A Comparison of Roman Polanski's film version of Macbeth and the BBC Shakespeare production by Shaun Sutton

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Macbeth

Macbeth is a tragedy set in Scotland. There are themes of supernatural powers, betrayal, murder and self-destruction in this play. It shows how Macbeth kills to become king and how Lady Macbeth's passion and thrust for power drives him. In this assignment I intend to compare and contrast Roman Polanski's film version and the BBC Shakespeare production by Shaun Sutton.

The Sutton production opens with a prominent red sky and then this quickly turns into a dull grey darkness. Roll of thunder overhead is raging. The witches are wearing old rages. It is overlooking what appears to be an ancient burial ground where tombstones are visible only as silhouettes. This is symbolic of the bloodshed that is about to come later in the play. The witches are sitting around a large stone, which looks like they are about to make a sacrifice. The witches are chanting in a menacing language and they are speaking in riddles. There is a constant drone of eerie music that adds the feeling of uneasiness, which is also reflected in their words and actions as they speak in time unison. The witches say, "Come graymalkin" as they look to the sky and this seems to represent the calling of some evil spirit. Sorcery is displayed when the three witches start joining hands that creates a very powerful image in the opening scene.
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The film version completely turns the story upside down. The viewer's expectations of the opening scene are upset because it is different than the BBC production. The scene is set on a beach (which is usually associated with joy) and now it has more of a sinister look. The pale colours make the red more striking. Red is visible in the sunset and in the blood (and in one of the witches cheeks) red is symbolic of passions, which result in bloodshed.

The witches are not typical or traditional and they are very modern, and they ...

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