Scotland,
PA is loosely based on Shakespeare's Macbeth.
The reason for the title is that the venue of Shakespeare's
play is Scotland, but the screenplay has been written for
a mythical town in eastern Pennsylvania. Norm Duncan (played
by James Rebhorn), a widower, has accumulated enough capital
to sell his donut shop to buy a café. He requires his
two sons Malcolm (played by Tom Guiry) and Donald (played
by Geoff Dunsworth) to work at various shifts, despite their
wishes to the contrary, and he rides herd on other employees,
Joe McBeth (played by James LeGros), Pat McBeth (played by
Maura Tierney), and Anthony "Banco" Banconi (played
by Kevin Corrigan). Although Joe makes several helpful suggestions
to improve the café, Duncan ignores his ideas. Joe
especially resents Duncan's indifference after he reports
that the current manager, Doug McKenna (played by Josh Pais),
is pocketing profits. Upset that his is not named as the new
manager, one day Joe decides to kill Duncan, and his wife
goes alone. The two sons then inherit a small fortune, so
they sell the café that they detest to Joe and Pat,
who in turn transform the café into a McBeth fast food
restaurant, wide arches and all. However, Duncan's murder
brings Lt. Ernie McDuff (played by Christopher Walken) to
the scene to solve the crime. After getting nowhere in his
interviews, one day Banco leaves a note that recants an earlier
statement, implicating the McBeths. On hearing that Banco
may be a key witness again him, Joe kills him. On the opening
day of the new restaurant, however, Banco's ghost appears,
Joe goes ballistic, and in due course the McBeths are apprehended.
Whereas the original Macbeth story identified ruthless court
intrigue, wherein powerful people abuse their positions, Scotland,
PA fingers the narcissism of white trash small-town
Americans in 1975 who believe that there is nothing wrong
with self-indulgence. Directed by former fastfood worker Billy
Morrissette, Scotland, PA demonstrates that
nothing much has changed about human nature in the years since
Macbeth assassinated his cousin King Duncan of Scotland in
1050, or at least since the Bard wrote the tale some four
centuries ago. MH
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