Blog Entry 3.2. Macbeth through footage

This movie filmed by Columbia Pictures seems to come out a while ago, but the intro of the movie is impressive. The reasons I chose this movie are because of the way the director of the movie develops, for example, the location, which is a blasted heath, where three witches appear first and the props in the ritual of three witches.

            Many symbols can be found in this footage which are the following: ominous call of birds, three witches, an arm cut, a rope used for guillotine, a dagger, a cane used by a witch, and blood-like red liquid. Most of the symbols in the footage seem negative. An unhappy call of bird implies an evil omen. An arm cut, a guillotine rope, and a dagger strongly indicate death. A dagger can also stand for betrayal because if a sword pertains to a war, a dagger is used to kill someone right next to you. Number three can indicate irresistible and divine power such as the trinity. In this movie, we can see one of the witches carries a cane. A stick or a cane of a witch, for example, is a symbol of superhuman skill. Sometimes a witch makes a mysterious liquid with weird materials such as unknown plant, a dead body of an animal, or someone’s blood. The blood-like fluid which is being used by the witches in the movie can be a magic fluid. The red color helps promote scary atmosphere.

            There are several meaningful gestures in the footage. In the scene when a witch makes the arm cut in a pit hold the dagger tells us that there will be a murder later on. When we want to hide something, we can bury it in the ground. The act of burying on a blasted heath implies that the three witches are working out a scheme. It is also interesting that after burying, they start spitting around the spot. Spitting is negative and filthy which can make people frown and sick. It is evident that the ritual just held by the witches is an evil omen. Even without sound effects, the audiences would notice that the witches are forming a plot to do something bad.

            As we can see throughout many types of literature, a witch usually conspires against a hero or a heroine and sometimes acts as an antagonist. Regardless of wheather if it is a comedy or a tragedy, if there is a witch, it is obvious that a hero will undergo a hard time. Usually, from the scene where he meets a witch, the play gets more interesting. When the tension comes to the maximum and he beats off the witch and overcomes the obstacles or the spell plotted by a witch, people are gratified with the result. Therefore, the archetype of a witch generates a reader's interest.