‘The Tragedy of Macbeth Review’: Joel Coen Combines Elements of Stage and Screen To Create A Masterful Film
Historian and politician John Dalberg Acton is quoted saying, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Is it possible he was reading William Shakespeare’s 1606 play Macbeth when he thought of this? Macbeth has always been a story about power, and corruption of the spirit. How greed could turn two seemingly good people in sociopaths. Was it dormant within them? Or was it an opportunity that sent Lord and Lady Macbeth the two into a power-obsessed frenzy? Director Joel Coen explores the consequences of war, and loss through a fantastical, almost surrealist-like lens, and executes Shakespeare’s work in a way that gains inspiration from other adaptations of the play, while creating a version that is all his own.