Orson Welles 'Adaptation Of The Movie Macbeth'

Orson Welles' version of “Macbeth” was his first attempt of creating a cinematic adaptation of a Shakespearean play and it turned out to be a very expressionist and visually creative version. The movie was produced quickly and cheaply and the play is set within a wasteland, surrounded by nothing but stones and fog, where we can only see the features of the play's characters, who shout their tormented speeches while being soaked into hell, which awaits them for their evil deeds. Welles stays close to the original script of “Macbeth”, with only minor shifts of words and characters. He seems to put emphasis on the religious subtext of the plot, but nevertheless he remains true to the original language and story: Macbeth (played by Welles himself) decides to murder king Duncan (Erskine Sanford), because of the prophecy the three witches gave him, and is further encouraged by his wife, Lady Macbeth (Jeanette Nolan). After receiving the crown and becoming the new king of Scotland, Macbeth is driven by madness and paranoia and becomes more and more desperate in defending his title, which causes him to commit more evil deeds. The …show more content…
Again, the major element in this scene is the great amount of brutality and violence. This element does not only represent the context in which the movie is set, but also what Polanski’s adaptation was presumably based on. Before producing “Macbeth”, Polanski had been personally effected by a terrible tragedy. His pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, had been brutally murdered by members of the “Manson Family” - a group of people who followed Charles Manson. The constant depiction of violence and brutality in “Macbeth” can be seen as a possible link to his wife's death. Polanski’s version is probably one of the most violent versions of “Macbeth”, since the murders are especially emphasized, like the killing of MacDuff's family, which was particularly