Hugh Hefner and Macbeth? How did this happen?
Serious Shakespeare aficionados were dealt quite a blow in 1970 when Playboy founder Hugh Hefner announced he was going to finance a film adaptation of Macbeth. Up to that point, eleven versions of the play had hit the big screen, but Hef yearned for a titillating twelfth. Promising that fans would experience "an entirely new interpretation of the line, Lay on, Macduff!", Hefner joined forces with the eccentric director Roman Polanski. Surprisingly, the finished product looks nothing like the X-rated adventure Hef guaranteed. There are no sex scenes and the brief nudity is about as erotic as a naked romp with Grandma. What the audience does get, however, is wholesale slaughter. With close-ups of contorted corpses and dismembered body parts, Polanski took every opportunity to illustrate the gruesome details that Shakespeare had the good sense to leave to the imaginations of viewers. Despite the unabashed gore, Polanski's Macbeth is considered worthy of serious critical study, much to the surprise of Hef, I'm sure.
How to cite this article:
Mabillard, Amanda. Hugh Hefner and Macbeth. Shakespeare Online. 10 Aug. 2010. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth/heffmacbeth.html >.
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