Yet even more incredible is that Polanski, as well as Kurosawa with Throne of Blood, enrich the material with the film adaptations, changing around some scenes, omitting some altogether, and offering brands of surrealism based on preferred styles.

Not really too much happiness in Shakespeare's work, and all the better, as it might be his masterpiece: a saga of the frailties of the human conscience and abstractions of consciousness, where the supernatural substitutes just as well for faith in some religious calling- and a questioning and doubt throughout- and what it does to those around the Mr & Mrs who still can't cope deep down with killing a man in the dead of night. Yes, children, you all remember the story of ambitious young Macbeth, prodded on by the alleged prophecies of three weird witches, who murders the king by his own (and his wife's) accord, and soon goes mad as power grips him into overreaching his domain and believing himself to be invincible to all but a fleet of woods. Compared to some of the really radical films of the year, however, Macbeth's story is as old and cherished as children's fables. It would practically be dishonest, in a sense, for Polanski not to show how grotesque the acts of murder that, for example, Macbeth's men do on MacDuff's family and servants, or the simple, sadistic carnage of Macbeth's final curtain call in the climax, considering the mood and controversies of the period. As Vietnam continued to go on, the best films of 1971- and Macbeth could be counted as one of them- were some of the most stylish and explicit in how they attacked systems of government, corruption, and bad-ass anti-heroes or outright villains (A Clockwork Orange and Dirty Harry come immediately to mind).

Aside from the purging, as far as I can figure, Polanski was doing for himself by going all out in showing the frank and bloody depictions of violence and almost cleansing (as Lady Macbeth would do in madness) of blood on hands that could never come off, of the sort of psychological impact of violence and its aftermath, it was a bloody time in the world and in films.

That factor in the film- not least of which in small details, like the first shot after the opening credits where a man finishing slaying someone looks just like Manson, beard and all- is undeniable, but it shouldn't be counted as the sole influence. To get the obvious out of the way- Roman Polanski directed Macbeth as the first film following the death of his wife, Sharon Tate, and unborn child at the hands of Charles Manson's gang.

Macbeth movie