If I were to trying to get someone interested in Shakespeare, it would be Roman Polansiki's version of Macbeth that I would use. Not just because of the violence, but because Polanski stepped away from the stage and brought us a unique interpretation, staying true to the original. The language is there, spit out with the precision we are used to. Lady Macbeth is no harridan, as she is often shown to be, but an attractive redhead with ambitions beyond those of her husband's. Peter Finch works his role well until he is in over his head and sleep is gone. If one is conversant with the play, the ending has some unique interpretation involving the witches (what great witches; the apotheosis of ugliness and wickedness and double-talk). I won't spoil that ending. The drama plays out. The battle scenes are much more violent than we are used to. They should be. People are trying to kill each other. This takes every effort the body can muster, or your head will be stuck on that pole rather than your adversary. I first saw this in grad school and we had a superb discussion in my Shakespeare II class. This is the shortest of Shakespeare's plays and so it fits well within the time frame of a conventional movie and so the play needs almost no cutting. I wanted the "Tomorrow and tomorrow" speech to be done a little more dramatically after the death of Lady Macbeth, but it's OK. Be sure to see this film if you can. You won't be disappointed.

To say that this adaptation is a bit of a bloodbath is a bit of an understatement, but you cannot deny that this film from Roman Polanski is quite possibly the definitive film version of Shakespeare's play, which is very complicated to even contemplate transcribing to screen. The cinematography is excellent, as is the script. It is true that there are a lot of disturbing scenes, chiefly Lady Macbeth's nude sleepwalker scene and King Duncan's death. Roman Polanski should be commended for how much he managed to get into the film, and he somehow made it all effective. Any scene with the three witches, the murder of Macduff's family, plus the part when Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost was very well done.(I saw an amateur production of this, and not only was it disappointing, but that particular scene was the worst aspect of it) The performances were brilliant, Jon Finch(who did start off uncomfortable) is great on the whole as the treacherous thane-turned-king, and Francessca Annis was nigh-on-perfect as Lady Macbeth. And Martin Shaw was excellent as Banquo. From the suitably eerie opening scene, to the superb climax, this is a near-perfect adaptation, there were just some bits that were really disturbing to watch, that deserves more recognition. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Dispensing with the pretty frocks and endless banter which fill up just about all film adaptations of the Bard's work, Roman Polanski brings us his own unique variation of the tale, and one of the strongest 15-certificate films currently available. It's an adult tale. Polanski looks beyond the glossy veneer so often offered to viewers with period pieces and gets to grips with the harsh reality of Shakespeare's most tragic play. There are no orchards or beautiful forests here: Scotland is cold, windy, and exceptionally bleak. The film is packed with violent incident, whether it be murder or rape, and even though the running time is two and a quarter hours, it never drags. There's always something horrible happening to somebody, and you know that soon enough something nasty will happen again. It certainly does.

The acting is uniformly excellent. You can't fault the script - after all, one of history's most famous playwrights wrote it. Jon Finch gives a tour-de-force performance in the title role, bringing warmth, pathos, and a surprisingly realistic depiction of madness as the tormented character. Even though he's a ruthless, murderous person, you still have to feel sorry for him by the end of the film, when everybody double-crosses and deserts him. The final scenes reminded me of Pacino at the end of SCARFACE, as Finch loses touch with reality and sets about killing as many people as possible, seemingly indestructible. Francesca Annis gives her best performance in the small yet important role of Lady Macbeth, the person who eggs her husband on to murder Duncan and yet cracks up and goes mad. Her child-like actions at the end of the film and her eventual suicide are truly tragic. The supporting cast all do well, apart from a few misplaced child actors, like Keith Chegwin, showing their ugly heads. Martin Shaw gives us a compassionate and friendly Banquo who can do no wrong.

Shakespeare easily has the capacity to become boring, especially when at school you have to study it for months on end. I should know, I've studied a number of his texts, one of them this. But modern viewers who think this might be a boring film would be sorely mistaken. I remember watching it with my English class, turning out the lights and sitting back, half-asleep in our chairs, and then sitting up suddenly as Macbeth slams his ball and chain repeatedly into an enemy's back, leaving a bloody stain (complete with sickening thud noises). From then on the violence never stops.

It's a very gory film, not for the faint-hearted, and there is no build-up to the violence either. No dramatic music or sudden close up cutting, the gore is just dropped in the film suddenly and shockingly, just when you least expect it. One man is hanged, his neck snapping like a twig, while our friend Banquo gets an axe buried in his back (like Vincent Price at the end of WITCHFINDER GENERAL) before being unceremoniously kicked into a lake. Even a young boy is stabbed in the back unflinchingly. All the best violence is saved until the climax of the film, where the blood sprays everywhere. It's not all physical horror though, and a lot of the sustained scenes are masterpieces of psychological shocks. Especially when Banquo arrives in the dinner hall to distress his host, or the actual murder of Duncan. It's here that Finch and Annis come into their own, conveying hopelessness and despair like nobody else. You might well notice it's a Playboy production, and sure enough there are plenty of naked women (although most of these women are old horrible witches, funnily enough). My favourite Shakespeare adaptation of all time.