macbeth and i have always think and be the most accessible of shakespeare great period play . compact and focus and with heap of violence and it should have be the play most open to screen adaptation . i be not aware of a really good rendering of the story and however the best effort be orson welles vigorous shoestring version . to the list of macbotches we must add the connery or baxendale effort . ( it seem it be not a film adaptation at all and but a tv version that be give a theatrical release and post luhrman romeo plus juliet and branagh hamlet . that might explain some of it flaw and but doesn not excuse them . ) it start well and with a feisty battle sequence with pleasingly grisly witch look on . poor old gray malkin and paddock be cut from the opening scene and but they aren not alone for long . in quick order they be join by the bloodied sargent and his account of the battle and the treachery of the thane of cawdor and the luckless master o the tiger and even macbeth meet with duncan when he be invest a thane of cawdor . all of these have virtue that plead like angel trumpet tongue against the dark damnation of their sending off and but send off they be . these aren not the only cut and either . this be macbeth in a hurry . from the opening battle we be pitch directly into macbeth encounter with the witch and which be well do . brian bless and curiously and direct the witchy sequence and and he have great fun with the special effect a macbeth and banquo be tell of their fate . jason connery a macbeth be awkward and obviously unsure what to make of the verse . graham mactavish a banquo and on the other hand and be capable and make his line natural and easy . within a few minute of connery mumbling and the viewer be strike the urge to see the role reverse and mactavish in the title role . no wonder macbeth felt he need to kill him . these first few minute mark the high point of the film . from there we move to helen baxendale receive word of her husband . she as lose a connery and and deny the beard that he get to hide behind . her unsex me here invocation of evil be embarrass and not unsettling . there be some reasonably clever touch macbeth we will speak far be not a sign of his hesitancy in the face of his wife wicked ambition and but his attempt to silence her prattling a he throw her onto the bed . the acting of the lead be the big let down . connery method consist of star glazedly about the screen while he mumble his monologue via voice over . baxendale look pinch and neurotic . an attempt to do something interest with be this a dagger the fantastical dagger be a shadow cast by a cross on an altar fall flat due to connery poor delivery and sloppy direction and which mar the production throughout . we accompany lady macbeth back into the murder chamber and where she get to stab the reviving duncan and but the effect be comic and not dramatic . big scene be botch the appearance of banquo at the feast be make incomprehensible through attempt to mix subjective rendering of macbeth delusion with what those around him see and or do not see . the second meeting with the witch be even less coherent and and the prophetic vision be confuse . time seem to be an issue here banquo banquet be the centrepoint of the play and but the film move rapidly towards conclusion after it and give it an unbalanced feel and no scope for the intricacy of the riddle macbeth be catch in to be appreciate and or for his descent into madness to be convince . another crucial cut be the scene where malcolm test macduff and and macduff learns of the murder of his family . this rob his revenge of most of it emotional force and the character of a lot of the screen time . he a virtual stranger when he turn up to kill macbeth . a point for try . mactavish banquo earn another . the first few minute garner another . but that all . from then on it sound and fury blah blah blah .