It’s been a common theme with a lot of the later Coen films that I don’t have much to write about them. They are all fine, and I like them, but I don’t know what to say. They developed such a unique film language that by the time you get to something like Hail, Caesar!, it’s par for the course. But par for the Coens is a double bogey for most filmmakers (if you’ll excuse my baffling golf metaphor). And when excellence becomes expected and standard, what else is there to say or do? If you're the Coens, it might mean it’s time to split up.
“Split up” sounds like a relationship ending, but from what I’ve read that is not the case. Ethan felt burnt out after Scruggs (take all this with the biggest grain of salt you can find because I have not done any actual research about this, and I’m just trusting that the dudes on the Blank Check podcast had good research when they said all this stuff I’m using), and he simply wanted a break. Joel didn’t. (I’ll get into the Ethan side of things when I cover his two solo efforts at some point, hopefully soon, but no promises.) Apparently, if there was anything goofy or fun in their filmography, it was from Ethan, because Joel decided to make a pitch black (and white) adaptation of MacBeth.
When this project was first announced, I was very excited. As a former teacher, teaching MacBeth was one of the highlights of my year (yes, I know how sad that sounds). I always enjoyed showing my students the most unique adaptations of Shakespeare’s work (like Mean Girls for Julius Caesar or the Ethan Hawke Hamlet, etc.). So I assumed Joel Coen would make something more like Scotland, PA (my favorite adaptation of the play), and less like the Orson Welles version. Imagine my surprise when the first trailer was released, and it looked like a straight up remake of the Welles adaptation.
This is a bare bones, stark, bleak, brutal take on the play. Aside from casting Kathryn Hunter as all of the witches, this is about as traditional as you can get. Which is fine, by the way. If I was still teaching (I took a factory job ten years ago because the low pay finally got to me), this would replace the Welles version my students slept through immediately (I would have loved to use Scotland, PA but it was way too R-rated for a school viewing, even with seniors). But I couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed. O Brother is the Coen version of The Odyssey, but this is what we get for MacBeth?
Once I get past that self-imposed hurdle, it’s easy to like this film. Washington is great, and the supporting cast is great. McDormand is okay as Lady MacBeth, and I did like the portrayal of the MacBeths as an older couple, as it accentuates the pointlessness of it all since they have no heirs, or possible future heirs, to inherit their ill-gotten gains.
MacBeth is one of Shakespeare’s darkest, most miserable plays, and the stark style that Welles and Coen used is apt. Scotland in this film feels like a post-apocalyptic hellscape. It adds to the theme of the film: what does it mean to be king when this is your kingdom? This obsession for power that only took the slightest bit of suggestion from the witches is so blindingly stupid it’s hard to believe anyone would be this evil for it. Adaptations like this make you long for a prequel. What was MacBeth like before the witches planted the idea of being king in his head? Was he normal? Happy? It’s clear he was trusted, but someone who can turn on a dime like that and become viciously evil must be giving off weird vibes throughout their life.
This is my problem with the play, in general. MacBeth has to be this stupid shell of a man who only goes down this evil path because of witches and his wife’s ambitions. It almost seems like no decisions are actually made by him because everything he does is either at the urging of someone else or because a prophecy claims it will happen. Being an evil pawn in life breaks MacBeth mentally (“full of scorpions” and all..). Once you accept that you are simply an instrument of the world, then evil is just a side effect of your actions.
MacBeth is one of those annoying people who thinks the world is conspiring against them. He’s a fucking loser that cannot take responsibility for anything. Don’t get me wrong, luck plays a big factor in life, and a lot of people end up with shitty lives through no fault of their own. But when you start actively doing terrible shit and turn around and blame the world for it, then you can go fuck yourself. MacBeth might be the character I hate the most in Shakespeare’s canon, and that’s saying something because he wrote about plenty of scumbags.
None of this has much to do with this particular movie, though, aside from doing a great job of exposing the annoying evil of MacBeth. In that regard, The Tragedy of MacBeth is a success. And stylistically it’s beautiful. But it’s not a film I enjoy, exactly. It is a film that is great for sparking thoughts about the source material, however. So a great movie to show a classroom of kids that will inevitably be disappointed by the black and white choice.
This is all fine, but when it comes to Coens, single or together, I expect something special. Because of that, this adaptation doesn’t rate very high for me in their filmography. But that is a testament to their greatness. An adaptation like this would be a decent achievement for most directors. For Joel Coen, it’s an already mostly forgotten oddity. Here’s hoping Jack of Spades, the upcoming Joel movie I know almost nothing about, is a more unique film. I’ll settle for something just great, though.
