# Macbeth (2015 film)
**Macbeth** is a 2015 drama film directed by [Justin Kurzel](https://www.edgepedia.org/justin-kurzel), adapting Shakespeare's tragedy about a Scottish warrior who murders his king and seizes the throne. It stars [Michael Fassbender](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-fassbender) as Macbeth and [Marion Cotillard](https://www.edgepedia.org/marion-cotillard) as Lady Macbeth, was produced by See-Saw Films and DMC Film, and premiered in Competition at the 68th Cannes Film Festival before release in the United Kingdom on 2 October 2015 and a limited United States release on 4 December 2015.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/0dc14d1e-a8a6-5514-a42f-eb0c11e694f6/macbeth) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/70428) • [3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2015/competition-that-scottish-play-by-justin-kurzel/) • [4](https://ifi.ie/film/macbeth-5/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writers | Justin Kurzel; screenplay by Todd Louiso, Jacob Koskoff, and Michael Lesslie[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/0dc14d1e-a8a6-5514-a42f-eb0c11e694f6/macbeth) |
| Lead cast | Michael Fassbender (Macbeth), Marion Cotillard (Lady Macbeth), Paddy Considine (Banquo), Sean Harris (Macduff), Jack Reynor (Malcolm), David Thewlis (Duncan)[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/70428) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/macbeth_2015) |
| Running time / format | 113 minutes, color, 2.35:1 widescreen, Dolby Digital[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/70428) |
| Festival and release | In Competition at Cannes, 23 May 2015; UK release 2 October 2015; US limited release 4 December 2015[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2015/competition-that-scottish-play-by-justin-kurzel/) • [4](https://ifi.ie/film/macbeth-5/) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/70428) |
| Filming | Shot on location in Scotland, including Northumberland and the Isle of Skye[6](https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-film-studio-creates-gruesome-macbeth-scenes-a3071161.html) |
| Critical reception | 79% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 194 reviews; US gross of $1.1 million[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/macbeth_2015) |
## Spoilers
### Interpretation and adaptation choices
Kurzel's version departs from the play in ways that reshape its psychology. It opens with a startling image absent from Shakespeare: a dead child laid in heather, stones placed over the eyes, and the child's funeral pyre scene was filmed on the Hebridean island of Skye.[11](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/07/toil-and-trouble-the-current-cinema-anthony-lane) • [6](https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-film-studio-creates-gruesome-macbeth-scenes-a3071161.html) This invented prologue frames the Macbeths as grieving parents, and [Lady Macbeth](https://www.edgepedia.org/lady-macbeth) recites her "To bed" speech to her dead child; critics read the film's ambition and violence as provoked by the death of a child and the horrors of war.[12](https://www.maynoothcep.com/Archives/Newsletters/2015/November.pdf) • [13](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/macbeth-review/5087418.article) Scholars have connected the film's portrayal of the warrior to post-traumatic stress, with the opening battle staged as a visceral, muddy experience of medieval combat.[14](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0184767820980765)
**Text and staging.** The film strips the Shakespearean dialogue back to its core, redirects soliloquies, and reinterprets key scenes; the Porter is removed entirely, and "heath" becomes "battlefield" in one early change to the text.[15](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-macbeth-2015-online) • [16](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/23/macbeth-review-fassbender-and-cotillard-full-of-sound-and-fury-in-significant-shakespeare-adaptation) Rather than confining the story to claustrophobic interiors as stage productions do, Kurzel stages it on a vast Scottish plain, with slow-motion battle sequences, stylized blood-spurts, and a climax soaked in fiery red light.[16](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/23/macbeth-review-fassbender-and-cotillard-full-of-sound-and-fury-in-significant-shakespeare-adaptation) • [17](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/macbeth-2015) Cotillard said she and Kurzel worked to deconstruct the monster, showing why the couple became monsters rather than simply playing them as evil.[9](https://time.com/4143638/marion-cotillard-macbeth/)
## Production
The film was produced by Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, and Laura Hastings-Smith, with cinematography by Adam Arkapaw, music by Jed Kurzel (the director's brother), production design by Fiona Crombie, costumes by Jacqueline Durran, and editing by Chris Dickens.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/0dc14d1e-a8a6-5514-a42f-eb0c11e694f6/macbeth) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/70428) Kurzel came to the project from his debut feature *[Snowtown](https://www.edgepedia.org/snowtown-film)* (2011), an Australian crime drama, and it was his second film; he said he would never have thought of taking on a Shakespeare play so early in his career.[7](https://www.afi.com/news/the-afi-fest-interview-macbeth-director-justin-kurzel/) • [8](https://thewest.com.au/entertainment/movies/kurzel-revisits-king-killer-tale-ng-ya-129863) The producers, Canning and Sherman, set out to preserve Shakespeare's language while following the original 1606 text closely and offering a modern reading of the play.[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2015/competition-that-scottish-play-by-justin-kurzel/)
**Location shooting.** Kurzel filmed in the Scottish landscape where the story is set, returning the play to its original setting among stark mountains and low-hanging clouds.[6](https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-film-studio-creates-gruesome-macbeth-scenes-a3071161.html) • [9](https://time.com/4143638/marion-cotillard-macbeth/) Conditions were severe: the crew battled sideways rain, gale-force winds, and hypothermic temperatures, and the famously misty [Isle of Skye](https://www.edgepedia.org/isle-of-skye) required imported artificial mist, fog, and rain to achieve the cold, atmospheric look Kurzel wanted.[10](https://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2015/09/30/scotlands-misty-isle-needed-fake-mist-for-macbeth-movie/) Cotillard described using "the violence of the elements to emphasize the story that we were telling."
The special-effects company Artem, in west London, built the film's gore: fake blood capsules stuffed into Fassbender's trouser legs between takes, a life-like dummy of [David Thewlis](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-thewlis) stuffed with blood so the director could stage Duncan's murder with a full-force stabbing rather than a retractable blade, and prosthetic effects such as bursting intestines and severed hands enhanced with CGI.[6](https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-film-studio-creates-gruesome-macbeth-scenes-a3071161.html)
## Reception
The film premiered in [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) at Cannes on 23 May 2015, the last film in that year's Competition, and drew praise from the press; Variety called it "fearsomely visceral and impeccably performed," and Robbie Collin of *The Telegraph* acclaimed the "cosmically powerful" central performances.[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2015/competition-that-scottish-play-by-justin-kurzel/) • [18](https://time.com/3908852/watch-michael-fassbender-macbeth-trailer/) • [15](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-macbeth-2015-online) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds 79% from 194 critics, with a critics consensus crediting a "mesmerizing Michael Fassbender performance"; the audience Popcornmeter score was 64%.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/macbeth_2015) Its US theatrical gross was $1.1 million.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/macbeth_2015)
Critical opinion was divided on method. Peter Bradshaw in *The Guardian* praised the charisma of Fassbender and Cotillard while noting mangled Scottish accents from the Irish, French, and English leads, and observed that Fassbender was less convincing with Macbeth's introverted vulnerability.[16](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/23/macbeth-review-fassbender-and-cotillard-full-of-sound-and-fury-in-significant-shakespeare-adaptation) Some reviewers found the pacing ponderous and the dialogue delivered in near-whispers; others ranked the battle sequences, which one critic wrote make *Braveheart* "look like a trip to the spa," among the film's strengths.[19](https://mubi.com/en/films/macbeth-2015/critics-reviews) • [13](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/macbeth-review/5087418.article)
## Place among screen Macbeths
Kurzel's film joined a small canon of notable screen versions of the play: [Orson Welles](https://www.edgepedia.org/orson-welles)'s 1948 film, [Akira Kurosawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/akira-kurosawa)'s *Throne of Blood* (1957), which transposes the story to feudal Japan, and [Roman Polanski](https://www.edgepedia.org/roman-polanski)'s 1971 version.[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2015/competition-that-scottish-play-by-justin-kurzel/) • [20](https://www.csmonitor.com/Arts-Culture/Movies/2015/1204/Macbeth-Director-Justin-Kurzel-is-big-on-bluster-and-broadsword-battles) Reviewers noted that Kurzel's take, at about half an hour shorter than Polanski's, subordinates the poetic to the visceral to a greater degree than any of them, and that whatever viewers make of it, it does not resemble any previous screen Macbeth.[21](https://www.framerated.co.uk/macbeth-2015/) • [19](https://mubi.com/en/films/macbeth-2015/critics-reviews) • [13](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/macbeth-review/5087418.article) In 2021, Sight and Sound described Joel Coen's black-and-white *The Tragedy of Macbeth* as "the polar opposite" of Kurzel's 2015 film, which it called "part bloodbath, part mudbath."
## References
1. [Macbeth (2015), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/0dc14d1e-a8a6-5514-a42f-eb0c11e694f6/macbeth)
2. [Macbeth (2015), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/70428)
3. [COMPETITION – "That Scottish play…" by Justin Kurzel, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2015/competition-that-scottish-play-by-justin-kurzel/)
4. [MACBETH, Irish Film Institute](https://ifi.ie/film/macbeth-5/)
5. [Macbeth (2015), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/macbeth_2015)
6. [London film studio creates gruesome Macbeth scenes, Evening Standard](https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-film-studio-creates-gruesome-macbeth-scenes-a3071161.html)
7. [The AFI FEST Interview: MACBETH Director Justin Kurzel, American Film Institute](https://www.afi.com/news/the-afi-fest-interview-macbeth-director-justin-kurzel/)
8. [Kurzel revisits king-killer tale, The West Australian](https://thewest.com.au/entertainment/movies/kurzel-revisits-king-killer-tale-ng-ya-129863)
9. [How Marion Cotillard Tackled One of the Most Coveted Roles of All Time, TIME](https://time.com/4143638/marion-cotillard-macbeth/)
10. [Scotland's "Misty" Isle needed fake mist for Macbeth movie, Deadline News](https://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2015/09/30/scotlands-misty-isle-needed-fake-mist-for-macbeth-movie/)
11. ["Macbeth" and "Youth" Reviews, The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/07/toil-and-trouble-the-current-cinema-anthony-lane)
12. [FILM REVIEW: MACBETH (2015), Maynooth newsletter](https://www.maynoothcep.com/Archives/Newsletters/2015/November.pdf)
13. ['Macbeth': Review, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/macbeth-review/5087418.article)
14. [Flipping Macbeth: PTSD, gender, and generation in adaptations by Wolfert, Kurzel, and De Man, SAGE](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0184767820980765)
15. [Watch Macbeth online, BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-macbeth-2015-online)
16. [Macbeth review, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/23/macbeth-review-fassbender-and-cotillard-full-of-sound-and-fury-in-significant-shakespeare-adaptation)
17. [Macbeth movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/macbeth-2015)
18. [Watch Michael Fassbender in This Gripping Macbeth Trailer, TIME](https://time.com/3908852/watch-michael-fassbender-macbeth-trailer/)
19. [Macbeth (2015) critic reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/macbeth-2015/critics-reviews)
20. ['Macbeth': Director Justin Kurzel is big on bluster and broadsword battles, Christian Science Monitor](https://www.csmonitor.com/Arts-Culture/Movies/2015/1204/Macbeth-Director-Justin-Kurzel-is-big-on-bluster-and-broadsword-battles)
21. [MACBETH (2015), Frame Rated](https://www.framerated.co.uk/macbeth-2015/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Shakespeare on film*
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