The Tragedy of Coriolanus

I don't want to be too critical of this, since it is the only available version of this play. Alan Howard does a great job in the title role, making you believe in his character, and all of the other actors do great jobs too. Of course, then there's the problem all of the BBC productions had with this cycle: the production never put in the money to make these plays seem like real films, something Olivier or Brannagh would make, so you get pretty dull sets and very little music, and of course no breathtaking battles or sword fights. Still, that's not the fault of this movie, and like I said, I'm thankful at least one version exists. The DVD comes with subtitles or you can follow along with the text if you're unfamiliar with the play like I was. It's worth checking out if you get the chance.

A play like Coriolanus requires a linear adaption. For whatever reason, the people in charge of this production decided cut to different locations in A1S1 (compare to Richard II, where the camera and framing gives the audience understanding of where Aumerle &co. is in relation to Henry). A1S4 cuts from a speech to three seconds of Coriolanus's mother and wife sowing and then back to the scene because...? And the amount of abridgement is simply offensive.

The Tragedy of Coriolanus (1984) (TV) was directed by Elijah Moshinsky for the BBC. The set of made-for-TV movies (cosponsored by Time-Life Books) provides a service to viewers because it presents all of Shakespeare's 37 plays. However, the production values are basic. This can be a good thing, because we don't get the heavy production-laden films like Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet or Henry V. And, I assume,what we see is closer to what Shakespeare's audiences would have seen at The Globe.

However, you can tell the director was dealing with budget realities when crowd scenes bring together six or eight people. And, in this film, the battle scenes are carried off without much battle.

However, all of this would have worked for me if the part of Caius Marcius (Coriolanus) had been played by someone other than Alan Howard. Howard was a noted Shakespearean actor, but he just didn't look right for the part. Coriolanus is proud, and disdainful of the common people. Howard did well with that aspect of Coriolanus's character. However, Coriolanus is a soldier. He's not just a great general. He's a fierce warrior who cuts down any enemy who gets in his way. Howard looked like the combat he was best suited for was a chess tournament. With a weak Coriolanus, the rest of the play doesn't work.

On the other hand, the movie is worth watching because of the incredible performance by Irene Worth. Worth plays Volumnia, Coriolanus's mother, and she is superb. She looks and acts like the mother who has turned her child into the ferocious warrior that he is. (Well, as he is in Shakespeare, if not in this film.) You don't want to miss this performance, so I highly recommend that you find this movie and watch it. (If worst comes to worst, you can fast forward through the scenes in which Worth doesn't appear.) Because the movie was made for TV, it works well on the small screen. I recommend it, even with the flaws I've described above.

Although the BBC Television Shakespeare series is an uneven one, as has been said more than once, it is also a truly fascinating one and a must for anybody who wants to see all of Shakespeare's plays done as part of one whole big project. A big brave undertaking that should be applauded regardless of the execution, whether continually good, continually bad or inconsistent.

'Coriolanus' is no exception. It is not an easy play to perform or stage and dramatically is not as concise or as consistently gripping as other Shakespeare plays. One of Shakespeare's most compelling and more complex titular characters is one of the main interest points. While it is not a perfect production, flawlessness was not seen a lot in this series even in the best productions, for me 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus' is among the higher middle ones of the series and is as above satisfactory a performance of 'Coriolanus' as one can get. It is not completely bloodthirsty and it could have seared more but it is a long way from bloodless or bland.

It's with some of the production values where 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus' could have been better. The abrupt transitions in the editing being especially the case, but some of the lighting is on the overripe, obvious side at times as well and this is one of the productions in the series where a more austere touch actually would have been a benefit and blended more. Most of the time actually though, it is one of the more interestingly lit productions and does look very striking.

Not all the more action-oriented scenes completely work either, veering on the clumsy side of things but smoother editing would have helped things much better, also along with the crowd scenes pretty under-populated.

However, the sets are beautifully designed, on the most part apart from the editing and at times the lighting 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus' struck me as one of the better looking productions of the BBC Television Shakespeare series. The staging is coherent and more often than not has enough dramatic intensity and emotional impact to make the drama interesting and investable.

Thought personally that Alan Howard very much excelled as Coriolanus, it is a very committed and often fiercely powerful portrayal. The other acting standout is Irene Worth, sincere and poignant Volumnia. The character interaction is done very well as is the rest of the acting.

Overall, very well done. 8/10

Although the BBC Time-Life dramatization of Coriolanus is titled The Tragedy of Coriolanus, there is some opinion that considers the play a comedy, albeit a very dark satire of the consequences of a haughty patrician arrogance. Who is being satirized, of course, is open for discussion, but one suggestion is that the play skews the ill-fated Earl of Essex, a British commander who led a campaign in Ireland and whose overweening ego and hubris led him to the Tower and beheading at the age of 35 after the so-called Essex Rebellion of 1601. Not printed until the First Folio of 1623 and not performed publicly prior until much later, no evidence exists that would support orthodox claims for a date of composition of 1605 to 1608 and the date the play was written is unclear.

Shakespeare's primary source for Coriolanus was Plutarch's The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans, first translated into French by Bishop Jacques Amyot in 1559 and then into English by Thomas North in 1579 and popular enough to reach its third printing in 1603. This enormous work by the Greek philosopher and biographer, among several books purchased by the 19-year-old Edward de Vere in the original Amyot translation (receipts for this purchase still exist), was the principal source for several of Shakespeare's plays, including Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, and Julius Caesar.

Though the author follows Plutarch's account of the life of Coriolanus, Shakespeare expands on the role of Coriolanus' mother Volumnia (Irene Worth), Coriolanus' (Alan Howard) inner turmoil, his wife Virgilia (Joanna McCallum) and on the character of Menenius (Joss Ackland) whose prominence in the play is not matched in Plutarch. The story revolves around a rather obscure Roman soldier from the 5th Century BC named Caius Marcius, whose winning battles against the Volsces, the enemies of Rome. His attack against the city of Corioli, defended by Volsces general Lucius Afidius (Mike Gwilym), leads him to be named Caius Marcius Coriolanus and a triumphant return to Rome. There he is nominated for consul, a term-limited position that requires confirmation by the Senate and by the people.

It is soon apparent that recently elected Tribunes will oppose his nomination because of his opposition to plebian representation in the senate. As Coriolanus' disdain for the common people becomes painfully evident, his overbearing pride leads him to be declared a traitor and he is summarily banished from Rome. Returning to Antium, he joins forces with Aufidius, his former enemy, to lead a vengeful assault on Rome, where his wife, mother, and son still reside but, ironically in his most compassionate moment, he is brought down after an eloquent plea by his powerful mother to abandon the campaign.

Though most everything about the authorship controversy is speculation, one is forced to wonder how a commoner could (in the totalitarian atmosphere of Elizabethan England) get away with writing a play in which the tragic downfall of an aristocrat is brought about by his disdain for the common people. Though it is true that Shakespeare makes the Plebians unruly and deceitful, he makes class distinctions the center of the story, a rather audacious act, and the disgraced soldier is eventually revered for his nobility.

While the play is not on the level of Shakespeare's great tragedies such as Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear (there is no inner soul searching or comic relief), the performance by Alan Howard as Coriolanus captures the character's willful arrogance and the production is very well put together, one of the best BBC adaptations. One looks forward to the upcoming film of Coriolanus directed by Ralph Fiennes scheduled to begin shooting in March 2010.