Editing Throne of Blood (section)

===Critical response===
On [[review aggregator]] [[Rotten Tomatoes]] the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 47 reviews, with an average score of 8.80/10. The site's consensus states: "A career high point for Akira Kurosawa – and one of the best film adaptations of a Shakespeare play."<ref name="RottenTomatoes">{{Cite Rotten Tomatoes|title=Throne of Blood|id=throne_of_blood|type=m|access-date=2022-05-10|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220501130338/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/throne_of_blood|archive-date=2022-05-01}}</ref>

When it was released in the United States in 1961, the ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' review praised Kurosawa and the film as "a visual descent into the hell of greed and superstition".<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=December 1, 1961 |title=Cinema: Kurosawa's Macbeth |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938835,00.html |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=December 9, 2016 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026140419/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938835,00.html|archive-date=October 26, 2020}}</ref>

[[Bosley Crowther]] from ''[[The New York Times]]'' called the idea of Shakespeare in Japanese "amusing", and complimented the cinematography.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/11/23/archives/screen-change-in-scenejapanese-production-of-macbeth-opens.html |title=Screen: Change in Scene: Japanese Production of 'Macbeth' Opens |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |author-link=Bosley Crowther |date=November 23, 1961 |access-date=May 3, 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220425072849/https://www.nytimes.com/1961/11/23/archives/screen-change-in-scenejapanese-production-of-macbeth-opens.html|archive-date=April 25, 2022}}</ref> Most critics stated it was the visuals that filled the gap left by the removal of Shakespeare's poetry.{{sfn|Yoshimoto|2000|p=268}}

U.K. directors [[Geoffrey Reeve]] and [[Peter Brook]] considered the film to be a masterpiece, but denied it was a Shakespeare film because of the language.{{sfn|Jin|2009|p=88}} Film historian [[Donald Richie]] praised the film as "a marvel because it is made of so little: fog, wind, trees, mist".{{sfn|Richie|1998|p=120}}{{sfn|Jin|2009|p=90}} Film critic [[Stephen Prince]] compared its minimalist landscapes to the painting technique ''[[ink wash painting|sumi-e]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/270-throne-of-blood-shakespeare-transposed |title=Throne of Blood: Shakespeare Transposed |last=Prince |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Prince |date=January 6, 2014 |access-date=May 3, 2022 |work=[[The Criterion Collection]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220304091337/https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/270-throne-of-blood-shakespeare-transposed|archive-date=March 4, 2022}}</ref>

David Parkinson of ''[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]'' magazine rated it 5 out of 5, calling it "highly cinematic" and "a film studded with magnificent set-pieces".<ref name="Empire">{{cite web |last=Parkinson |first=David |date=January 4, 2002 |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/throne-blood-review/ |title=''Throne of Blood'' Review |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612124115/https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/throne-blood-review/ |archive-date=2020-06-12 |access-date=2023-09-26 |work=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]}}</ref>

The film has received praise from literary critics despite the many liberties it takes with the original play. The American literary critic [[Harold Bloom]] judged it "the most successful film version of ''Macbeth''".{{sfn|Bloom|1999|p=519}} [[Sylvan Barnet]] writes it captured Macbeth as a strong warrior, and that "Without worrying about fidelity to the original," ''Throne of Blood'' is "much more satisfactory" than most Shakespeare films.{{sfn|Barnet|1998|p=197-198}} Film historian David A. Conrad wrote that just as Shakespeare's play commented on "questions of legitimacy, masculinity, and civil war" that resonated in early 17th-century England, Kurosawa's movie engages with contemporary Japanese debates about the "spiderless cobweb" of postwar bureaucracy and industry.{{sfn|Conrad|2022|p=116-122}} In his ''Movie Guide'', [[Leonard Maltin]] gave the film four stars, calling it a "graphic, powerful adaptation".{{sfn|Maltin|2014|p=1429}}