Throne of Blood Reaction and Rant

     I actually really liked Throne of Blood. It was fun to see an adaptation that played with the story so much while keeping the basic motivating elements of treachery and ambition in play. In fact, I feel like pushing Macbeth into war ridden Japan, brimming over with a bunch of bloodthirsty backstabbers, served to accentuate the atmosphere of death even more. It certainly made me look back at it and do some hard thinking, anyway.
     In the original text and performance, there really are a lot of murders, but they're all done sort of under the table. Everyone may KNOW that it's happening, but no one just comes out and says it (besides Macduff, who suddenly shows up and motivates people to go after Macbeth).  Here in Kurosawa's land of Macbeth, it is completely normal for these murders to happen. Murders happen every day, and every single person in the land almost seems to expect it. Their sovereign lord is always established after a bloody murder and it seems like a lot of murders happen for power; Macbeth really isn't that different than any other warrior. As he even says in the movie, "What warrior would not want to be king?" To me, it sounds like everyone is planning to murder that Duncan equivalent. The trick is just not to get caught.
     That seems pretty believable to me, too. In the play, Scotland is at war all over, with uprisings happening all over the country. Why all these uprisings if someone didn't want to take over Duncan's spot there, too? They may have marched on his castle instead of welcoming him in and murdering him in cold blood, but there were certainly some unhappy people.
    Do we not even get a hint of that when Macbeth comes into the play? He is coming from helping to squash an uprising from a Thane who wanted to be King. Just like everyone in Throne of Blood fighting each other to advance in rank.
    The samurais aren't really any different; the bloodbath is just a little more central to the story. To be completely honest, I really liked that. It actually made me stop and think about how violence and turmoil are just as important to the story as Macbeth as say, the witches or ambition. Because, really, if Macbeth had just been filled with ambition, but in a world without so much war and death already, would his mind have naturally thought about murdering Duncan?