THRONE OF BLOOD--An OLEG Movie Club Selection

Shakespeare’s classic play of bloodshed, power, betrayal, insanity, and the supernatural, has been an inspiration for many weather it be Roman Polanski’s way of dealing with the death of Sharon Tate in his Penthouse funded version or as a villain in the 90’s Disney television series Gargoyles. This version, directed by acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and set in feudal Japan, may be the best I’ve ever seen.

Japan may be one of the best settings for this story, with it’s rich history. The story of McBeth is the story of a man’s descent into his own darkness and pride and ambition, spurred on by mystical prophecies and an overly ambitious wife. McBeth, or in this case Washizu, does desire power, does desire to rise the position of “Great Lord” but won’t admit it even when confronted by it several times. It is only when his wife pushes him towards it does he take action. Once he achieves his goals though, his power gets the better of him and he, and his wife, both descend into madness and a struggle to hold unto to the prophecies spoken about them.

I loved how Kurosawa showed us, even subtly, how things would play out. Early in the film we hear about Washizu’s talent with the bow, at the end his enemies employ a similar strategy against him. At one point we see Washizu and his childhood friend and fellow warrior Miki, kneeling before the Great Lord and Kurosawa holds on them from behind and we see the contrast of Washizu’s black banner and Miki’s white banner. Washizu has a black heart, one easily corrupted, while Miki’s heart is white, looking only toward the future. This is continued with the insignia, Washizu’s is a centipede, whereas Miki’s is a rabbit. Also the scene where the porters in the northern castle are going to clean out a room for Washizu when the Great Lord visits, mention that the blood stained floor cannot be scrubbed clean, Lady Washizu has a similar problem when trying to scrub her bloodstained hands, which in her mind won’t come clean.

There are also some very subtle changes to the original story, such as the use of only one witch/spirit in the movie as opposed to three in the original play and starting off the movie in the castle as opposed to the plays introduction by the witches planning on meeting with McBeth. I was also glad to see that Kurosawa, while keeping the storyline and the outline the same, used little to no of the original lines.

I was pleasantly surprised by the special effects used, especially for 1957. 3 scenes really stand out, the witch, or spirit’s, disappearance; the latter appearance by the spirit and several phantoms; finally the moving forest. The moving forest was especially impressive, because that is always one of the hardest elements of the Scottish play to pull off without looking cheesy.

I thought the black and white photography worked well, especially for this picture which deals with very dark themes.

The acting was excellent, and all part of Kurosawa’s stock company, with Toshiro Mifune as Washizu and Minoru Chiaki as Miki. Isuzu Yamada as Washizu’s wife.

This film may well be an “anti” Samurai film. In traditional Samurai films, the samurai are honorable and Washizu is NOT honorable. On the DVD commentary it is mentioned that McBeth was Kurosawa’s favorite play by Shakespeare and it shows with his obvious