Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 10/23/2007
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 112 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Not For Children, Substance Abuse (Alcohol, Drugs)
Distributor/Studio: Criterion
A strange, hallucinatory adaptation of the
Malcolm Lowry novel of the same name,
John Huston's bleak drama is set during the Mexican "Day of the Dead" ceremony in 1939.
Albert Finney stars as Geoffrey Firmin, the booze-besotted former British consul to Cuernevarca, who has cut himself off from his loved ones, the better to drink himself to death while surrounded by all manner of skull-and-skeleton decorations. At the urging of his wife Yvonne (
Jacqueline Bisset), his half-brother Hugh (
Anthony Andrews) goes on a "heart of darkness" search for his missing sibling. Novelist
Lowry was himself a suicidal alcoholic, who poured every drop of his embittered philosophy into the Firmin character. If any director could bring
Lowry's difficult novel to life, it was
Huston, whose own record for drunken self-destruction is the source of legend. (
Huston was actually the seventh director to tackle the novel, which had originally been optioned in 1957 by actor
Zachary Scott.) Artists contributing to the fascinating
Under the Volcano include the brilliant Mexican cinematographer
Gabriel Figueroa, screenwriter
Guy Gallo, composer
Alex North, and director
Emilio Fernandez, cast in a significant cameo as a bartender.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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