Macbeth

Macbeth is Polanski's gripping, atmospheric and extremely violent recreation of Shakespeare's tragedy of a young Scots nobleman lusting for power, driven onward by his crazed wife and prophecies. Slaughter is the star; Shakespeare's offstage corpses and murders are added to the onstage ones, and they so dominate the material that it's perhaps difficult to pay attention to the poetry. The director, Roman Polanski, treats the play not as a great cautionary nightmare but as an illustration of how power normally changes hands. The film says that nothing is possible but horror and more horror, and, at the end, the cycle of bloodletting is about to begin again. Great example of film storytelling, thanks to excellent direction.