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Ein Film, der Shakespeare's Stück (Macbeth) von
Schuld und Betrug vor dem unwirklichen Hintergrund eines Fast Food Lokals in
den frühen 70ern spielen lässt.
Der Film wurde 2001 auf dem Sundance Film Festival uraufgeführt
(Park City, Utah) |
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What happens if you take one of William Shakespeare's darkest tragedies
and move it to a burger joint in the early 1970s? The answer can be found in
the satiric comedy Scotland, PA, the first feature from writer and director
Billy Morrissette. Mac McBeth (James LeGros) is a hard-working but
unambitious doofus who toils at a hamburger stand alongside his wife Pat
(Maura Tierney), who has a significant edge in the brains department. Pat is
convinced she could do a lot better with the place than their boss Norm
Duncan (James Rebhorn) is doing, so she works up a plan to usurp Norm,
convincing Mac to rob the restaurant's safe and then murder Norm, using the
robbery as a way of throwing the police off their trail. Though two stoners
(Andy Dick and Timothy Speed Levitch) and a would-be fortune teller (Amy
Smart) warn Mac that bad luck awaits him, he gathers his courage and goes
through with his wife's scheme. At first, things seem to have gone just as
Pat hoped, and after Norm's sons (Geoff Dunsworth and Tom Guiry) sell the
restaurant to the McBeths (they pay for it with the money they stole from
Norm), business takes off. But vegetarian police detective McDuff
(Christopher Walken) is convinced there's foul play at the new center of the
fast food universe, and when the McBeths fear that fry cook Banco (Kevin
Corrigan) knows more than he's letting on, Pat decides another murder is
on the menu. Scotland, PA premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival;
incidentally, Shakespeare does receive screen credit for his contribution to
the story. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Shakespeare hat Hunger oder "Lady Macbeth"
well done. Der alte Barde ist doch immer wieder für ein neues Treatment gut.
Wer hätte schon an die Ähnlichkeiten zu McDonald's gedacht, ganz zu
schweigen davon, dass Shakespeares Drama mit Referenzen zum Thema Essen
vollgestopft ist. So berichtet jedenfalls der mehr als einfallsreiche
Regisseur und Autor Morrissette, der sich bislang als Schauspieler und
Ehemann der Hauptdarstellerin Tierney ("E.R.") verdingte, auch wenn die
meinte, sie hätte zehn Jahre mit dem Regisseur geschlafen, um die Rolle zu
bekommen. Ein Rekord, bestimmt. Das Ergebnis jedenfalls ist die
schmackhafteste Adaptation überhaupt (einschließlich Polanski) und eine der
besten Indie-Komödien seit langem.
Im Zentrum steht Joe McBeth,
genannt Mac (LeGros), der in Duncan's Diner zwar die besten Ideen, aber
keinen Einfluss hat. Gattin Pat (Tierney) stiftet ihn an, zunächst einmal
den stehlenden Manager beim Chef (Rebhorn) anzukreiden. Nach dessen Mord
verkaufen seine wenig interessierten Söhne den McBeths das Königreich
besonders günstig. Mit neuen Ideen für Service und Design entwickelt sich
die Burgerbraterei zum Großerfolg schneller als man Fast Food zubereiten
kann. Schuldgefühle und Paranoia verstärken sich mit dem Erscheinen des
vegetarischen Inspektor McDuff – Walken gewohnt süffisant und in bester
Colombo Manier – und veranlassen die McBeths, ihren besten Freund Banco
(Corrigan) zu beseitigen.
Neben den wirklich einfallsreichen Parallelen
– die Hexen sind Hippies (Timothy Speed Levitch, Amy Smart, Andy Dick),
Duncan stribt in der Friteuse, Pat hat eine imaginäre Brandwunde – sorgt der
Schauplatz 70's für weiterhin köstliches Amüsement. Angefangen mit Kostümen
(David C. Robinson, "Zoolander", "Pollock"), Ausstattung (Jennifer Stewart,
"Beefcake") und dem Rocksound von "Bad Company" wird die Zeit der Smileys
und Schlaghosen durch den Popkultur-Kakao gezogen. Die Kamera von Pfister
("Memento", "Insomnia") fängt das Geschehen nostalgisch gefärbt ein und gibt
dem Indie-Film mehr als einen coolen Blick. --Andreas Fuchs.
There are many different opinions on Scotland PA in the
web- some say, it's funny
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006G8IB/002-3862123-7322448?v=glance
others it's boring and absolutely nonsens.
February 8, 2002
--
new york post
SCOTLAND, PA ARGUABLY the most amusing version of Shakespeare's
endlessly adaptable Scottish tragedy, "Scotland, PA" cleverly transposes
"MacBeth" to the '70s fast-food business with lots of McLaughs to spare.
Redneck dimwit Joe "Mac" McBeth (James LeGros) and his more ambitious
wife, Pat (Maura Tierney), work for erstwhile doughnut king Norm Duncan
(James Rebhorn) at his greasy spoon in rural Pennsylvania.
When Mac is passed over for promotion to manager in favor of Norm's
rock-musician son, Malcolm (Thomas Guiry), the McBeths plunge their employer
head-first into a deep-fat fryer.
Using stolen money, they buy the business from Malcolm and his
show-tune-loving brother, Donald (Geoff Dunsworth), and make a mint with
drive-through windows and special dipping sauces for their McBeth burgers.
But there's something rotten in the Keystone State.
Pat is obsessed with an imaginary grease burn on her hand, while her
spouse is haunted by a vision of three hippie witches he encountered at a
carnival.
 Fellow employee Banco (Kevin Corrigan) is casting doubts on the McBeths'
attempts to implicate Duncan's sons in his death - and Lt. Ernie McDuff
(Christopher Walken), a loopy vegetarian detective assigned to the case, is
starting to ask semi-intelligent questions.
The first half of "Scotland, PA" is by far the funniest, with witty
dialogue, hilariously ugly period fashions and hairstyles - and droll
references to such mercifully forgotten '70s enthusiasms as Yahtzee, tanning
parlors, fondue, macramé, streakers, "McCloud" and Joe Namath.
Billy Morrissette, an actor making his writing-directing debut, gets a
bit bogged down in the mechanics of Shakespeare's plot after the midway
point, when the McBeths have to start killing more people to cover up their
guilt.
But Tierney (of TV's "ER" and "NewsRadio"), Morrisette's real-life wife,
makes a fast-food meal of her role as the blond-streaked Pat, who explains
in '70s argot, "We're not bad people. We're underachievers who have to make
up for lost time."
"Scotland, PA" goes down as smooth as a McShake, thanks to Walken's
priceless performance as the Colombo-like detective who speaks in whispers
and listens to transcendental meditation tapes in his car. Too bad the print
ads give away his extremely funny last scene.
Scotland, PA despite such a whimsical premise is a comic dose of
brilliance. Director/writer Billy Morrissette is better known as a
supporting actor in such films as Pump Up
the Volume. His directorial debut was Scotland, PA & as I
write this review it is still the only film he has directed and/or written.
If Billy is having trouble selling more film projects, then there's just no
justice in filmmaking.
The story transfers Shakespeare's Macbeth to a white trash town in
Pennsylvania, circa 1975, with possession of a fast-food restaurant standing
in for the Scottish castle. Christopher Walken outdoes Peter Falk's Columbo
in fashioning a memorable character: the vegetarian police leutenant McDuff
investigating the grotesque death of Norm Duncan (James Rebhorn), whose
frycook & window-waitress are a loser-stoner couple Joe & Pat McBeth (Maura
Tierney pulling off a perfect satire of the pitiless femme fatale, & James
LeGros delivering hysterical material in equally perfect deadpan manner).
Scotland, PA is black comedy at its finest, definitely more plausible than
absurd, with excellent performances all round. It is lighthearted &
dementedly appalling, a sweet film with vileness at the core, delightful
throughout
(Paghat the Ratgirl)
"I used to be a dancer." (Ernie)
"Christopher Walken is a riot as "Lt." McDuff - almost enough to save the
picture..."
"Walken, of course, starts stealing scenes the moment he walks into the
diner to investigate Duncan's murder. "I'm Lt. McDuff...Ernie," is all he
says. But the way he flashes that patented, friendly but just this side of
psycho smile is enough to make you grin ear to ear."
www.splicedonline.com/02reviews/scotlandpa.html
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