Audiences are arguably one of the most important moments in a play, movie, or any art for that matter. The director’s job is to turn the script into a film or play and make it enjoyable for his viewers. Adaptations sometimes take an original work and adapt that work into a film that is more relevant to the period in which the audience is drawn to and can relate to the adaptation. Boy Morrisette’s Scotland, PA., Akira Kurosawa’s < i>Seats of Blood and Polanski’s novel Macbeth adapt everything to the original stories of Macbeth in a more authentic setting that allows the audience to tell the story. . The three adaptations in act 1 scene 5 of Macbeth present the audience with different backgrounds that allow the audience to feel different emotions with different versions of Lord Macbeth in each movie.
Scotland PA is held in Scotland, not a region of Scotland, but Tarentum, Scotland. This change in setting from Shakespeare’s version of Macbeth is more relevant to an American audience. Even in the 1960s, it was designed to make everything more relevant to an American audience. Shakespeare’s play was set in Scotland with the thanes, lords, kings, and queens. Even Americans know what these are, but the titles of lord and thane do not belong to Americans, because America does not have these titles placed on the members of society; For the castle Scotland PA. he has a restaurant and for the king he had a manager of the veil.
Pat McBeth is Scotland‘s PA’s version of Lady Macbeth. Actress Maura Tierney named the role of Pat. In Scotland PA Pat is considered good looking and was the mastermind behind Duncan’s murder. The film has all the makings of a tragedy, but is very funny, almost like a comedy. Making a comedy-like film makes those crimes seem not so bad. He doesn’t seem like a bad guy because everything he does is made funny, from Duncan’s death to Pat getting ointment to a scar that isn’t even there.
Usually when someone is killed, they are stabbed, shot, suffocated but Scotland PA. Duncan dies in a large pot of boiling oil. Pat screams and curses at the pharmacist for not seeing her cut hand that she never has. When Duncan was fried in oil, his body was violently shaken. It also makes it funnier. He also made a funny movie when Pat curses two pharmacists and each pharmacist turns on the other. In this movie, Pat doesn’t talk to herself or go crazy like Lady Macbeth did in Shakespeare’s script. Pat takes the sword and knowingly cuts off his hand. There is no pity or anger about the death, but a sense of stupidity on the part of him who cut off his own hand for nothing. There is an evil in the writing of Lord Macbeth; “How tender is love?
the child that milks me: I would, while he was laughing in his face, tear out my nipple from his worn gums, and tear out my brain, unless I so swore that you would do this” (
After all is said and done, Lord Macbeth is sorry for what he has done. In Scotland PA. Pat does not feel bad about Duncan’s death, so the audience does not have the same feeling of pity that they would have had if he had regretted killing Duncan. . Pat Mcbeth in Scotland PA leaves the audience with a feeling of happiness for his comic version of Lady Macbeth.
Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood uses Japanese culture and adapts Shakespeare’s version of Macbeth in a similar way to Scottish PA. Blood Throne is set in Japan with Japanese characters. It is also said in Japanese. This usually applies to the rest of the world, because a large percentage of the rest of the world does not speak Japanese. Also, for Taketori Washizu, being a tro samurai begins because samurai is part of Japanese culture. These changes in the film are more relevant to the Japanese viewing audience.
For Kurosawa’s version of Lord Macbeth, Lord Asaji Washizu is played by Isuzu Yamada. In Act V SCENE 1 he has constructed an insane state of mind from his guilt. A cryer sits before a bowl of water looking for bloody hands there to wash his hands. . The Madness of Asaji Washizu is very similar to Shakespeare’s original because both Lady Asaji and Lady Macbeth try to wash their hands of the blood. These similarities keep the film and the script close.
Although Throne of Blood and Shakespeare’s Macbeth have many similarities, they differ because of the Japanese audience that watches the film. Instead of the doctors and nobles alongside Lady Macbeth, the audience is Toshiro Mifune, the equivalent of Macbeth. He sees her madness and sees her trying to wash the blood from her hands. For although he knows that there is blood, he does not seek to comfort her or to help her; he cries to her. This is because in Japanese culture women and men are not treated as equal partners. Women are despised, almost as slaves. Because Throne of Blood is so close to its originals it leaves the audience with a sense of remorse towards Lady Asaji because of how guilty she feels about what she did.
Another adaptation that is close to the original Shakespearean play is Roman Polanski’s version of Macbeth. This film adaptation remains faithful to the original piece by keeping the same setting at the same time with the same dialogue. In this movie, Lady Macbeth is very beautiful. She is a slim figure blonde haired woman. His face is a model. In Act 5, Scene 1, Lady Macbeth is in her room talking to herself quite calmly. He does not know the doctors and women in the room. She is also naked, which gives her a sense of helplessness. Her weakness makes her listeners feel sorry for herself when she talks to herself. The audience can forgive, because she is sincere in the words that show her fault; “Tar Fife had a wife: where is she now?” (Macbeth 5.1.39) This is the comment Lady Macbeth makes in both Shakespeare’s version and Polanski’s adaptation when the madman tells himself what he has done and regrets it.
In the life that people tend to care for in the movie more to the lovely than the unlovely and this is why the audience cares about Lady Macbeth in Polanski’s Roman version. His words are sincere. The audience knows that she is sincere in her words, because she thinks that she is alone and pours out her heart without sense, although it seems that she is unconscious. Polanski’s Macbeth is close to Shakespeare’s play but the audience dismisses Lady Macbeth in Polanski’s version because of her vulnerability and beauty.
Everyday people watch television and go to movies and have different reactions to different events in movies. Or we hate what we see, but more seriously. Morrisette’s humorous approach to Scotland PA makes the audience feel safe acting towards Pat Macbeth. Kurosawa’s famous lady Asaji uses Washizu’s guilt to make the audience feel bad about his actions. In Polanski’s version of Macbeth, he uses Lady Macbeth’s beauty and vulnerability to elicit feelings of remorse for her. Each director has to use different places and times to look at the audience, because the different settings of the audience can relate to what they are looking at. Although the directors differed in their adaptations, the goal was the same for all. They want to satisfy their audience.
