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Macbeth (2006 film)
Encyclopedia
Macbeth is an Australia
n 2006 film
adaptation of William Shakespeare
's Macbeth
. It was directed by Geoffrey Wright
and features an ensemble cast including Sam Worthington
, Victoria Hill
and Lachy Hulme
. Macbeth was filmed in Melbourne
, Victoria
and was released in Australia on 21 September 2006.
Wright and Hill wrote the script, which — although it uses a modern-day Melbourne gangster
setting, and the actors deliver the dialogue in Australian accents — largely maintains the language of the original play.
Macbeth was selected to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival
in September 2006.
), a loyal underboss to his crime boss Duncan (Gary Sweet
), is told by teenage witches
that he will one day assume great power. Driven by their prophecy, his wife (Victoria Hill
) plans to kill Duncan and take the leadership of the gang for herself and her husband. Macbeth's obsessive love for her leads him to agree to her murderous plan, but he finds that maintaining his power will require a lot more from him than first imagined.
The film opens in a cemetery where the Weird Sisters, three school girl witches, are seen destroying and defacing headstones and statues, while close by Lady Macbeth weeps beside a headstone marked "beloved son". Macbeth stands by. It is here that the three witches make their plan to meet with Macbeth later, and leave the cemetery, smiling smugly at Macbeth from afar.
Macbeth leads Duncan's gang, in his absence, to do a drug deal with Macdonwald and his men. In a gunfight between the gangs, all members of Macdonwald's gang are killed. While chasing two gunmen Banquo and Macbeth are led to the Cawdor Club. They seize the club. The current owner of the club is tied up and later killed.
Duncan officially hands the club over to Macbeth, and Macbeth and Banquo
celebrate by drinking the club's alcohol and taking some pills found on a table. During this drug trip Macbeth meets the three witches who prophesy that he will soon be in Duncan's position with total control over the gang. He tells his wife this, though she doubts he has it in him to take over Duncan's position. Later when she learns that Duncan will be dining and staying at their house, she plots with her husband to kill him, passing the rank of gang leader to Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth drugs Duncan's bodyguards, and while they sleep Macbeth takes their knives and kills Duncan, framing the guards. Macduff comes to Inverness and finds Duncan murdered in his bed. Before the bodyguards can profess their innocence Macbeth shoots them. Malcolm, Duncan's son, immediately suspects Macbeth as having something to do with his father's death and flees.
After Macbeth is hailed as the new leader by most of Duncan's gang Macbeth sends two murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. The murderers kill Banquo, but Fleance escapes. Macbeth holds a celebratory dinner, and after learning that Banquo has been killed, sees a vision of Banquo's ghost at the dining table. Macbeth is becoming more shaken by his desire for power. Lennox, Ross and others now suspect Macbeth of killing Duncan and Banquo.
Macbeth finds the three witches in his house that evening and, after drinking a foul potion and engaging in an orgiastic sexual encounter with them, asks the witches of his future. He is told to fear Macduff, but no man "of woman born shall kill you". Later it is revealed that Macduff is not a natural birth, but a caesarean section, which is not "of woman born". He is also shown a vision of Fleance being hailed as gang leader. These prophecies enrage Macbeth, as does the witches' quick disappearance, and he has the murderers go to Macduff's home and brutally kill Lady Macduff and her son.
Seeing this on the television Lennox and Ross go to tell Macduff who has gone to his uncle Siward. Malcolm convinces him that Macbeth has gone much too far in his quest for power and must be stripped of his leader status.
Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth has become more insane, to the point where she re-imagines the evening of Duncan's killing and continuously tries to wash off his blood from her hands. A doctor sedates her, and Macbeth appears fairly indifferent to her instability. He prepares for the impending attack from Macduff, Lennox and Ross. Lady Macbeth commits suicide in a bath tub by slashing her wrists, enraging Macbeth. The two murderers, realising the unlikeliness of surviving the attack, swiftly flee Dunsinane leaving Macbeth with only Seyton, his main bodyguard, and two others. The murderers run into Macduff and his associates at the edge of Burnham Wood and are shot. Fleance looks on.
Malcolm leads his men to Dunsinane where they ambush the house and a large gunfight ensues between them and Macbeth and his guards. Macbeth is chased to the cellar where he faces off with Macduff and is stabbed in the stomach. He stumbles upstairs to his bedroom, where the body of Lady Macbeth lies, and dies at her side. As Macduff leads Fleance, now the inherited gang leader, from the house Macbeth's famous "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech is heard.
Nominations:
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n 2006 film
2006 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2006...
adaptation of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
. It was directed by Geoffrey Wright
Geoffrey Wright
Geoffrey Wright is an Australian film director, born in Melbourne in 1959.He gained cult success with the 1992 film Romper Stomper, which starred Russell Crowe. In 1994, he directed the gritty suburban thriller film Metal Skin, starring Ben Mendelsohn, and later directed the teen horror film...
and features an ensemble cast including Sam Worthington
Sam Worthington
Samuel Henry J. "Sam" Worthington is an English born, Australian actor. After almost a decade of roles in Australian TV shows and films, Worthington gained Hollywood's attention by playing Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation and the lead role, Jake Sully, in James Cameron's science...
, Victoria Hill
Victoria Hill
Victoria Hill is an Australian actress, writer and producer. She is the daughter of the Chancellor of the University of Adelaide Robert Hill and the Australian president of UNICEF, Diana Hill...
and Lachy Hulme
Lachy Hulme
Lachy Hulme is an Australian-born actor and screenwriter. He wrote the feature film Men With Guns, and co-wrote Let's Get Skase, a comedy-adventure, which Hulme starred in....
. Macbeth was filmed in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
and was released in Australia on 21 September 2006.
Wright and Hill wrote the script, which — although it uses a modern-day Melbourne gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
setting, and the actors deliver the dialogue in Australian accents — largely maintains the language of the original play.
Macbeth was selected to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
in September 2006.
Plot summary
This adaptation of Macbeth takes place in the Melbourne underworld. Macbeth (Sam WorthingtonSam Worthington
Samuel Henry J. "Sam" Worthington is an English born, Australian actor. After almost a decade of roles in Australian TV shows and films, Worthington gained Hollywood's attention by playing Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation and the lead role, Jake Sully, in James Cameron's science...
), a loyal underboss to his crime boss Duncan (Gary Sweet
Gary Sweet
Gary Sweet is an Australian film and television actor known for his roles in Alexandra's Project , Police Rescue, Cody, Big Sky, The Battlers, Bodyline and Stingers....
), is told by teenage witches
Three Witches
The Three Witches or Weird Sisters are characters in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth . Their origin lies in Holinshed's Chronicles , a history of England, Scotland and Ireland...
that he will one day assume great power. Driven by their prophecy, his wife (Victoria Hill
Victoria Hill
Victoria Hill is an Australian actress, writer and producer. She is the daughter of the Chancellor of the University of Adelaide Robert Hill and the Australian president of UNICEF, Diana Hill...
) plans to kill Duncan and take the leadership of the gang for herself and her husband. Macbeth's obsessive love for her leads him to agree to her murderous plan, but he finds that maintaining his power will require a lot more from him than first imagined.
The film opens in a cemetery where the Weird Sisters, three school girl witches, are seen destroying and defacing headstones and statues, while close by Lady Macbeth weeps beside a headstone marked "beloved son". Macbeth stands by. It is here that the three witches make their plan to meet with Macbeth later, and leave the cemetery, smiling smugly at Macbeth from afar.
Macbeth leads Duncan's gang, in his absence, to do a drug deal with Macdonwald and his men. In a gunfight between the gangs, all members of Macdonwald's gang are killed. While chasing two gunmen Banquo and Macbeth are led to the Cawdor Club. They seize the club. The current owner of the club is tied up and later killed.
Duncan officially hands the club over to Macbeth, and Macbeth and Banquo
Banquo
Banquo is a character in William Shakespeare's 1606 play Macbeth. In the play, he is at first an ally to Macbeth and they are together when they meet the Three Witches. After prophesying that Macbeth will become king, the witches tell Banquo that he will not be king himself, but that his...
celebrate by drinking the club's alcohol and taking some pills found on a table. During this drug trip Macbeth meets the three witches who prophesy that he will soon be in Duncan's position with total control over the gang. He tells his wife this, though she doubts he has it in him to take over Duncan's position. Later when she learns that Duncan will be dining and staying at their house, she plots with her husband to kill him, passing the rank of gang leader to Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth drugs Duncan's bodyguards, and while they sleep Macbeth takes their knives and kills Duncan, framing the guards. Macduff comes to Inverness and finds Duncan murdered in his bed. Before the bodyguards can profess their innocence Macbeth shoots them. Malcolm, Duncan's son, immediately suspects Macbeth as having something to do with his father's death and flees.
After Macbeth is hailed as the new leader by most of Duncan's gang Macbeth sends two murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. The murderers kill Banquo, but Fleance escapes. Macbeth holds a celebratory dinner, and after learning that Banquo has been killed, sees a vision of Banquo's ghost at the dining table. Macbeth is becoming more shaken by his desire for power. Lennox, Ross and others now suspect Macbeth of killing Duncan and Banquo.
Macbeth finds the three witches in his house that evening and, after drinking a foul potion and engaging in an orgiastic sexual encounter with them, asks the witches of his future. He is told to fear Macduff, but no man "of woman born shall kill you". Later it is revealed that Macduff is not a natural birth, but a caesarean section, which is not "of woman born". He is also shown a vision of Fleance being hailed as gang leader. These prophecies enrage Macbeth, as does the witches' quick disappearance, and he has the murderers go to Macduff's home and brutally kill Lady Macduff and her son.
Seeing this on the television Lennox and Ross go to tell Macduff who has gone to his uncle Siward. Malcolm convinces him that Macbeth has gone much too far in his quest for power and must be stripped of his leader status.
Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth has become more insane, to the point where she re-imagines the evening of Duncan's killing and continuously tries to wash off his blood from her hands. A doctor sedates her, and Macbeth appears fairly indifferent to her instability. He prepares for the impending attack from Macduff, Lennox and Ross. Lady Macbeth commits suicide in a bath tub by slashing her wrists, enraging Macbeth. The two murderers, realising the unlikeliness of surviving the attack, swiftly flee Dunsinane leaving Macbeth with only Seyton, his main bodyguard, and two others. The murderers run into Macduff and his associates at the edge of Burnham Wood and are shot. Fleance looks on.
Malcolm leads his men to Dunsinane where they ambush the house and a large gunfight ensues between them and Macbeth and his guards. Macbeth is chased to the cellar where he faces off with Macduff and is stabbed in the stomach. He stumbles upstairs to his bedroom, where the body of Lady Macbeth lies, and dies at her side. As Macduff leads Fleance, now the inherited gang leader, from the house Macbeth's famous "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech is heard.
Cast
- Sam WorthingtonSam WorthingtonSamuel Henry J. "Sam" Worthington is an English born, Australian actor. After almost a decade of roles in Australian TV shows and films, Worthington gained Hollywood's attention by playing Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation and the lead role, Jake Sully, in James Cameron's science...
as Macbeth - Victoria HillVictoria HillVictoria Hill is an Australian actress, writer and producer. She is the daughter of the Chancellor of the University of Adelaide Robert Hill and the Australian president of UNICEF, Diana Hill...
as Lady Macbeth - Steve BastoniSteve BastoniSteve Bastoni is an Italian Australian actor. He is best known for his role in Police Rescue as Constable Yannis 'Angel' Angelopoulos and as Steve Parker in Neighbours.-Television:...
as Banquo - Lachy HulmeLachy HulmeLachy Hulme is an Australian-born actor and screenwriter. He wrote the feature film Men With Guns, and co-wrote Let's Get Skase, a comedy-adventure, which Hulme starred in....
as Macduff
- Bob Franklin as Siward
- Craig StottCraig StottCraig Stott is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as Josh Watkins in East of Everything.-Career:He has appeared in McLeod's Daughters, City Homicide and has a regular role in Kick...
as Fleance - Gary SweetGary SweetGary Sweet is an Australian film and television actor known for his roles in Alexandra's Project , Police Rescue, Cody, Big Sky, The Battlers, Bodyline and Stingers....
as Duncan - Matt DoranMatt DoranMatthew N. Doran is an Australian actor, known for his role as "Mouse" in The Matrix.-Early life and education:Doran was born in Sydney...
as Malcolm
Departures from the text
- The title of "king" refers to that of gang leader.
- "Riding" refers, not to horseback, but to dirt bikes.
- Dunsinane is the name of Macbeth's house and property.
- The Weird Sisters are not bearded hags, but young school girls.
- Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane by way of a log truck marked "Birnam Timber".
- Lady Macbeth's grief and eventual insanity are influenced not only by Duncan's murder, but by the death of their only son, spurred on by a cocaine addiction, as well as guilt from the murder of Macduff's son. Spiritism is not as big an influence as in the play.
- The air drawn dagger is not a hallucination, but a shadow on a wall, in the image of a dagger, created by sword grass.
- Duncan has only one son, Malcolm. Donalbain has been omitted from the story.
- The images created by the witches were replaced with tattoos on the witches nude bodies.
Awards
- 2006 Australian Film Institute AwardsAustralian Film Institute AwardsThe Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
: Best Production Design (David McKay), Best Costume Design (Jane Johnston)
Nominations:
- 2006 Australian Film Institute Awards: Best Cinematography (Will Gibson), Best Original Music Score (John Clifford White), Best Sound (Frank Lipson and John Wilkinson)
See also
- MacbethMacbethThe Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
- William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
- Melbourne gangland killingsMelbourne gangland killingsThe Melbourne gangland killings were the murders in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia of 36 criminal figures or partners between 16 January 1998 and 13 August 2010. The murders were in a series of retributional murders involving various underworld groups. The deaths caused a sustained power vacuum...
- Scotland, PA Another modern take on the play
- Romeo+Juliet A film with a similar concept, directed by Baz Luhrman