Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

ringa46 People are mistaking the subtle nature film allows with Shakespeare on state. There are no closeups, or music to convey emotion, it all must come from the actors. Like silent movies, it looks like overacting to the untrained eye, but like Noh Theater, the action must be conveyed in body movements akin to dance. Jeremy Brett meets this challenge with brilliant subtly one second and booming voice sure to be heard in the bleachers. The other actors however, are awful. Lady MacBeth is the worst. The rest seem to barely remember their lines, reciting them in a monotone barely worthy of a grade school production. Watch it for Jeremy, the rest (as Hamlet would say) SHOULD be silence.

robinson_wilson I didn't really know what to expect, but......wow! No wonder most kids in English class hate this play! This is easily the WORST production of this play I have ever seen, and I love the play very much, so was this ever hard to watch.SHAME on everybody involved!There are just so many things wrong with it:1) Terrible production values 2) Horribly overdone scene gnashing (acting) 3) What's with the hair? 4) Totally garbage sword fightsAll I can say is, rent Polanski's version, or Throne of Blood.STAY AWAY!

PhiFitz With a high school student struggling through the text, we found two stageplay versions on film, this one with Jeremy Brett (RIP, Sherlock Holmes) and Piper Laurie, and the McKellen/Dench version. I have seen three ways to film a stageplay. (1) Put up a few cameras with an audience present (never works). (2) Take a cast used to performing before an audience and reblock for cameras and shoot with no audience (this version). (3) Forget audience, block and perform entirely for film (McKellen/Dench).So this Brett/Laurie version features actors who project as though they must entertain people 100 feet away, and they move through a paragraph of lines as one would truly read a paragraph. Well enough.But the McKellen/Dench is much more gripping, despite a minimalist set. Lines and characters were omitted for the sake of an overall vision. Characters stopped dead in mid-paragraph for effect. I'll never remember who Ross was in the Brett; I'll remember Ross/Porter in the McKellen. No spoiler here, but in the two versions one sees radically different Lady Macbeths -- not merely in execution but in conception. The Dench Macbeth being absolutely thrilling.This Brett/Laurie, however, tracks Shakespeare. So the high school student should begin here. Then move on to the McKellen/Dench.

Robbie-21 Jeremy Bret gives a great, eccentric performance in this performance of Shakespere's classic play. The locations are all on stage, so the sets are not fancy. Still, the acting more than makes up for it and the action scenes are well done as well. Any fan of the play cannot go wrong with this performance.