Under the Volcano - Criterion Collection (1984)

Disappointing

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." July 4, 2008

I Need A Drink. . .

Good grief. UNDER THE VOLCANO was one of the most powerful, disturbing, brilliant novels of the Twentieth Century. Its brilliance was a derivative of its prose, which in turn was the befuddled, delusional musings of the Consul. The reader is inside the head of Geoffery Firmin; unfortunately, the viewer never sees this frightening point of view in John Huston's utterly silly film adaptation of Malcom Lowry's masterpiece.

From its wacky, bizarre opening credits, to its total compression and dehydration (pardon the pun) of Lowry's tale of the fateful events of the Day of the Dead, 1938, this is a movie that goes through the motions. Granted, Albert Finney does an admirable job in the lead role, yet the viewer is never privy to the total madness of the Consul's alcohol-induced dementia; Finney just drinks and rants, then drinks and rants. Jacqueline Bisset and Anthony Andrews seem to be nothing more than unimaginative props; in fact, all the Hispanic extras who move in and out of this film seem to be self-consciously aware they are props and nothing more. (They certainly don't look like people living in central Mexico circa 1938; they look like Eighties contemporaries heading for an MTV music video shoot.) And the distortion of its ending. . .all I can say is: Blasphemous. Well, I can say something more: Howler.

This Criterion Collection is a two-disc set; extra features include scene commentaries by Danny Huston (who did the bizarre opening credits) and screenplay writer Guy Gallo. The second disc includes a recent interview with Bisset (who basically laments she was the only female on the set), and a Canadian-made documentary about the tumultuous life of Malcom Lowry. This documentary is easily the darkest, most depressing production I have ever seen (and I've seen some lulus, folks). All in all, an adaptation that doesn't do the book justice, coupled with vanilla extra features and a brooding documentary, make UNDER THE VOLCANO a very forgettable viewing experience.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning

March 31, 2008

An Existential Epic!!!

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!!! January 28, 2008

a nice film

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

Under the Volcano is a film about an alcoholic British diplomat, Geoffrey Firmin, living in Mexico. In the film he attempts to reconcile with his estranged wife who is visiting him.

It is directed by the Academy Award winning John Huston who earlier directed many classic films including "The Maltese Falcon", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director, "Moby Dick", and "The Bible: In The Beginning"

The release is a two disc set.

Disc one contains the film with the trailer and a full-length audio commentary by executive producer Michael Fitzgerald and producers Wieland Schulz-Keil and Moritz Borman, and two selected scene commentaries. One on the film's opening sequence by Danny Hudson, and on various scenes by Guy Gallo.

Disc two has a video interview with Jacqueline Bisset, a documentary on the film's production, and a biographical film on Malcolm Lowry who was the inspiration for the lead character in the film, and a 1984 audio interview with director John Huston. This film is definately not his best, but it is interesting as one of his later films. December 12, 2007

A day for the living and the dead.

Based on one of my favorite novels, Malcolm Lowry's semi-autobiographical Under the Volcano (1947), John Huston's 1984 film chronicles the final hours in the life of Geoffrey Firmin (an anagram for "infirm"), an alcoholic British consul living in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac (Cuernavaca), situated in the shadows of the Ixtacihuatl and Popocateptl volcanoes. Set on the Day of the Dead, 1938, for Firmin the day is just like any other day in the life of a drunk. He is on the brink of self-destruction, and by the end of the day he will be dead in a ditch. He aspires to write a book, but his years of drinking now affect all areas of his life, including his relationship with his estranged wife Yvonne (Jacqueline Bisset). She has returned to Mexico hoping to rekindle her relationship with Geoffrey and to save him from death. Hugh Firmin (Anthony Andrews) is Geoffrey's half-brother, who once had an affair with Yvonne. Geoffrey's day is filled with hallucinations and drunken rants as he wanders from cantina to cantina. Although Lowry's writing does not translate easily into film, Huston's adaptation is memorable nonetheless. This is a rare experience in film drawn from an equally rare experience in literature.

The Criterion special edition features a new, high-definition digital transfer, audio commentary featuring executive producer Michael Fitzgerald and producers Wieland Schulz-Keil and Moritz Borman, the theatrical trailers, a video interview with Jacqueline Bisset, an audio interview with screenwriter Guy Gallo, a 1984 audio interview with John Huston conducted by French film critic Michel Ciment, notes from "Under the Volcano" (1984), a 59-minute documentary by Gary Conklin shot on the set during the film's production, featuring interviews with Huston, cast, and crew, and "Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry" (1976), filmmaker Donald Brittain's 99-minute, Academy Award-nominated documentary, narrated by Richard Burton, examining the connections between Under the Volcano author Malcolm Lowry's life and that of his novel's main character.

G. Merritt December 8, 2007

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