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Orson Welles' Macbeth [DVD] [1948]

DVD ~ Orson Welles

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

RRP:	�19.99
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Frequently Bought Together

William Shakespeare's Macbeth [1978] [DVD]

Total RRP: �52.97
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This item: Orson Welles' Macbeth [DVD] [1948] DVD ~ Orson Welles
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Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
Macbeth [DVD] [1971] DVD ~ Jon Finch
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William Shakespeare's Macbeth [1978] [DVD] DVD ~ Ian McKellen
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	65% buy the item featured on this page: Orson Welles' Macbeth [DVD] [1948] 4.0 out of 5 stars (8) �6.98
	14% buy William Shakespeare's Macbeth [1978] [DVD] 3.9 out of 5 stars (8) �8.78
	13% buy Macbeth [DVD] [1971] 4.5 out of 5 stars (25) �4.88
	4% buy Hamlet (2 Disc Special Edition) 4.1 out of 5 stars (16) �4.98

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Product details

Actors: Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O'Herlihy, Roddy McDowall, Edgar Barrier
Directors: Orson Welles
Writers: Orson Welles, William Shakespeare
Producers: Orson Welles, Charles K. Feldman, Richard Wilson
Format: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL, Restored
Language English
Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 1
Classification: PG
Studio: Second Sight Films Ltd.
DVD Release Date: 25 Aug 2003
Run Time: 103 minutes

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

ASIN: B00004U400
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 16,975 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk

Orson Welles' Macbeth is an expressionist masterpiece about a doomed man of ordinary ambition who believes an evil prophecy that he will become King. The shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies, Welles long considered Macbeth to be the most filmable of the Bard's work. Produced on a slim budget over a mere 32 days, the results are consistently impressive. As depicted by Welles, the title character is not a warrior king or conscience-stricken, poetic soul on a par with Hamlet; rather, he is revealed to be a facile, superstitious man consigned to fate even as the character does not trust to fate. For her part, Lady Macbeth (Jeanette Nolan) is merely obsessed with the unimpeded exercise of her will to power, viewing her husband's life as a tale told by an idiot (she is particularly effective during the "out, damned spot" scene from Act V). Welles has also created some new scenes here, conflating several characters into a "Holy Father" (Alan Napier) while eliciting strong supporting turns from actors such as Dan O'Herlihy (Macduff) and Roddy McDowall (Malcolm). All of this unfolds within a highly disordered state in which nature itself is on the rant ("Fair is foul and foul is fair"). Though the technically poor soundtrack and the occasional indecipherable Scottish brogue make the film seem a trifle compromised at times, each moment feels preternaturally alive. There is an almost Brechtian quality here, with Welles giving us splendid pieces then leaving it to us to fit them into a theatrically coherent puzzle. Refusing to believe that Birnham Wood could ever travel to Dunsinane, Macbeth is finally exposed as a man of insufficient character. As such, some might suggest that this Macbeth is more accurately described as the story of how Malcolm became King. --Kevin Mulhall

DVD Description

The Players:

Orson Welles (Macbeth)
Jeanette Nolan (Lady Macbeth)
Dan O’Herlihy (Macduff)
Roddy McDowall (Malcolm)
Edgar Barrier (Banquo)
Alan Napier (A Holy Father)
Erskine Sanford (Duncan)
John Dierkes (Ross)
Keene Curtis (Lennox)
Peggy Webber (Lady Macduff)

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Orson, 24 Jan 2003

By	Sren Thomsen (�rhus Denmark) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Prior to this 1948 film adaptation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth", Orson Welles had already tackled the play twice: A theater production, the so-called "Voodoo Macbeth" (set in Tahiti with an all black cast!) and a recorded production with the Mercury Theatre on the Air (though the recording was never broadcast). So it is fair to say that Welles knew this play better than most, and it shows in this film, his ultimate version of the play. Welles' vision of "Macbeth" is very, very dark and introspective. Visually stunning, every frame is foreboding and sinister (especially the images with the three witches - a genuinely creepy visualization) , heavily inspired by the German expressionist directors such as Murnau and Lang. The nightmarish images add greatly to the play, and I think Welles managed to bring forth the central emotions that Shakespeare was trying to convey.
Welles delivers one of the finest performances of his career. I've never quite been able to determine whether his acting abilities were equal to his genius as a director, but they come pretty close. Welles had perhaps the most expressive voice in all of Hollywood, and it is perfectly suited to the Bard's work. Every soliloquy is magnificently delivered, despite the bit too frequent use of voice-over (I prefer the actors to actually speak the lines). The rest of the cast is good, but nothing remarkable. Welles as Macbeth is really the star of the show, at least for me.
The only real downside to the production is a very mediocre score by Jaques Ibert. I cannot help but think how much more engrossing the film could have been with an effective score - too bad Bernard Herrmann wasn't available! But other than the music and a somewhat battered soundtrack, this film is simply superb.

The DVD also features a rare short film made in Ireland. Welles plays himself in a spooky ghost story, akin to an episode of The Twilight Zone. A nice bonus.
Other than that, the DVD has no special features at all. But "Macbeth" is worth the price.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Braceless butcher complements, 16 Nov 2005

By	Pismotality (London, England) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

If you are using this for educational purposes, be aware the text is hacked about quite a bit. If your budget doesn't extend beyond one DVD and you want as full a text as possible, then the BBC Shakespeare version may suit you better, despite Nicol Williamson's overblown performance.

But this DVD is a wonderful complement to other ostensibly more faithful productions because it really has been conceived as a movie, not a glorified record of a stage presentation (which the BBC version feels like, and which the Judi Dench/Ian McKellen RSC one palpably is). The liberties Welles takes with the text make sense because the visuals are doing the work of much of the language so why duplicate the effort? (And this more usual belt-and-braces approach, incidentally, helps to explain why most full-text Shakespeare films never quite come off.)

That said, it does show its B movie budget roots - the biscuit tin crown isn't overly impressive and the accents are dodgy - but there is a real sense of darkness which feels more faithful to the spirit of the original than most other film or TV versions. Welles as Lear - now there would have been a thing ...

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Film... Not so great DVD., 13 Nov 2006

By	Orson99 "lick99" (Oak Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews

If this movie is restored then I'm Santa Claus. The print is quite rough so I have no clue how they can claim it's restored unless it was restored by a blind person. Also, the reason I bought this version is because right there on the Amazon page it states it has a featurette.... Featurette - 1. Orson Welles' RETURN TO GLENNASCAUL. Nope, it doesn't have any such thing. Not sure who had their head up their butts on this release but somebody did. Great film.. just wait for a better DVD release.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay - but read the play
I have to say that I never studied Macbeth so I did not know the story. For me this DVD was a bad buy and of little help to my kids. Read more

Published 1 month ago by May Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars THE macbeth
the sets are surreal, absolutely perfect, welles gets to grips fully with shakes masterpeice, to me this is easily welles greatest acting, to me no other macbeth film comes even... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Geoffrey Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece with a cracked face
Welles lost Agnes Moorehead (he owed her money), had a very tight budget, had his soundtrack scrapped when the US studio objected to the brogues, in other words this was a typical... Read more

Published on 8 Mar 2006 by John Ellis

4.0 out of 5 stars Restored (ish)
I got this for my wife who is taking GSCE English (she's Romanian so doesn't have such a qualification).

Firstly it says its restored, well if it is its not a good job. Read more

Published on 1 Oct 2003 by markcst

5.0 out of 5 stars No words to describe the perfection !
This film is a fairly faithful rendition of Shakespeare's play and personally i believe that it is one of the greatest experimental films ever made under the Hollywood studio... Read more

Published on 24 Dec 2000

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