Polanksi’s Interpretation of Macbeth

The director Roman Polanski used some cinematic techniques to show his interpretation of the Shakespearean play Macbeth. Despite being an unquestionably dark play, the tone of Polanski's version of Macbeth is certainly influenced by his personal life as it focuses on the pessimistic and violent elements of the play. Nonetheless, he uses creative visual effects to highlight important themes of the play.

Macbeth was the first film that Polanski produced after the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by Manson and his team. This incident definitely effected the production of the film as it emphasizes on graphic violence and bloodshed. Although Macbeth is originally a dark, violent play, most of the goriness takes place off-stage. To illustrate, when the murder of Duncan occurs in Act 2 Scene 1, in Polanksi’s film, the camera focuses on the remarkably bloody/gory murder of Duncan with details. Where Duncan wakes up, and Macbeth cuts his throat after stabbing him continually. However, this have been done off-stage in the original play by Shakespeare. In addition, the murder of Macduff's wife and children in Polanksi’s film is nonsensically brutal, which acts as an obvious reference to the Manson murders. The way I see it, using such graphical violence weakened the complexity and ambiguity of Shakespeare's original text.

Furthermore, the ending of Polanksi's film is significantly different from Shakespeare's play. Although the last scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth is not a happily-ever-after and rather tragic, Polanski offers an extremely depressing and a nihilistic ending. In which Donalbain, Malcolm's brother, is shown on his way to consult the Witches. This suggests that Donalbain will follow Macbeth's footsteps. Donalbain may kill King Malcolm in a similar way to Macbeth's murder of King Duncan. Therefore, the desire for fortune and power continues; the cycle will never end. This presents a pessimistic view of the world, which relates to Polanksi’s nihilist beliefs.

Despite the extremely pessimistic and violent approach, this does not deny Polanski's successful use of a creativity in the film. The symbol of "blood" occurs many times in Shakespeare's play. "Here's the smell of the blood still! / All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." (5.1.45).
Polanski’s uses his interpretation in the form of visual effects to emphasize Shakespeare's "blood" theme. One main symbol is the crown which after murdering Duncan, falls to the ground while layered with blood. This image signifies the fall of the king by evil methods. This also reappears in the ending scene as Macbeth is killed. In addition, the rotation of the crown indicates the turning of time, of a cycle. Moreover, the close up shots taken in the murder scene drew my attention on to the astonished and frightful facial expressions of King Duncan. In this scene, a long camera shot was used at a low angle of the murderous setting which makes the entire scene more prominent.

All in all, Roman Polanski's adaptation of Macbeth displays a pessimistic and violent version of Shakespeare’s original play. Despite this, the film was an interpretive success in terms of creativity as it used symbolism to engage its spectator's attentions.