To give everyone a sense for their own movie productions that are currently in the works, over the next few classes, we will be watching various adaptations of the play
Macbeth. I'm hoping that not only will they prove inspirational, but that you will notice that each version that has been made is varying in style, setting, and content. The following are the versions that we will see bits of.
Famed Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, created a Japanese production of
Macbeth in 1957, but was hardly ever going to have it take place in Scotland. Instead, he had the setting of the play in feudal Japan, calling it
Throne of Blood. The plot is the same, but the setting makes the movie more understandable and accessible for a Japanese audience. Also, for the media portion of the assignment, note that for this poster, there is numerous scenes depicted. My suggestion is that you could consider doing something like this, but only if you have the time.
More recently, in 1990, the play was converted into a Chicago mafia movie entitled
Men of Respect. By taking Shakespeare's play and adding the bonus of the ever-popular mafia genre, audiences in North America were able to sink into the plot of
Macbeth without having to be put-off by Shakespeare's language. The poster here is very traditional in its style - main characters standing out, the title of the movie and a tag-line.
In 2001, the movie
Scotland, PA was introduced, where the action is moved to 1970s Pennsylvania and revolves around Joe Macbeth and his wife Pat taking control of a hamburger cafe from Norm Duncan. This is a real clever re-imagining of the play set in a banal form of life. Notice the simplicity yet effectiveness of the poster - the bloody spatula really emphasizes the tone and topic of the movie.
Finally, in 2004, Indian director Vishal Bharadwaj directed his own adaptation to
Macbeth, titled
Maqbool, which is set in the contemporary Mumbai underworld and is faithful to the plot and much of the dialogue, but has the traditions and concepts of a Bollywood movie. The poster is in the same style as that of
Men of Respect.
So you see - l
ike every director, you are only bound by the limits of your imagination.
We will discuss each version of the movie in more detail in class. You can look at the movies further if you so wish at IMDB
Enjoy!
