in Shakespeare time. Back then, the stage didn’t have many functions to make special effect such as lighting, night time/ day time, blood, and so on. Actors has to describe not only their feeling but also the surroundings and environment that they were in. Unlike today, where directors can include many graphics and special effect into the movies. However, each of the filmed versions of Macbeth was different from each other as well.

The 1970 //Macbeth// movie version used the exact same dialogue from the original play. However, the movie was able to show some things that a play can not, such as characters emotion and the scene where Macbeth killed King Duncan. The first scene was also outstanding as well as how the movie display the wickedness of the three witches. This movie was able to make people with no knowledge of Macbeth understand such a complicated play while keeping the original message that the writer wanted to deliver. Although the movie was not entertaining it can be use for educational purpose and I believe this would be more effective to the students than to let them read the original texts.

The Japanese remake version of //Macbeth// was far different from the original play. Despite the fact that the story line was kept the same, the director made many changes in the movie to suit the Japanese culture. One of the major different that can be spot is the change in Lady Macbeth's characteristic. She appear to be more respectful to her husband than the European version while her husband was shown to be very aggressive all the time. The ending was very unexpected when Macbeth's troops turn against him.

I think the 1970 version can best represent the spirit of //Macbeth// and would be good for educational use. I personally like the Japanese version of //Macbeth// despite the fact that it was very long. I like the differences between culture and how the story telling are kind of different, as well as characters behavior. While the 2006 version was not quite impressive, despite the fact that it uses quotes from the original Macbeth. I found these two movies to be quite similar in both story line and the personality of the characters. I also found it to be quite ironic as the same time because Macbeth is supposed to be a knight who is the symbol of honesty and bravery while the 2006 version, Macbeth became a mafia gangster, which is a symbol of trustworthiness and sly character.

In conclusion, the best film version of //Macbeth// in my opinion is the 1970 version, because this film is able to bring the stage play into something close to reality. I like how this film contain all of the original speeches which were long and unappealing and convert it into something that people now a day can understand and learn from it. I personally like the Japanese version of //Macbeth// because it show changes in characters and culture. I like the creativity that the Japanese version of //Macbeth// or otherwise know as the //Throne of Blood// made in their movie like how the ending was changed.

_--- __//**Sources:**//__ - //Throne of Blood.// **Akira Kurosawa.** **Perf Toshirō Mifune and Isuzu Yamada. Asakazu Nakai, 1957. Film** //- The Tragedy of Macbeth.// Dir. Roman Polanski. Perf. John Finch and Francesca Annis. Columbia Pictures, 1971. Film. - //Macbeth. // Dir. Geoffrey Wright. Perf. Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill, and Lachy Hulme. Arclight Films, 2006. Film.