Review of Macbeth

I recently watched the Polanski/Hugh Hefner version back to back with the Ian McKellen/Judi Dench performance, clearly demonstrating that Polanski made wrong choices at almost every turn. (1) Turning the soliloquies into voice-overs, probably because the actors weren't up to the task of delivering them on camera (2) shooting key actors in key scenes from behind or at a distance, again probably because the backs of their heads were just as effective as their faces at interpreting the lines (3) upstaging the "dagger of the mind" scene with a cheesy day-glow special effect rather than letting Macbeth act out the hallucination (4) upstaging Lady Macbeth's "damned spot" scene by pointlessly making it a nude scene - this & the casting of the bunny-calibre actress must have been Hefner's influence (5) presenting the witch's prophecies to Macbeth as movie-cliché dream images rather than keeping the speech in the foreground (6) casting a stronger actor as Macduff than as Macbeth.

I could go on & on, but will just say that if you want to see acting rather than set design and irrelevant movie gimmickry, see the Ian McKellen/Judi Dench version instead.