Thursday, April 24, 2014

Scotland, PA (2001)

In what is essentially a black comedy retelling of MacBeth set in the mid 1970s, Mac and wife Pat work at a hamburger stand where their manager is stealing from the till. When they report this to Duncan the owner, he fires the manager and decides it's time for his sons to learn the business, neither of which are particularly interested.

Duncan tells Mac and Pat about his plans to expand the business.  Pat, who is bitter that Mac is not manager and thinks they could make lots of money if they owned the restaurant, urges Mac to murder Duncan and steal the money from the safe to make it look like a robbery.  While Mac isn't fully committed to murdering Duncan, after accidentally hitting him in the head, things get out of control and soon Duncan is dead.

At first, everything seems to have worked out fine.  They buy the hamburger stand from Duncan's sons using the money stolen from teh safe, add a drive through to the restaurant, and business starts booming.  But there's a detective hanging around that seems to suspect things aren't what they seem to be, Mac's friend Banko is asking questions he shouldn't be, and Mac is not the same person he was before.

A familiarity with MacBeth is probably helpful when watching this movie, but not essential. Although there are definitely things that might not be as interesting or amusing if you don't know the original story.

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