I’m sorry but Jon Finch‘s reciting of William Shakespeare‘s “tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy in Roman Polanski‘s Macbeth (’71) strikes me as far more moving (i.e., more bitter an∂ despairing) than Denzel Washington‘s version of same in Joel Coen‘s The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Finch delivers like a perfect British instrument — carefully measured. exquisitely phrased, a straight-up RADA version minus anything quirky or modernist or side-angled. Denzel, on the other hand, is doing it “the Denzel way”, which is fascinating in its unaffected manner but at the same time lacking sufficient passion — more of a tone of lament and defeat than anything else.
Don’t even talk about Michael Fassbender‘s 2015 version in this context. Don’t even bring it up. Not a chance.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more.
It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.