I love Shakespeare, and have seen various adaptations of his plays. Macbeth was one of my first Shakespeares, and is a really powerful play in its own right not just in the language and some of the imagery but also in the characters and especially the story.

This Macbeth is more contemporary in its setting, but it is every bit as compelling as the play as it should be. In fact, this Macbeth is one of the most compelling adaptations of the play I've seen. Although contemporary(which didn't bother me at all by the way),the setting is still very well done. Some of it is truly beautiful to watch, but some of it is also appropriately bleak, and we have the skillful camera work and lighting to thank for that.

The story is still the compelling, gripping story I remember Macbeth by, and keeps the crucial elements in. Not only that, those crucial elements are very well done in their atmosphere, not just the encounters with the witches which are the epitome of creepiness but the mad scene which I don't always find effective but very much did here and the scene with Thane of Fife and Cumberland is also riveting. The dialogue is still wonderful and timed impeccably.

Rupert Goold's direction is very fine, and the soundtrack is also impressive with some really intentionally unsettling bits to it. Even some of the sound effects gave me shivers. The acting from Macbeth down to the smallest part is uniformly fantastic. Kate Fleetwood is absolutely transfixing being very beautiful, suitably evil and cold. Plus she really holds her own against Patrick Stewart, who is simply mesmerising as Macbeth. Not only in the charisma, but also the delivery of the lines, gestures and voice.

Overall, truly compelling and I was holding on to my seat for the entire duration. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The richness of Shakespeare's plays, and the vagueness of their settings, lends them to many adaptations and interpretations. This version of Macbeth, the "Scottish play", doesn't feel particularly Scottish, more Orwellian, and Patrick Stewart plays the central character less as an opportunistic chancer out of his depth, and more as a deranged psychopathic tyrant: if the film resembles any other, it's 'Downfall', the story of the last days of Hitler. As always when watching Shakespeare, one is stunned by the sheer number of brilliant phrasings that have entered general usage from his works. But Macbeth is an odd play dramatically: the main action occurs offstage, the leavening self-referential humour present in 'Hamlet' is here lacking, and there are few appealing characters. In Kenneth Brannagh's version of 'Hamlet', for example, I really enjoyed Derek Jacobi's ambiguous Claudius; but in this story, there is little other than war and death. As a film, it also falls between two stools, as it is shot neither naturalistically, nor with the brilliant invention of Baz Luhrmann's 'Romeo + Juliet'; rather, it feels like a stage play jazzed up with the occasional camera trick. So I'm not sure this is the best of Shakespeare's tragedies, nor that this is my favourite production; but it's certainly intense. Indeed, if this was once popular entertainment, one can only regret the undemanding nature of modern tastes.

Macbeth (2010) was shown on TV as part of the "Great Performances" series. Director Rupert Goold has given us a very unusual Macbeth. It's primarily a war story, set in what I judge to be about 1955. There are battle scenes, and almost all of the characters are in military uniform. Goold has inserted stock footage of planes and tanks into several scenes.

The film was shot in Welbeck Abbey. I looked it up, and the abbey has underground rooms and tunnels, where a great deal of the action takes place. (The abbey was used as a military facility and training grounds, so, presumably, the tunnels and the elevators really exist.) Not exactly what Shakespeare may have had in mind, but effective enough once you get used to it.

Patrick Stewart makes a great Macbeth. You can believe that he's a tough, ruthless, and ambitious officer, who wants to be king.

Kate Fleetwood (Goold's wife) is an excellent Lady Macbeth. This Lady Macbeth is no longer young, and not as beautiful as she once was, but she has a royal presence that demands respect.

Believe it or not, a highlight of the film for me were the three witches. These are not supernatural hags. They are three women who look as if they belong where they are. However, where they are is everywhere. First we see them as nurses. (It turns out that you'd rather not have any of them as your nurse.) Then they're cooks, brandishing knives in the kitchen. Then they're serving at the banquet. No one pays them any special attention, but they deserve attention. The concept of the witches, representing evil, being everywhere really worked for me. Utilizing them in this way was a brilliant directorial touch.

We saw this Macbeth on DVD, and it worked very well on the small screen. Most of the scenes are inside the abbey, where the light is dim and space is limited. I don't think seeing on the movie on a large screen would change matters much.

Fair warning: the first scene of the film--the interview with the wounded sergeant--is very bloody and disturbing. If blood and violence aren't your thing, fast forward through that part.

This Macbeth is a very creative, edgy rendering of Shakespeare's play. It's worth seeking out and seeing this movie.