Macbeth Film Quiz
Emily Scarfo
Section 4
5/22/15
1.)
I feel that the beginning of the film Macbeth was frightening. The hospital setting really spooked me out with the dim flickering lights, bloody walls, dirty floor and other patients around.
Additionally, the bloody sergeant's trembling voice added to the daunting mood. At first, when the nurses appeared, I thought that they were going to aid the sergant to health. Instead, the 3 creepy women surrounded him and tore his heart from his chest. That I felt was extremely scary. 2.) One huge difference between the literary work and the film adaption is the setting itself. The setting changes from the 15th century to a weird combination of Scotland and a
WW2 era. The play mostly takes place in underground bunkers, and the witches are a trio of nurses who wander around in the background. Speaking of the witches, they take their cues from modern­day horror movies with time lapse photography to make their movements super freaky.
They show up in scenes where Shakespeare doesn't list them, never talking, but watching
Macbeth and everyone else with their spooky eyes. This tweak violates the text since they were never put there. On the other hand, they don't have any dialogue in those scenes, and the fact that they always seem to be lurking in the shadows emphasizes their status as unseen puppet masters. In that sense, it still fits in the framework of the play, and makes the witches a lot scarier as a result.
3.) The way the characters are portrayed in the film are younger than I expected. I thought
Macbeth and a couple of other characters would be older and have a totally different appearance. For example, Macbeth should have been older and rode his horse with a sword.
Also, I thought the three witches should have looked scarier and much more evil;; long noses, black eyes, sharp fingernails and dressed in black capes. Instead, the three women were nurses that looked like they belonged in a hospital in the 50s. Although the characters are much different than expected, I thought that they did an excellent job portraying the original characters; especially in a totally