Welles' film is in black and white and it opens with an establishing shot of the dark clouds in the sky, looking threatening above the mist. They seem to be up on a heath, thus sticking to the original play. As we are watching this, music comes on, music, which is not out of tune, but it is eerily played, and it adds to the effect that something is wrong. And that the “Natural order” will be broken.
In the next shot the witches appear to be upon the heath, and this suggests that they are above all normal beings, and that they have power over them to a certain extent.
The witches faces are always concealed, and thus it is hard to see if they are in comparison to the description Banquo gave them in the original play. In the play, Banquo later describes them as 'withered and wild in their attire' and this is how they appear now, doing something secretive.
This is followed by a close-up shot of inside the cauldron that fills the screen - a viscous, boiling mess. The words of the spell are a voice-over, but you don't tend to register the strict sense of what they are saying, only the frenetic, rhythmic chant which is building up to something.
All of a sudden a strike of darkness is hit, as wind blows and the mist moves. At this stage, we still cannot tell the witches apart, and their very voices sound the same. They are brewing something in the cauldron, much like they are brewing a plan in real life for Macbeth.
Then there is the climax to the sequence of shots. The hands are shaping a clay effigy - it's almost like a baby being born. But this is no normal baby - the hands are covered with slime and it gives out squeaks. This is something evil. All is explained by the loud, final words of dialogue, the climax of the spell. 'There to meet with Macbeth!' It all becomes clear. Macbeth is the witches' evil creation - he's the one they're after
Polanski’s version opens with a long shot of the sky and the beach at dawn. All is quiet and still as the shot is held. You notice that the sky is red - a warning sign of danger, but it's a very beautiful image. The sky then gradually turns to a blue-grey, and far more foreboding colour. The red bleeds out and disappears. This is not going to be a bright day bathed in sunlight – Macbeth isn’t a bright and cheerful story. The fact that it is on a beach tells you that it could be any year, as there are no other buildings around to view. Nothing else is happening so you notice this, and what Polanski is doing is drawing your attention to how he will use colour in the film. It's a measured, low-key start. The scene is upon a beach, and, like the original play, not upon a heath.
Into the seen appears a horrid, withered hand, and it draws a circle in the sand, a place where they are to dig. But circles have a deeper meaning than to mark out where to dig. Circles represent life, and it never ends.
The shot is held, a cough is heard and a stick gradually appears in the bottom left foreground. An animal-like hand covered in fur is guiding it, as a circle is drawn in the sand. Hands scoop out the earth and dig down. As with Welles' version of the scene, our interest is aroused and we want to know what's happening. There's a cut to a shot of a seagull circling the sky, sending out sounds of desolation.
At this point, the “Women” begin to put things into the hole, which they have just dug. A severed hand and forearm is buried, and this represents a number of things- we associate hands with many different kinds of experiences. We "walk hand-in-hand," are "caught red-handed," "give a helping hand," have a "hand on the throttle," fear someone's "heavy hand," and say that "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing." In Macbeth all of these senses of the word "hand" come into play, and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both have scenes in which they are transfixed by the sight of blood on their hands. The mention of hands appears a number of times throughout the original play. Just before they appear to Macbeth the witches dance and sing, . "Posters" are those who travel rapidly. The witches, as they hold hands, are celebrating their own powers.
The first time we see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth together, she advises him to . Lady Macbeth's advice to "look like the time" means "act appropriately to the occasion." King Duncan is about to arrive at their castle, which is an honor to them, and Macbeth should offer his hand in fellowship before he kills him.
After the hand comes the dagger, this gives the idea of ambition, and a signal that daggers are going to be important later in the story. But at this stage it creates mystery, and intrigues the audience.
Maggots are the poured in, and this is to represent that Macbeth is going to fester away at himself, which will lead to his eventual downfall and death.
A phial of blood is thrown on the buried things, and its vivid redness takes us back to the opening shot. In the second scene of the play, the report of Macbeth's heroic victory is delivered by a "bloody man." Thereafter, we see and hear of much more blood.
The words fair is foul and foul is fair is said by the witches, and the eldest witch is asked where shall they met again, and she said “When the hurly burly’s done,when the battles lost and won, there to meet with,Macbeth”
The witches spit on the sand. The dialogue is spoken low-key, very quietly - these witches are in control and self-assured. As in the Welles film Shakespeare's words are re-ordered, and they finish on the name Macbeth, so right from the start you know whom the story is going to be about. The witches walk off slowly into the mist and soft, eerie music starts, not dissimilar to the music used by Welles.
The witches head off in different directions, the oldest and youngest together, and the middle one possibly goes off to deal with the sailor’s wife.
Although both films use Shakespeare's Act One scene 1 as a starting point, the approaches are completely different. Welles hits the audience very quickly, while Polanski is more low-key and subtle. There's more concrete detail in the Polanski film that we can respond to in a variety of ways, while you know what effects Welles is aiming for in his version.
I don’t think that if the witches had’ve stuck directly to the text it would have been more interesting. Their alteration makes the play more interesting, and that is a good touch.
Both these opening acts give you a thirst for more of the film, and they are an excellent way to start Macbeth off.