It is like a sparrow to a goshawk, a hare to a lion. - Shakespeare, Macbeth
Movie parsing
Scotland in the 11th century, like the whole of Dark Ages Europe, was at loggerheads and wars. King Duncan was now engaged in a fierce battle with the rebels, with both sides coming and going, regardless of victory or defeat. The film uses a black and white base in color, and the props also follow the principle of simplicity, which is not so much a story based on "Macbeth" as a remake born of a tribute to drama.
King Duncan & Prince Malcolm in The Tragedy of Macbeth
However, the opening and the rhythm of the play are different, and the film chooses the perspective of soldiers and kings to explain the anxiety and fierceness of the war. This gloomy atmosphere, combined with the sad music characteristic of the play, makes everyone fall into infinite anxiety about the status quo. For King Duncan, and even for the whole of Scotland, this war was decisive. They all understood that if they failed, the chaotic situation would inevitably make Scotland a fish on the knife.
The soldier struggled to describe the battle, and he described two great warriors, Macbeth and Banquo. The two of them will eventually win and become heroes of the country. At this point, the movie turns to the battlefield of Macbeth and Bancoe under the fog, and they meet the witch on the way back, and her clever demeanor makes the two of them wary. The film coincides with the drama here, showing the very different personalities of the two through behavior.
Blessings, Macbeth. Congratulations, Sir Glymis. You will become the future king. And Bancor, you are both smaller and greater than Macbeth, not as happy as he is, but much happier than him. You will not become king, and your children and grandchildren will be kings.
- The Witch
The witch in The Tragedy of Macbeth
Banko regarded witches as evil, and he knew the terrible things about the devil. These evil things will only prophesied the parts you want to know. However, the pros and cons of it, or the cost of coping, they do not say a word, waiting for you to fall into the trap of fraud, betrayal, conspiracy and so on. Macbeth, on the contrary, was full of confusion and curiosity about the witch's claims, and as the prophecy was fulfilled step by step, he began to gradually become greedy and suspicious, and compared with the past, he chose to abandon his good, courageous, and upright character, and was willing to devote himself to the palace built by power and murder.
One of the wonderful features of this film is that it uses simple scenes to match, combined with the rhythm of the drama, to show the audience the process of Macbeth's personality change in its entirety. What's more, if we think about it carefully, the film actually hints at the bloody consequences of betraying our conscience.
Banko & Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth
Knighted, Macbeth gradually began to believe that all the witches' prophecies would come true. But in reality, he's more of a justification for his endless greed. Since he did not become crown prince of Scotland, the resentment in his heart gradually took root, and he wrote to his wife about his victory, rewards, encounters with witches, and so on. This also leads to the most critical character of the film, Mrs. Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth
Come, watch over the evil spirits of mortal thought. Removing my innate weakness, injecting me from head to toe with terrible cruelty, thickening my blood and preventing feelings of remorse from welling up in my heart. Any guilt in my nature cannot shake my fallen purpose, nor does it hinder my success.
—Mrs. Macbeth
Lady Macbeth is the representative of cruelty and treachery. Throughout the play, she pushes Macbeth to seize the throne and consolidate power through assassinations, poisoning, and bribery. The most creepy thing is that she understands all the truths of doing good and doing evil, and understands all the arguments of right and wrong. She knows how to be a principled lady and how to play a vicious and cunning counselor. All the actions she carried out were not confused by interests, but willingly fell to her knees under the evil deeds and became a pawn in the political struggle. This contradiction makes people lament that perhaps Lady Macbeth is also a witch.
He couldn't see the sun of tomorrow. —Mrs. Macbeth
Stills from The Tragedy of Macbeth
The film uses the characteristics of the dramatic monologue to constantly intensify the simple moral contradictions, allowing people to observe the character's swaying heart. The first is Macbeth's opinion: "King Duncan was gracious to me, he rewarded me with land, proclaimed my title, and affirmed my honor." Politically, he did great deeds, the people loved him so much that when I assassinated him, he would not have fallen into hell, but would have gone to heaven. This was followed by Madame's opinion: "My sir, your face is like a book, with many strange things written. If you want to deceive others, you must become what people expect, your eyes, hands, and tongue must show a popular charm everywhere, and you must pose as an innocent flower, but in fact, you are a poisonous snake under the flower. Under such a poetic conspiracy, the king was secretly assassinated, the prince was forced to flee Scotland, and Macbeth eventually ascended the throne.
Prophecy is no longer the driving force of Macbeth's life, but has become a burden to him. If the witch's prophecies are true, then Macbeth will not be able to stay on the throne for long, and his heirs will not be able to continue the royal incense. Not only that, but the heirs of the good comrade-in-arms Bancor will continue the royal bloodline and become the future kings of Scotland. This was unacceptable to Macbeth, and the infinitely inflated egoism led him to believe that the prophecy was true only when it was in his favor, or else he would do everything in his power to destroy this magical constraint. Therefore, he began to plan more terrifying plans to strengthen the king's power and eliminate dissidents.
The first was to assassinate Banko and his son. Macbeth took advantage of the banquet to rebel against two of Banko's men, causing them to set up an ambush and cut the grass and remove the roots. If Banko and his son had both died under the butcher's knife, the witch's prophecy would not have come true. However, perhaps by providence, between the yin and yang, Banko's son escaped, which made Macbeth's face another layer of haze.
The second thing is to kill Macduff. Macbeth meets the witch again and asks for more, and he gets three incantation promises, one of which is to be careful to watch out for Macduff. The second is that no one who has been given life by a woman can hurt Macbeth. The third is that he will only lose if Birnam Wood moves toward him. Macbeth then used McDuff's treason as an excuse to wipe out his castle, but between the yin and yang, Macduff escaped from the clutches of the fierce demon.
The development logic of the story reaches the point of conflict, and the film superimposes characters from different backgrounds, telling their fate one by one. Mrs. Macbeth, because her hands were stained with too much blood, was wrapped in guilt and lust, and eventually suffered from insomnia and died of madness. McDuff joined forces with Prince Malcolm to use the English army to launch a major counterattack on Macbeth. They set the final battle in the Forest of Bunan, inadvertently overlapping Macbeth's line of prophecy.
Macduff in The Tragedy of Macbeth
Although Macbeth has rebelled and is weak, he is still brave and brave after hundreds of battles. In the face of the English generals who came to challenge, Macbeth was like a bamboo, perhaps the magic of the witch was still there, and anyone who was given life by a woman could not hurt him in the end. At the time of the battle, McDuff stepped forward, he was born by a woman's caesarean section, and he was not afraid of the king's prophecy. With a determined sense of vengeance, he fought to the death against the king who was about to reach his limit. The film is cleverly set up at this stage, from the two people's fighting observation, Macduff's skills are not as good as Macbeth's, but he inadvertently flew Macbeth's crown, and as he turned around to pick up the crown, Macduff ended up with his life.
This black tragedy has finally come to an end, and the film's narrative has come to an abrupt end. The plot brings us much more than that, in addition to the wonderful dramatic elements, the existence of the witch also makes us wonder. Maybe they're not doing magic, but luring us to one extreme after another. Macbeth's way of doing things is bound to annihilate him in the long river of history, but in reality, such people are still not in the minority.
Historical circumstances
In real history, there is also the character of Macbeth. However, unlike the sinister and cunning characters in the play, the real Macbeth does not like such conspiracy tricks. The fundamental trigger for his rebellion was his dislike of Duncan I's military strategy, and in this regard, Macbeth, like the characters in the play, hoped to exclude dissidents and thus take over the royal power.
In 1040, Duncan I led an army into the Murray area, and Macbeth engaged him, eventually killing Duncan I. For the next 17 years, the royal flag was held by Macbeth. I don't know if there is a magic power in the Scottish royal family, whether it is the royal relatives who support the self-respect of the army, or the relatives who choose to help each other, they are all obsessed with force after they have taken the throne.
Poor soldiers and corpses are everywhere
Just a few years later, macbeth, wearing a crown, began to expand his military power wildly, and since 1052, Macbeth has continued to clash with the Kingdom of England, but even if he advocates force, the huge gap in national resources has made Scotland lose many battles. The prince Malcolm, who saw the opportunity, took the opportunity to raid Macbeth, killing Macbeth and his successor Lulach in 1057, and eventually returning to the throne.
Macbeth is the representative of Europe in the Dark Ages, not only shakespeare's plays make him known to the world, but this argument of advocating profit, force, and conspiracy is also a wake-up call for future generations. The reason why the dragon slayer eventually becomes a dragon, the tragedy is remembered because when you sublimate and refine its plot, no matter how people change, they cannot escape the reality of the drama's irony. It is like the witch in "Macbeth", giving people endless hints, if they are detached and looming, telling people that under the inducement of corruption, "integrity" is only a flash in the pan, and "interests" are menstruating.
No matter how long the darkness is, the day will come. - "Macbeth"