SOURCE: Harper, Wendy Rogers. “Polanski vs. Welles on Macbeth: Character or Fate?” Literature-Film Quarterly 14, no. 4 (1986): 203-10.

In the following essay, Harper contrasts Roman Polanski's naturalistic, psychological, and character-driven film adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth with Orson Welles's supernatural, externalized, and fatalistic screen interpretation of the tragedy.

Character or fate—which holds the key to the destiny of the characters in Macbeth? Shakespeare's play suggests both possibilities, but in interpreting Macbeth for the screen, directors Roman Polanski and Orson Welles each choose only one element as the determining factor. Polanski selects character, Welles fate, and their differing cinematic treatments reflect their choices. Whereas Polanski's imagery is realistic, Welles's is surrealistic. The former director focuses on the natural, the latter stresses the supernatural.¹ Consistent with the notion that character is destiny, Polanski's film probes the psychology of its characters, illuminating the human motivation for their deeds and tracing their degeneration as...