User reviews

Albert Finney's performance of alcoholism is shattering and spot on. This movie should be required as adjunctive therapy in the field of alcoholism recovery. The feeling of hopelessness that permeates this movie makes it an experience the viewer should be advised about.

This movie packs a punch and Finney's performance is as exact and nuanced as is possible. His posture, his mental states, emotions, facial expressions, use of language, clothing, physicality are completely consistent with those of an alcoholic in an advanced stage of the disease.

Although it's a one-man movie, the other main players act exactly as real people do when dealing with alcoholics and portray the emotions and feelings that surround alcoholic situations.

This movie is definitely not a walk in the park.

There are pointless arguments to be had as to whether Burton and Taylor in the main roles would have been better and wouldn't it have been good to see that Losey or, praise be, the Bunuel version get off the ground, but we have what we have. Almost fifty years on from when I read the deeply affecting book I cannot recall how faithful the telling is although I do retain a memory of it being more intense and foreboding than here. That volcano was not just a pretty picture but something like the forthcoming war that impinged upon the daily life. Nevertheless this is a very fine effort, Finney gives it his all and just about convinces, Bisset is pretty but less convincing and Huston has an eye for the Mexican setting, particularly the Day of the Dead celebrations and the final ghastly booze and debauchery sequence. But then, Huston himself knew more than a little about, not just drinking, but periods of drinking all the time, or as someone says here, 'drinking himself sober'.

This is one of those movies that is always in the discount pile, "Any Rental--99cents'. You find it at garage sales and the like, although I never know why. Perhaps it's the atrocious artwork. Seems a lot of video store patrons base their entire rental decisions on the cover art-I've never heard so many uninformed and ludicrous remarks as have been made in the `User Comments' column for the movie `What Happened Was'-a very smart adult drama. Seems the provocative pose of star Karen Sillas on the cover suggested some sort of couples-therapy Skinamax special. Ooh the disappointment of it all.

Anyway, Under the Volcano is also a very smart adult drama. To begin with, Albert Finney's Oscar nominated performance (he did garner an LA Film Critics award), is superb (1985 was the year Amadeus swept). As the terminally alcoholic Geoffrey Fermin, Finney plays quite a different sort of beast than those played famously by Ray Milland (Lost Weekend), Jack Lemmon (Days of Wine and Roses), and Nick Cage (Leaving Las Vegas).

Fermin is adrift in his alcoholism-an educated man, an English Consul, no less, whose losing battle with booze has cost him his job (Consul to Mexico), and his wife. He is at that stage when the bottle is his last and only compadre as it may. He has succumbed to it, long before this drama begins. His resignation is complete, any pretense of normalcy is only a whisper. He is waiting for it to take his life.

Under John Huston's direction, Under the Volcano is basically a one-man show. In support, as Fermin's wife Yvonne, Jacqueline Bisset gives for me the strongest performance of her career.

Highly recommend, but don't expect to come away with sunshine on your shoulders.

It's November 1, 1938 in Cuernavaca, Mexico, The Day of the Dead. Former British consul Geoffrey Firmin (Albert Finney) is drunk walking the streets in a tux with no socks. He is despondent over his divorce from Yvonne (Jacqueline Bisset). She and his half-brother Hugh (Anthony Andrews) arrive to help him recover his senses.

Albert Finney delivers a fascinating performance. Of all the characters, I am most uncertain about is Yvonne. I think it's more compelling for his ex-wife to be an object of faraway longing. She is too nice anyways. Bisset is gorgeous. She is too perfect. She should be a source of conflict instead. Overall, Finney's compelling performance drives this train. Director John Huston knows how to draw it out of his great actors.

Under the Volcano could have made as just another 'Lost Weekend' film if not for the attention to a simple narrative (though one that has a lot underneath the surface), and a performance to compellingly take us through the unbalanced emotional state of its protagonist. From what I've read about what the novel became by this adaptation, Huston took out the big poetic bits that made it such an unclassifiable (and as many claimed unadaptable) work and made it into a tale of a man's downfall from grace and good times. The story is as such: Geoffrey Firmin (Finney) is a recently retired consul in Mexico who has that big, admirable personality that comes with those who have lived- or boasted to live- quite a life, and have taken now to mass consumptions of alcohol. It's not even about the enjoyment of it, but a compulsion for 'balance' to drink just to get sober, as it might be. He's also divorced, recently, but his wife (Bisset) comes to him again, wanting once more to patch things up.

This is set in the backdrop of the 'Day of the Dead' festival, and on the brink of world war 2, but these things are, however brilliantly and as a kind of delicate lining around, a backdrop for the emotional and mental and, it should be noted, spiritual struggle of Firmin. Huston never preaches about this man's rotting addiction, and there's no easy sympathy either. We see his emotional state rock from happy and hopeful to the pits of despair following the bullfight his half-brother Hugh (Andrews) takes part in, where he can't basically grasp his own reality anymore. Underneath this surface of the film though, where we're given this proud, unstable character, there's chaos riling about, attached in a way to the mood around, with rumored Nazi collaborators in the midst of things, a near-murdered body on the side of the road, the matter-of-fact metaphors of the symbols of death that (as Huston makes in one of the most Gothic openings to a movie I've ever seen) opens the film with marionette skeletons to an eerie Alex North score.

But lest to say that all credit should go to Huston for his storytelling. It's an interesting film for the first three quarters, though in a way feels like it has to be building for something; here and there, even as we're with these character wandering in a state of mind of disarray (will Firmin and Yvonne stay together, split apart, who will run away are the basic questions, as well as how Andrews might have something to do with it on either side), it starts to feel like it could become meandering. In that last quarter, however, Huston lays on a feeling of dread, maybe not entirely with coincidence, that hasn't been seen since Treasure of the Sierra Madre- something bad just HAS to happen, and it will come out through the worst devils of the protagonist's nature. There is that for Huston, the power of that brothel sequence, the terror and even the dark humor.

The best reason above all else, even as it's one of Huston's most challenging films, is that Finney is so terrific in the role. It's a startling work of an actor taking down his guard, making himself vulnerable and naked, so to speak, to the discord booze has brought to his mind. He gets depth to a guy that should be just another Hemingway figure, of the sorrow that really lies in every little moment and gesture and inflection. It also goes without saying he's one of the top three or four convincing drinkers in modern film. And at the same time it's not easy to peg what he'll do next as an actor, which step he might cross or double-back on. While his co-stars are very good in their parts, he dares to overshadow them with a tour-de-force. Under the Volcano pits its character into hell, and Huston brings us, without going overboard with stylistic flourishes, right along with him.

This is a fairly forgotten gem from the mid-80s, based on the classic and tragic novel of the same name. The film is also the legendary John Huston's third last movie as a director. Taking place in Mexico during the festival known as the Day of the Dead, the film also works against a backdrop of the early days of WWII, and explores the fragmented love triangle between a former British diplomat (Albert Finney), his estranged wife (Jacqueline Bisset), and his adventurous journalist brother (Anthony Andrews).

Under the Volcano starts out slowly, following the corpse-like wandering of retired diplomat Geoffrey Firmin as he explores the Day of the Dead and seeks out booze to feed his alcoholism. We're given various clues as to what has left him in such a sodden and rambling state, and we learn that his wife divorced him from abroad. Geoffrey proceeds to drink himself into oblivion, and into the fray enters his erstwhile wife Yvonne... testing the waters as it were for a possible reconciliation. Geoffrey's brother Hugh, recently returned from the Spanish civil war, is at a loss as to where he fits in with regards to their relationship, and also in regards to the world itself. The three decide to take a day trip out of town, with Yvonne and Hugh unsure of where Geoffrey's health and state of mind will literally lead them.

This film is a rambling, elegaic swansong to suntouched dreams fortified by alcohol. These three people try to outrun their demons and replace their mistakes with hollow new plans - Yvonne hopes to start her life anew, but Geoffrey's disgracefully drunken state makes him an unpredictable quantity to bank on, especially in regards to whether he can forgive her for the adultery that left him in such a state. Geoffrey tells a story at one point about a colonial named Blackstone, a man who turned native and disliked the puritans who tried to save him so much that he simply just disappeared into the wilderness. There's obviously something about this story that appeals to Geoffrey as he seems to identify with Blackstone so much that he later tells strangers that it's his name, and you can't help but feel that this is the only solution to the problems at hand that he can truly grasp at. Bubbling underneath the surface of the film all this time is a slowly building sense of doom highlighted by the coming of WWII, the ominous woodwind score, and the film's title itself. Geoffrey alludes to a horrific war story at several points, drawing comparisons with the 30s horror film Mad Love (referred to here as The Hands of Orlac) with his belief that "Some things you can't apologise for", and this quote echoes throughout the film whenever the main characters are forced to come face to face with each other's mistakes.

This won't be a film to everyone's taste, it starts out as something approaching a travel-drama but kind of mutates into outright tragedy in it's second half. At the core of Under the Volcano is a staggering performance from Albert Finney as the drunken diplomat. Finney was more than rightfully nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his realistic depiction of the life of a hopeless drunk... full of whimsy and cheer and rambling anecdotes, treading a fine line between absolute tankdom and lucidness, and tapping into all kinds of ambivalent emotions that would be far too challenging to a less complex and accomplished actor. Too often the drunk in film is shown as either a figure for comedy, fear or tragedy, but never are they shown as realistically as Finney's characterisation here. I could see shades of every pathetic and hilarious drunk I've ever met at a pub or a party in Under the Volcano's Geoffrey Firmin, and the film makes no compromises whatsoever in showing this for what it is. One of the best performances in film.

HIGHLIGHTS: There's nothing quite like a sinister Mexican dwarf grinning while he makes obscene gestures with his hands. I found this bit to be quite offputting and creepy.

I agree with others here who say the film is rather conventional in it's treatment of the novel. The consul's wife is very clearly a hallucination in the book but here this along with the consul's general mental state are presented too objectively and this makes a lot of the film ring false. A good start and of course excellent performances by Finney and Bisette but then the movie blacks out. I'm a great fan of John Huston I consider at least four of his films to be among the greatest ever (Moby Dick, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, and Moulin Rouge ) but I believe he didn't make another good film after Night of the Iguana. Although I haven't seen Man Who Would be King. Under the Volcano is another late career disappointment.

"Under the volcano" reminds me a lot of Nicholas Cage's "Leaving Las Vegas". Both films are about men who are literally drinking themselves to death...and both screenplays were written by men who met their end very early in life...one by suicide and one who drank himself to death. And, both films are very similar in that they are dreadful to watch despite some riveting performance by their respective leading men.

Geoffrey (Albert Finney) is the an ex-British consul living in Mexico. The reason he's an ex is that he spends all his waking hours drinking himself into oblivion. As a result, he's not only lost his job but his wife as well by the time the story begins. Inexplicably, the wife (Jacqueline Bisset) returns after being gone a year...even though it's obvious that Geoffrey will never sober up and get his life together. Through the course of the film, the pair also spend a lot of time with a mutual friend, Hugh (Anthony Andrews), an idealist who has apparently lost his ideals.

The film is like watching a traffic wreck in very slow motion. You know what is coming...but there's nothing that will stop the inevitable. Overall, it makes for an incredibly unpleasant viewing experience...one most viewers simply would not enjoy nor appreciate despite Finney's excellent acting.

An ex-colleague of mine once recommended this movie to me. When it was released in the cinemas he watched it several times, and he said that if i really was a movie freak, this was something i had to see. So, when a few weeks ago this movie was shown on TV in The Netherlands, i did. When i watched it i didn't know where the story was going, but when it ended and a week after it, it didn't get out of my head. After that week when i was doubting about it was a good or an average movie i ended up with the idea that it really is something special. Albert Finney is really great in this picture as an alcoholic (better than Nicolas Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas") and i totally agree with my ex-colleague that he is one of his favourite actors. It is not a movie for the masses, but when you are a movie-fanatic it is a must.

Terrific Albert Finney makes you want to have a drink. I was drinking while watching this one. A sort of a Graham Greeneque setting with a drunk British ambassador living it up in Mexico, lamenting his long gone wife, getting drunk in the mornings even as the second world war is about to break out. Maybe the film needed a better leading lady than Jacqueline Bisset. Not Huston's best. But awesome that Huston was energetic enough to get novels like Fat City, Under the Volcano and Wise Blood made into film.

(7/10)

When so many people say a movie is worthwhile, you have to figure your own simplistically negative opinion isn't valuable. But I imagine there are a few others who always find alcoholics uninteresting and unsympathetic. When the subject is alcoholism itself, the film can be excellent -- The Lost Weekend and, to a lesser extent, Days of Wine and Roses. But to watch someone wander around in a stupor, sounding off drunkenly about this and that, and all of it with large pretensions...well, you can keep it. Good God man, your wife is Jacqueline Bisset. Isn't that enough to hold any man's interest!?

Under The Volcano was originally a complex novel written by real-life alcoholic Malcolm Lowry. Film director John Huston also had a passing acquaintanceship with the bottle and a sensibility for grasping the dark, mystical side of Mexican culture. This all adds up to potent cinematic symbolic imagery underlining terrific performances from Finney, Bissett and Andrews. 8 stars

Under the Volcano is a good and sometimes very good movie adaption of the novel written by Malcom Lowry. I read the novel a few times and whereas the movie is a well made one about a man's descent in his own private hell, the real poetic power of the book only shines here and there in the movie: the movie is good, but the book is a masterpiece. But like the book, the movie is for sure not made for everyone. Anyway, if the synopsis sounds interesting to you, and you want to take part on a dark journey, this movie is waiting for you. Last but not least, the cast does well.

I saw this film several times in the late 1980's and always thought that Albert Finney's performance was great but now, watching it all these years later in the very city in which it was set and shot I am convinced that Finney's performance is one of the greatest depictions of alcoholism EVER! Only Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas has done as well of a job of capturing the emotionalism and physical mannerisms of a drunk. I haven't read the novel (yet) but I think John Huston (no stranger to the effects of massive alcohol consumption himself) was probably the right choice to direct this tale of an alcoholic British consul drinking himself senseless in Mexico on the eve of WW2. Anyone interested in top-notch acting should see this film. Albert Finney was nominated for an Oscar, and in my opinion, he should have won! BRAVO, Mr Finney!

What might we have experienced if the demon drink hadn't taken hold of brilliant English wordsmith Malcolm Lowry? What might his planned epic: 'The Voyage That Never Ends' have yielded to modern literature, had he lived beyond his short 47yrs? Veteran director John Huston's 1984 treatment gives us a chance to examine some of the literary genius (via a good adaption) that the world's been sadly left wanting for more. Under the Volcano is not exactly an easily accessed work in either availability or ease of entering its character's sometimes debauched world - after all, the story follows the final days in the life of an alcoholic. Lowry's writing style could be described as reminiscent of Eugene O'Neil, with touches of Shakespeare, and performances here do it justice.

Set and produced on location in Mexico around their celebration of the Day of the Dead this tends to set us up for the interesting, but tawdry journey in our central character's last few days. The year is 1938, and members of the Synarchrist Union (NRS) are murdering and robbing locals - within the approaching tide of Nazism. This sets off a series of dramatic events leading to conflict involving our protagonist and his wife.

This would be Huston's third last film. Photographed by highly respected cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (Night of the Iguana '64) with a music score by Alex North (Spartacus'60) There's a creatively designed main title sequence (By Huston's son Danny) that introduces us to the eerie setting - leading the viewer into a challenging watch that might well please serious lovers of art-house cinema. A nicely transferred DVD is available.

It is the finale of this film that redeems any possible weakness of the story one may entertain in one's mind as one views this film. The ending is so overwhelming, I had to watch it again at once. I then rewatched parts of the film just to luxuriate in the brilliant acting of Albert Finney. This is truly a masterpiece. There have been some criticisms of Ms. Bisset's acting etc, but this is small potatoes compared to the sheer genius of this story and its' realization. The music in the opening credits sets the tone and immediately draws you into the film. You know something profound will happen in the film and to you as you watch this film. Highly Recommended.

Adapted from the novel by Malcolm Lowry, John Huston's 8 1/2 and Leaving Las Vegas, Under the Volcano is a tale of inaction around a man who simply and actively refuses to make decisions anymore, choosing to lose himself in a hazy life of constant drunkenness. Set in the very earliest days of WWII in Mexico, it's a portrait of a man who knows, on some deep level, the amount of death about to come into the world and his insignificance in the face of it, his inability to change it. It's almost Peter Weir-like.

Geoffrey Firmin (Albert Finney) is a former British consul to Mexico who has resigned his post but refuses to leave the country. Drunk, he bemoans that his wife has divorced him while teetering from one watering hole to another, taking over the microphone at a Red Cross gathering to inanely babble about the coming death and the Red Cross' incredible needs that will be coming. The trick is that he's completely cut himself off from the world, including his wife who keeps writing him letters that he refuses to open and keeps in his coat pocket at all times. When she does arrive, Yvonne (Jacqueline Bisset) finds the broken man who had once been her husband drunken asleep in a dingy bar.

The bulk of the film is the two trying to connect once more as Geoffrey wanders the city of Quauhnahuac while he also interacts with his half-brother Hugh (Anthony Andrews), a reporter who covered the Spanish Civil War and has come to Mexico to investigate Nazi efforts at influence in Mexico. There are a lot of conversations, mostly between Hugh and Yvonne and some locals, about the failure of the fight against Franco in Spain and the burgeoning war in Europe, all while Geoffrey does everything he can to elude the subject and find another drink. There are hints of The Lost Weekend when Geoffrey madly runs around his house, hitting every secret spot, looking for one more drink.

It is the portrait of a man who seems to be drinking because of his powerlessness, who has watched the world go into the worst direction despite his efforts, and all he has to look forward to is death. The talk of the defeat of the Republican forces in Spain (really, communist) while the world watches the rise of Nazism, touching so far as Mexico, is prone to defeatist thinking in certain quarters. It's interesting to see Huston making this in the 80s, I assume it's a reaction on his part to the rise of Reaganism, but it also feels like the angry work of a younger man.

One of the really interesting things in the film is the heavy use of Day of the Dead imagery to help bolster the feeling of the film. It starts with an interesting title sequence (similar to Wise Blood, also produced by Michael Fitzgerald), and it extends deeper into the film as skeletons dot the frame here and there, all while the nihilistic conversations occupy the center of the frame. It provides this interesting contrast between the celebration of death in a positive way with the talk of all-encompassing death that would become WWII (Huston's earlier obsessions over the atomic bomb, unable to be directly mentioned here because of the timeframe, are an obvious shadow over the events in this film).

Geoffrey is forced to confront his inaction, and he does everything to run away from all of it. He throws drinks into his face, eventually running into a bordello and spending time with a prostitute that Yvonne walks in on, breaking her heart since she had come to Mexico to try and reconnect with him. It's a spiral down that ends inevitably.

The film overall is an interesting look at self-destruction in the face of a larger destructive force, of nihilism going to its inevitable conclusion. Anchored by a dedicated performance from Finney, who gives his voice and facial expressions to every little mannerism he can. Bisset and Andrews are the supporting structure to it, acting the straight roles to the manic one provided by Finney, and they are a necessary counterweight. Huston brings his practiced, professional eye to the proceedings as well, offering nothing flashy but just providing a stable canvas on which his performers to play.

Under the Volcano is not Huston's best work, but it's an interesting look at hopelessness and inaction carried by a strong central performance. It's not of great note, but it's something of a throwback to his period around The Roots of Heaven in the middle of his final stage of more mainstream work.

The recently resigned British Consul wanders through the colorful streets of Cuernavaca, Mexico on the Day of the Dead in 1938, clad in tuxedo and dark glasses. His spectacular appetite for drink has left him incompetent in his toilet and dressing room and impotent with his strangely devoted wife. His unremitting self-absorption leaves him oblivious to the dangers around him. Unlike other movies about alcoholics, there are no coherent moments when sympathy may be excited and the inevitable ending permits us all to walk home, relieved and in sobriety: one of the last and least shows of John Huston's great, but soon to be concluded, career.

One of John Huston's final films... he only directed two more after this... and died three years after this. Stars Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bissett, Anthony Andrews. Geoffrey Firmin is a retired british consul, living in a small town in mexico, just at the outbreak of WW II. On the Day of the Dead. Finney was nominated for best actor. One of his FIVE nominations! Firmin is in a church, praying that his ex wife will come back to him. And she does. As he drinks. And rambles. And stumbles around the house, looking for more drinks. Then we're off to the fiesta and the bullfights. Along the way, some interesting sights... there's a Sinarquista riding on the bus (look it up on wikipedia dot com). And a dead body on the side of the road. Quite a day. It's very well done. But Warning... it gets very dark at the end. Novel by Malcolm Lowry. He died young at age 47, from alcohol related causes.

When Malcolm Lowry's multi-layered novel hit the post war literary scene it was hailed as an instant classic. The stream-of-consciousness and hallucinatory profile of a former British consul drinking himself to death in 1938 Cuernavaca served as a metaphor for the world's imminent fall into the precipice of World War II.

Immediately Hollywood responded and a 35-year pursuit of the elusive project began. Orson Welles showed interest. Followed by John Ford and MGM producer Frank Taylor. The list goes on to include director Jose Quintero, actor Zachary Scott and directors Luis Bunel, Joseph Losey, Tony Richardson, Joseph Strick and Anthony Harvey.

Why all the interest? Despite the complex literary references employed through the novel, "Under The Volcano" remains one of the most cinematic literary devices ever published. Influenced by the fluid and subjective camera work in F.W. Murnau's silent classic "Sunrise," Lowry succeeds in brilliantly portraying the psychological awareness, panic and deliberate downfall of Geoffrey Firmin amid the spectacular garden-of-eden setting of Mexico with the shinning array of the snow capped peaks of Popocatepetl looming beyond. Symbolism, drama, the d.t.s of alcoholism, mysticism and the ever present hope of salvation are further layers that shaped the novel during it's eight year gestation.

Huston's film adaptation discards all the cinematic brilliance for the sake of simplifying the story. In other words, the film eviscerates what makes the novel great and we are left with an adequate performance by Finney and laughable work by Bisset and Andrews. An all round dismal and forgettable film.

This is one of those films that I wanted to see because of the rave reviews I had read about a particular performance, rather than for the quality of the film which was generally described as mediocre at best.

Sometimes its just as interesting to see one aspect of a film (particularly a single performance) standing head and shoulders above anything else.

I was led to believe 'Under the Volcano' was such a film especially after the Halliwell Film Guide (easily the best movie guide) described it as a 'drunken monologue' which was 'fascinating as a tour de force'.

So I expected this to be an average film that focussed almost entirely on and was finally saved by a remarkable performance (by Albert Finney) in the lead role.

The fact that it wasn't had nothing really to do with Finney's performance, the character he plays simply does not allow him to give the sort of performance that I had read about.

His portrayal of a permanently tipsy retired British consul (Geoffrey Firmin) drinking himself to death was fine. However the structure of the film was totally different from how it had been described, there was not a single monologue in the film and it was never the sort of apocalyptic journey into a man's tortured mind that I had hoped would fully test an actor of Finney's calibre.

Instead we see Firmin joined by his half brother and wife (played by Anthony Andrews and Jacqueline Bisset respectively) as they go for a walk and have a journey on a bus.

That is basically the entire film, Firmin's character is surprisingly serene compared with what I was expecting (no rage or acting fireworks at all) whilst Andrews and Bisset play the sort of dotty, stereotypically English twits that wouldn't look out of place in 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'.

The fact that the two characters are former lovers is supposed to add tension to the proceedings but it really doesn't.

Although the role never allows Finney to be brilliant, his skill and assurance is in stark contrast to his two co-stars who look awkward in comparison and their limitations are all too obvious alongside a far more talented performer.

So this dull and rather pointless film plods along towards its supposedly tragic but unintentionally risible conclusion which rather than providing shocking drama delivers slapstick comedy akin to Laurel and Hardy.

Why John Huston chose to make this is a mystery, this type of film is destined to fail.