Scotland, Pa. (2001)

Director:

Billy Morrissette

Writers:

William Shakespeare (play)
Billy Morrissette (written by)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

What if the McBeths were alive in '75?

Plot:

Joe McBeth is a hard-working but unambitious doofus who toils at a hamburger stand alongside his wife Pat...

Plot Keywords:

Restaurant | Patricide | Gay Teenager | Stupidity | Family Business

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

James LeGros	...	Joe 'Mac' McBeth
Maura Tierney	...	Pat McBeth
Christopher Walken	...	Lieutenant McDuff
Kevin Corrigan	...	Anthony 'Banko' Banconi
James Rebhorn	...	Norm Duncan, Owner Duncan's Cafe
Tom Guiry	...	Malcolm Duncan (as Thomas Guiry)
Amy Smart	...	Stacy (Hippie #1)
Timothy 'Speed' Levitch	...	Hector (Hippie #2)
Andy Dick	...	Jesse (Hippie #3)
Geoff Dunsworth	...	Donald Duncan
Josh Pais	...	Douglas McKenna, Manager who gets fired for embezzlement
Reed Rudy	...	Kevin 'Tanman' McKane
John Cariani	...	Ed the 'not-too-bright' Cop
David Wike	...	Jimmy McMann
Nicola Lipman	...	Mrs. Lenox, Duncan's Waitress

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some nudity, drug content and brief violence.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Company:

Abandon Pictures

Trivia:

James LeGros, Tom Guiry, and Geoff Dunsworth, all achieved their 1970s-style long hair by using wigs.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, Pat's "perfect" soft ice cream cone is half as tall and not nearly as shapely when she pulls it from the machine as when she lifts it up to show Doug.

Quotes:

McDuff: You strike me as smart. Which brings me to my next point that you should, uh, pay attention to. I don't want you to be guilty. So, Mr. Duncan; take a breath, start again, let's have a conversation that makes you not guilty.

Movie Connections:

References Godspell: A Musical Based on the Gospel According to St. Matthew (1973)

Soundtrack:

Moonlight Sonata

Duncan Donuts...

I really didn't get the "Duncan Donuts" gag until I sat down to write this brief review. It's that kind of movie, I guess: it is smarter than you think, but in ways that aren't necessarily very illuminating to the core of the drama.

This take on Shakespeare's MacBeth is both lightweight and light on its feet. It doesn't take itself very seriously but it takes what it wants from the material and spins it into an unexpected and hard to categorize movie. Think "Dazed and Confused" meets the Bard and you're getting pretty close to the mark, but it's campier than that, not as heartfelt, more smart-alecky. There's a little Twin Peaks bound up in the recipe, as well.

Though the material is not as well-crafted as, say, "Shakespeare in Love", the sloppy, homemade quality almost becomes its central aesthetic. It feels like something you'd dream up on a Friday night sitting around a hookah with your best friends, and by Saturday morning nobody could remember quite what you were talking about.

Even though the film utterly lacks the air of serious drama that one normally expects in a rendition of a Shakespearian tragedy, one can't help but wonder if the slapdash charms of this production might not actually lie closer to what versions Shakespeare himself might have seen produced at the Globe...rowdy, loose, untamed entertainment that races from one side of the stage to the other without pausing to ask what its all about.