I have never seen a "Macbeth" to touch this - on stage or screen.
This has the darkness, the danger and the madness that so often eludes those who try to bring this piece to life. McKellen and Dench are awe-inspiring, evidencing the intelligence that makes a great Shakespeare actor able to communicate the force and meaning of every word without either condescending or over-emphasising. A joy.

If you are looking for a film version capturing the atmosphere of the play, go for Polanski (1971) rather than Judi Dench and Co. Even though Dame Dench and her fellow actors do an excellent job, watching drama on a screen is not particularly effective, simply because the immediacy of a live performance is missing. Unless you are interested in the production of drama, stay clear of this version and go for one of the classic films - Polanski's, Welles' or Kurosawa's - instead.

The use of light & dark is fantastic. It's in colour but looks like black & white.

Comes across as a stage play (which it is!) and avoids the temptation to go for lavish sets, e.g., the battle scenes, just because it's a film.

I saw the original stage play and this is just as good. The best filmed Shakespeare tragedy I've seen. Absolutely superb

This is not just another Macbeth. Though faithful to the text and to the poetry of the text, this is used as a springboard to the production's own powerful exploration of what really drove Shakespeare - the issue of good and evil. Neither McKellen nor Dench have quite the right face for their characters (too strong and too warm respectively) but this is unimportant. Their unparalleled intensity of delivery glues the play together from beginning to end, however unpleasant to watch. But the most remarkable achievement is the way the so-called `minor' characters steadily coalesce into a unified force for good that by the end over-rides all else in our attention. The Act IV English scene is extraordinarily strong, `king's cure' and all. The need to produce for TV, usually a noose around the neck of Shakespeare, is mightily used here: no set to speak of, darkness everywhere against which a certain amount of white and occasional flashes of red or gold make their impact, a superb use of camera angles, and music that perfectly matches and supports the tone of the production. And as well as the modern dress there is a curiously modern style of delivery that makes this not Shakespeare's exploration of his theme but our own. Trevor Nunn and his team have out-Shakespeared Shakespeare.

For those, like me, who are newcomers to Shakespeare MacBeth is a play about a man who could have been great. However, he meets 3 witches who foretell a future greater than he could imagine and then ambition and avarice take over.

In this production, there is no background scenery -- just a black set. There are a few props and chairs but that's it. The focus is controlled through the lighting of the stage. At one point a smoke machine is used to generate fog but it's otherwise left to the viewer's imagination.

On the whole it was OK but it was a little overdramatic in places. One of the other annoying things is that the colour looks very faded (so much so that it's easy to wonder whether it was shot in black and white).