Under the Volcano (1984)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Guy Gallo (writer)
Malcolm Lowry (novel)

Release Date:

13 June 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

No se puede vivir sin amar. (One cannot live without love.)

Plot:

Against a background of war breaking out in Europe and the Mexican fiesta Day of Death, we are taken through one day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin...

Plot Keywords:

Half Brother | One Day | Diplomat | Self Destruction | 1930s

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Albert Finney	...	Geoffrey Firmin
Jacqueline Bisset	...	Yvonne Firmin
Anthony Andrews	...	Hugh Firmin
Ignacio López Tarso	...	Dr. Vigil (as Ignacio Lopez Tarzo)
Katy Jurado	...	Senora Gregoria
James Villiers	...	Brit
Dawson Bray	...	Quincey
Carlos Riquelme	...	Bustamante
Jim McCarthy	...	Gringo
José René Ruiz	...	Dwarf (as Rene Ruiz 'Tun-Tun')
Eleazar Garcia Jr.	...	Chief of Gardens
Salvador Sánchez	...	Chief of Stockyards (as Salvador Sanchez)
Sergio Calderón	...	Chief of Municipality (as Sergio Calderon)
Araceli Ladewuen Castelun	...	Maria
Emilio Fernández	...	Diosdado (as Emilio Fernandez)

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA | Mexico

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:12 | West Germany:12 (f) | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:12 | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Acapantzingo, Morelos, Mexico

Company:

Conacite Uno

Trivia:

John Huston initially wanted to cast Richard Burton as the British consul. Huston and Burton had had a great success with a previous movie about an alcoholic set in Mexico, The Night of the Iguana (1964). Much to his regret, Burton had to decline the offer, as he was appearing in a touring production of Noel Coward's "Private Lives" with Elizabeth Taylor.

Quotes:

Geoffrey Firmin: How, unless you drink as I do, can you hope to understand the beauty of an old indian woman playing dominoes with a chicken?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Baja (1996)

An Indulgent, Often Incoherent, but Interesting Adaptation

John Huston's adaptation of Malcom Lowry's celebrated novel is very much like his adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood": foggy, dreamlike and at times unwatchable. Huston finds a strange, distant tone that is somewhere between ironic and completely bizarre, with intentionality that is questionable at best. Even though Huston was getting old at this point, he was still tackling challenging material in his old age, which possibly explains the odd mix of provocative, dense material with stilted, unintuitive storytelling. If his age isn't the main culprit for the film's weird failings, then it may be his stiflingly traditional film-making, which seemed a bit outmoded in 1984. Either way, the film never finds a proper stylistic center, causing "Under the Volcano" to continually sink into incoherence.

Huston's most grave misstep was his choice to pace the film with mostly static shots and slow editing rhythms. For being so conservatively made, there is an almost constant lack of clarity, as no one element in the film complements the other. Albert Finney's go-for-broke performance as British diplomat Geoffery Firmin is fearless and raw, but Huston's shot selections and mostly bland mise-en-scene distract from the brimming anger and pain the actor tries so nakedly to express. Similarly, the absorbing, mythical imagery of the story's Mexican "Day of the Dead" setting instead feels random as the foregrounded symbolism seems ham-fisted where it should have been atmospheric. Instead of casting the story's eerie spell, Huston's film-making suffocates the material, causing it to become overblown yet underdeveloped.

That is all not to say Huston is completely to blame, however. Screenwriter Guy Gallo's task of condensing such enormous, literary ideas into a stand alone two-hour film is admirable, and structurally he does great things to keep the story immediately revolving around Geoffory's character arc, but by the end it feels like too many corners were cut to make it happen. The character of Hugh, Geoffery's dashing half-brother, is extremely undeveloped to the point of feeling unnecessary, and Yvonne, Geoffery's estranged wife, is never given the psychological need that would make her sympathy toward him credible. Even worse, the conclusion comes with a clumsy thud, ending the film suddenly and untidily.

(2 out of 4)