Movie Review: Coriolanus
Countless works by William Shakespeare have been adapted for the movies since the dawn of cinema. The canonical masterpieces have seen every iteration imaginable – from cartoons to gothic chamber pieces to full-blown five hour epics. These ubiquitous plays are part of the cultural consciousness – the names Hamlet, Macbeth, or Richard III and their tragic fates are known to most, so even if a movie whisks along with the heavenly rhythms of the bard’s poetry most can keep up with the action from mere familiarity. This may not be the case with lesser works like the gory military tragedies Titus Andronicus or Coriolanus. Staged mostly as excuses for clever stage violence for bloodthirsty crowds they are rarely performed and have seen few filmed versions. Any faults inherent in Titus Andronicus were masked by director Julie Taymor’s 1999 haute couture imagining of the play in vast, mythological terms. For his version of Coriolanus, director/star Ralph Fiennes favors a realism that does the sluggish play no favors.
Taking on one of the master’s most inscrutable, unlikable anti-heroes in the vicious true-life Roman General Caius Martius (Fiennes locating a darkness he hasn’t displayed in years even when playing archvillian Voldemort), the star makes his directorial debut as the titular lead in Coriolanus – a man of grim countenance and preternatural success on the battlefield egged on by his hawkish, overbearing mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave confined to a few seething speeches). Fiennes chooses to produce the play in modern dress with an ashen cinematic pallet and heavy artillery in place of swords – the bombastic setting raises the mortal stakes while losing much of Shakespeare’s reverence for militaristic pageantry. Bullets whizzing past are just more difficult to romanticize or justify than a well-staged swordfight. It is an ugly update for our war-saturated times.
In the opening acts, General Martius has been called upon by his political masters to overthrow the patches of hungry, rebelling citizens led by Martius’ chief rival Aufidius (Gerard Butler gritting and scowling his way through the role) in “a place calling itself ‘Rome.’” At his valediction upon taking the city of Coriolane, the bullish, frightening general is renamed “Coriolanus” in honor of his victory, but sours the deal when he refuses the mantle of political influence so desired by his ambitious mother, ending up an accused traitor to the state. The political machinations that lead to Coriolanus’ banishment are never truly satisfying (it is a long way from the inexorable tragedy of King Lear’s debasement). Exiled from his position, the fallen hero devises a revenge coup with the aid of Aufidius’ underground fighters which will of course lead to his hubristic demise.
Gerard Butler in “Coriolanus.” Photo by Larry D. Horricks – © 2011 The Weinstein Company. All rights reserved.
Those without “Cliff Notes” in their back pocket or a deep working knowledge of second-tier Shakespeare will find the picture rather tedious – character motivations are broadly drawn without much of the pathos so inherent in the bard’s greatest tragedies, with nary a sympathetic soul in sight. Fiennes gives his all in thundering speeches which bellow loud but signify little beyond confirming the general’s value of valor above all with little concern for the wife and child dutifully watching his exploits on television (Oscar-nominee Jessica Chastain is particularly underused in her patient political housewife role).
A bold attempt to draw parallels to the egotism of modern warfare while showcasing one of Shakespeare’s most bitter collections of characters, Coriolanus had to be made into a film if only because they are running out of options, but it remains a curiosity in the great writer’s canon and does little to involve an audience of anyone but the most ardent scholars despite expectedly audacious work from the leads.
Gregory Fichter
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