Macbeth film version

[Angel]

Ian McKellan or Patrick Stewart?

 

We will be watching Macbeth Monday for our Shakespeare study and I don't know which one to choose! I love Patrick Stewart but Ian McKellan is pretty awesome too... Any insights? The kids are 15-17 (with an 11yo tagging along).

[elegantlion]

I watched the Patrick Stewart one recently. It has a macabre minimalist feel to it. I have not seen the other, but I'll have ds watch the Stewart version. I liked it, but it definitely has a different feel. It's on Instant Netflix, you might want to preview.

[Angel]

Thanks for your vote! I was hoping to preview both but I've been overly lazy this week (probably those cold rainy days) and didn't get around to it. I am a huge Patrick Stewart fan, actually it's hard for me not to call him Jean-Luc :D I can't imagine him being bad in anything. I tried reading the reviews on amazon but it's so hard to tell.

[OrganicAnn]

Is the Ian McKellan version the one with Judy Dench in it? I love Judy Dench so I would vote for that one. I keep falling asleep when watching the Patrick Stewart MacBeth on PBS.

[Word Nerd]

Watch them both and compare them!

[OrganicAnn]

Also Scotland PA (modern version of MacBeth) is really interesting.

[Guest]

The Ian McKellan/Judy Dench version is gripping, but hard for kids to follow, I think. It's staged -- but you can barely tell that, because there are virtually no props, almost everyone is dressed entirely in black, and the cameras focus in close-up on their faces surrounded by blackness as they speak their lines. They're absolutely terrific actors, of course, and the whole effect is claustrophobic, creepy, and very very intense. The burden is on the language to create the set, the time, and convey the plot. You've got the language, you've got faces, and little else.

 

If this is a kid's first introduction to Macbeth, I'd go for the Stewart, or for some version that is more fully staged so that the kids can follow the plot with the help of the movement of the actors, gestures, and setting/props. Dd is a huge Shakespeare fan, veteran of about 15 staged Shakespeare plays we've gone to since she was nine, but even she (at 15) found the McKellan version took tremendous concentration and was difficult to follow.

Edited October 22, 2011 by Guest

[Cricket]

The Ian McKellan/Judy Dench version is gripping, but hard for kids to follow, I think. It's staged -- but you can barely tell that, because there are virtually no props, almost everyone is dressed entirely in black, and the cameras focus in close-up on their faces surrounded by blackness as they speak their lines. They're absolutely terrific actors, of course, and the whole effect is claustrophobic, creepy, and very very intense. The burden is on the language to create the set, the time, and convey the plot. You've got the language, you've got faces, and little else.

 

If this is a kid's first introduction to Macbeth, I'd go for the Stewart, or for some version that is more fully staged so that the kids can follow the plot with the help of the movement of the actors, gestures, and setting/props. Dd is a huge Shakespeare fan, veteran of about 15 staged Shakespeare plays we've gone to since she was nine, but even she (at 15) found the McKellan version took tremendous concentration and was difficult to follow.

 

We have watched most of the McKellan version. It's the same one I watched in high school. The boys were asking today why it is all black in the background. Today we finished Act 5 and I told them they could watch the last act. They said that they would rather not. They found reading the play very interesting though.