Customer Reviews

Under the Volcano (The Criterion Collection)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this film a while back, and while I liked it, but it never really sent me, despite all the critical acclaim. Years later, I read the book, and the book is light years better than the film. I usually say the opposite, but Lowry's prose is amazing to behold, and this film is a rather straightforward rendering of the novel, which diminishes its power. I would have preferred a more hallucinatory quality to the film, similar to that of the novel. I commend John Huston for tackling such a daunting project. Albert Finney's performance is superb. The film isn't horrible, and it should be seen at least once. The feature, though, just doesn't have what the novel had, which is a shame.

One of the great things about this new Criterion edition is that it contains a rare, rare Canadian documentary called Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life of Malcolm Lowry. This documentary was briefly on VHS, then disappeared for a very long time. I bought it in a used VHS sale at my Blockbuster. I asked them why they were selling it, and they said "it had only been rented once in 2 years" (guess who was the sole renter). It was made at a time where documentaries were very rarely made (and getting them released was even more difficult). It is a remarkable film chronicling one of the most self destructive authors/artists you will ever likely encounter. Many of the images from the film were shot in Mexico during the Day of the Dead celebration, giving this film a strange, surreal vibe that is very effective. Lowry had spent time in Mexico during this celebration, and it had a major impact on his novel. Lowry was a major alcoholic, completely innudated by booze, beyond repair. His life was such a catastrophe in many ways, yet, he somehow wrote one of the greatest novels of the 20th century (which continues to be in print and talked about today). Under the Volcano is the only novel that Lowry really completed during his lifetime, but it's magnificent. This film really delves into Lowry's pysche, and you see the horror of being a man. It's a difficult and painful film, but the filmmakers never turn it into a cheap, sensationalistic film. It's narrated by Richard Burton, who had one of the greatest voices an actor ever possessed. Burton's narration lends a dignity to this film, and to Lowry's life. This is one of the greatest documentaries I've ever seen, and hopefully, it will become better known, thanks to its release on DVD. The documentary on Lowry is better than Huston's film.

John Huston was 78 when he made Malcolm Lowrey's novel of one man's descent into booze, death and bitterness (south of the border style)into a film.
It is well documented-- Author, Lowrey, tortured himself and then wrote a 400 page-- sad-sack account of a British diplomat drinking himself and his soul into oblivion (just before WWll).

Albert Finney gives one of the most devastating portrayals of an intellectual mind pickled in alcohol-- ever captured on-screen. And, the legendary director, John Huston, shoves our faces in it.
To be sure, it's beauty with a black-heart.
Don't miss it before you die.

This film strikes at the heart with the impact of a Hemingway Novel. The characters get under your skin easily and you find yourself pleading for their release from the demons that haunt them, the demons they have created. Albert Finney gives a superb and command performance. My only question is where is the DVD ??? This is one that belongs in everyones collection.

I have been a fan of Albert Finney for a long while now, and so I have been chomping at the bit to finally see this movie for which he receives so many raves. I finally got that chance (although it's been about two months or so now since I did see it) and I have to say that I was utterly blown away, not just by Finney but by this film entirely. Sure, this is `The Albert Finney Show' if we're being realistic here, but his performances is only one part (the biggest part, sure) of a well constructed and brutally honest portrait of human suffering. John Huston, one of the most successful directors of all time, crafts a beautifully tragic look at one man's illness and the dire effect it had on himself and those around him.

`Under the Volcano' will crawl under your skin.

Taking place in Cuernavaca, Mexico during 1938, `Under the Volcano' exposes a day in the life of British Consul Geoffrey Firmin. Reduced to a slobbering drunk, Firmin wastes away in the beautiful countryside, allowing life to practically waltz right past him. During the Mexican festival `Day of the Dead', Firmin's estranged wife, Yvonne returns to aid in nursing him back to health. Helping is Geoffrey's half brother Hugh. While they try, the task seems almost helpless as Geoffrey's condition worsens and his very life becomes threatened by the disease.

Albert Finney and John Huston work wonders with the material, using their talents to the full to create a masterpiece of modern film. As an actor, Finney chews up every bit of this man; creating a realistic portrait of self destruction. Every movement is perfectly accurate and every word is brilliantly conveyed. He is a fearless actor, as he's proven time and time again, and this is his crowning achievement. There is not another actor who I feel could have done what Finney does here. As a director, Huston works just as hard to create a perfect tone for Finney to dwell in. The Mexican backdrop is beyond perfect for this tale, and Huston uses it to his full advantage; creating symbolic focal shifts in order to exasperate Geoffrey's condition.

They are a perfect pair.

The supporting cast, namely Jacqueline Bisset and Anthony Andrews, are wonderful. While they are clearly supporting Finney's `one-man-show' they create their own separate entities (especially Bisset), making themselves notable and memorable. Bissett really understands how to emote the emotional frustrations of her character, and Andrews is as supportive as needed to create a believable sidekick.

The film is as devastating as they come, so be forewarned; this is not a happy picture. The acting, the script, the direction and the overall presentation is top-notch though, so if this is the type of film you go gaga over (I bath in the River Depression, I think I've mentioned that before) then this is a film you will not want to miss.

I have seen this film twice im Germany from TV while I studied for my Ph.d. For the first time wenn I watched the film, I was so deep impressed from the mexican mood and then the capacity of actor and actress. I hoped that I could watch the film again. Once again I could watch the film per TV in Germany. I don't know much about the amerikan Literature. But this film reminds me of some style of Faukner or Tennesy Williams(Sorry for my ugly English).

Firstly, I have never read the cult novel which is the basis of the film. I am reviewing the film as just that - a film - and what a film this is! A class act - and an acting class all-in-one. Albert Finney is pitch-perfect in every instance: voice and body language are used to create an absolutely authentic characterization of the Consul. (When Mr. Finney was not awarded the Oscar for his performance it was the equivalent of "Citizen Kane" not having won for Best Picture!) Apart from the acting (all of which is terrific) and the muscular, tight Guy Gallo script and the inner-demonic Alex North score and the crystal-perfect cinematography and the palpable atmosphere of each and every setting and the consummate direction by the legendary John Huston, the film is about Life and Death in the deepest meanings of those ultimately indefinable words. Contrary to widespread belief, the film is NOT a diatribe against drinking, the sad story of an alcholic, no, it is a modern day existential EPIC in the fullest sense of that word. It is a Greek Tragedy set in pre-war Mexico - the story of a spark leading to a fuse to the powder-keg of both the Consul's life...and of the World's itself, both poised on the volcanic brink of War. The film is also a poem of love and death and solipsistic agony. A story of Life being simultaneously too much....and never enough; Life as excess...and equally of emptiness. And it is the story of an ultimately heroic man: on the constant verge of being so drunk as to even stand up, he does, indeed, STAND UP in a climax that left me soul-shaken. As to Criterion, I am perfectly elated with the job they have done in the transfer, the packaging, the extras. I DO wish Mr. Finney and Anthony Andrews had been on hand to discuss their work in the film along with Ms. Bisset - and the documentary on the making of the movie included on disc two is wonderful....but I wish Criterion had included another documentary ("Observations from Under the Volcano") which I have on video and is likewise insightful and of great interest - but, alas, one cannot have everything in this life, as the Consul knew all too well....and having waited literally for years for this masterpiece to make it to DVD I can simply say it was well worth the wait! And as a sidenote - to Mr. Finney, wherever he may be - thank you for not only giving us the Consul, but Tom Jones, Scrooge, Danny in the underrated "Night Must Fall" and Charlie Bubbles (likewise directed by Mr. Finney and a film which should be released on DVD or even video!),Hercule Poirot, Daddy Warbucks...and so many other memorable, magnificent, majesterial portrayals - thank you!!! And that's no Big Fish tale either! One last note: "Under the Volcano" is not for everyone - but it should be seen by everyone!!!

It was a tough call for me to rate this film either 4 stars or 5. This is a film that is difficult to love but easy to admire for the superb performance by Albert Finney and the uncompromising direction by John Huston of Malcolm Lowry's "unfilmable" novel. Huston was never one to shy away from difficult material and "Under the Volcano" is no exception. It starts on the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead and Finney's Geoffrey Firmin for all intents and purposes fits right into the theme. Alcohol has drained Firmin of the self respect he once commanded as a British diplomat in Mexico into a shell of a man wont to drink himself into oblivion and speak in cryptic gibberish that distances himself from the rest of the world. It is a credit to the work of Finney that the audience can muster up even a modicum of sympathy for Firmin. His performance suggests internally what this man once was where externally we see the pathos of a drunkard. What else I found interesting is the demands that Huston places on the audience in that he offers no backstory or any explanation as to how Firmin reached this dire strait. It just is. This ranks with Mike Figgis' "Leaving Las Vegas" as the most compelling account of the ravages of alcoholism to a man's soul to be translated to film. This film isn't for everybody, though.

This is one of my favorite movies.

It is somewhat odd, and not many things happen. It is all about the performances, the small glimpses into the characters everyday life, and the exotic settings of old Mexico.

Finney gives the performance of his career here; he is a drunk, but he is a functioning drunk. It is so much fun to me to watch him slur and stumble his way through scene after scene, but with a depth that is beyond someone playing a stereotypical alcoholic. His humor shines though in many scenes, but it is obvious by the end he is a tortured person who still has a moral center; he stands up for what he believes all the way to the final scene. He maybe a drunk, but he is still a man of ethics and humanity.

The scenes are all about the little things; The guitar playing at the bull fight w/his brother Hugh; the exchange between Finney and a motorist who almost runs him over in the street; the church sequence where he pray for his wife to return.....

I have read the book, and I do think this captures some of the book's essence. It is a hard novel to read for me, let alone to think about transferring to the big screen w/any shred of justice.

But all involved to bring it justice. Too slow for some, this is a cool classic that puts you in another person's world for a short time. John Huston does a fantastic job w/this film too; the locations are lush and colorful, only adding to what is at the very least a very colorful film.

Terrible movie, mostly because of the inadequate screenplay. But it might be impossible to film UNDER THE VOLCANO, just as it is impossible to film ULYSSES, because the story is told through the hero's interior monologue. The external events are mundane, boring. The drama is internal.
Also a terrible waste of Albert Finney, a perfect choice for the Consul. The artificiality of the situations (the movie was made on location in Mexico, but feels every bit as artificial as a movie made on a Hollywood soundstage) hamstrings him, and I don't feel he was properly directed by Huston. His drunk act doesn't quite work.
On the bright side, Jacqueline Bissett has never looked so pretty, and her performance is good.

Forget the movie, but go to Netflix and order the bonus CD, which includes the excellent 1976 Canadian documentary about Lowry's life, VOLCANO. Lowry's friends and family are interviewed, and Richard Burton reads the darkly poetic sentences from the book. You don't get an idea of the plot, but you do get an idea of the grimness of Lowry's vision, the "certainty of sorrow and evil."
The documentary begins and ends with the same fateful sentence, read by Burton: "This is how I sometimes think of myself, as a great explorer who has discovered some extraordinary land from which he can never return to give his knowledge to the world: but the name of this land is hell."

John Houston's 'Under the Volcano (1984)' is actually a great introduction to the classic, eponymous book by Malcolm Lowry which was published in 1947. Hence the film's (and the novel's) political context is outdated with its references to the Spanish Civil War and WWII on the horizon (the story is set in Quauhnahuac, Mexico, in the year 1938 on the Day of the Dead).

But its story of a man, Geoffrey Firmin--British Consul--struggling with dipsomania while trying to reconcile with his wife is not just that--it's a universal story, with the addled Consul as Adam and Quauhnahuac as the Garden of Eden (from Biblical Mythology); the Consul's ultimate fall is the Fall of Man itself, his 'eviction' from Quauhnahuac (actually the Aztec name for the city of Cuernavaca) parallels the exile of Adam by God.

These are not overreaching statements however, as in the book--with its countless inter-textual nods (apart from the biblical mythology) to arcane Alchemy, Greek/Roman Mythology and the far-east Philosophy of Hindu Sanskrit Vedas reaching all the way to the "town of Juggernaut in India on the Bay of Bengal" (excerpt from the book's opening paragraph)--it is made clear that the protagonist (Geoffrey Firmin) is symbolic of the spiritual war within each man; and his gradual downfall will affect everyone around him.

That's the difference between the novel and the film: though no fault of the director or writer (16 different film treatments were attempted before this version) the movie simply scratches the surface: it's merely about a drunkard unable to forgive his wife--who cheated on him with his half-brother--returning to him on the auspicious Day of Dead fiesta in Mexico; while in the novel, with its complex back-stories the three main characters--Firmin, his wife Yvonne and half-brother Hugh--are bound together by worldly and inexplicable fatalistic forces and we get an insight as to why they can't tear away from the train-wreck that is Geoffrey Firmin (Hugh and Yvonne are victims of alcoholic co-dependency), while retaining the universal aspect of the main character (Firmin) as God's Man itself.

But then again, what works in print does not work in cinema--and if Houston was to transcribe all internal trains of thought present in the novel the film would've turned out to be a 12-part mini-series on television. Houston does a commendable job nonetheless, and it is beautifully photographed: the bleak vibrancy of the Day of the Dead fiesta and Mexico establishes a strong sense of place. And Albert Finney gives an Oscar nominated performance as the perpetually drunk British Consul, with good support from Jacqueline Bisset who plays his long-suffering wife Yvonne and Anthony Andrews playing Firmin's half-brother, Hugh.

For a book that was considered 'unfilmable' akin to Joyce's 'Ulysses', this is a decent adaptation of a 20th century classic.