Joel Coen’s Tragedy of Macbeth Opens the NYFF: Let It Come Down

As a tragic hero, a deeply flawed man, Denzel Washington was perfect for the role of Macbeth. He’d done downcast/larger-than-life before, say, in August Wilson’s Fences, and now in Joel Coen’s new film that opened the new season’s New York Film Festival, his Macbeth oozes Shakespeare’s eternal wisdom: It’s not that good to be king.

When Coen was asked whether Washington was his first choice for the role, his producer, Lady Macbeth herself, Frances McDormand said, “There’s no list for Macbeth. You must be born to it.” Seated between Coen and Washington, her two husbands so to speak, in life and in tragedy, on the Walter Reade Theater stage for a post-screening press conference, she professed to have instigated the project, having slept walked in Lady Macbeth’s shoes since she was 14. While there have been many Macbeths through the centuries, this one, in sumptuous and austere black & white most closely follows Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight, and yet Roman Polanski’s was referenced as well. Discussing the age of this murderous couple, the usual idea is to make them young and ambitious. McDormand and Washington make them older, passed over by the king, and wanting to get their due. We can attest to that feeling, Frances and Denzel, revel in a private joke.

Their age was the least of my concerns watching them, mesmerized by murder and Joel Coen’s other choices, my favorite being the casting of Kathryn Hunter as the “wyrd” witches. Yes, she’s all three, and one of the joys is seeing how that’s done. We had seen this British, most agile actor before, in Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, onstage and in the movie version. Her voice, her presence haunts, auguring the already damned proceedings.

As the crown passes in the play’s final awesome moments, some hope is struck, and a final gesture of humanity in this classic bloodbath may ensure, this is the Macbeth for the ages, or at least, my favorite so far.