The
point with Shakespeare is the language. Modern-dress productions of
his plays are common and can inspire intriguing viewpoints. Who is to
say that "Coriolanus" might not as well be set in the
Middle East as in Rome — neither a place Shakespeare had ever seen?
In the 1995 film version of "Richard
III,"
for instance, Ian
McKellen
was cast as a fascist dictator of the 1930s.
Now
we have Ralph
Fiennes
directing and starring in "Coriolanus," one of the Roman
tragedies, where the feral and discontented general is at war in "a
place calling itself Rome." The walls are covered with graffiti,
grenade launchers replace swords, and we get the obligatory shot of
warriors being blown toward us with an explosion blossoming behind.
The costumes, art direction and props could be used for an action
film about most modern wars, including that in Bosnia, and indeed the
film was shot on location in Belgrade.
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Apart from
the infinite varieties of the human face, there are no sights in
"Coriolanus" I'm not familiar with. Fiennes, an actor who
can remake himself, is here lean and muscular, his head shaven, his
neck a muscular trunk displaying a dragon tattoo. He carries an
AK-47. Is this Shakespeare's hero? Did Shakespeare envision
Coriolanus in Greco-Roman draperies? I imagine him alone in a room,
writing by candlelight, intoxicated by language. For him, Coriolanus
was the name of the speaker of his words.
One
of the pleasures of Fiennes' film is that the screenplay by John
Logan
("Hugo,"
"Gladiator")
makes room for as much of Shakespeare's language as possible. I would
have enjoyed more, because such actors as Fiennes, Vanessa
Redgrave
and Brian
Cox
let the words roll trippingly off the tongue.
I
realize I savor Shakespeare in a different way than the typical
Friday night action fan — who, lured by the violence and ferocity
of the hard-boiled trailer and TV ads, will perhaps wonder why
everyone is talking so strangely. There is a reason most of the
sentences in action dialogue are not more than a few words long. More
than half of the film's box-office revenue will come from overseas,
where the film will be dubbed, and longer speeches are trickier to
dub. "Coriolanus" will ideally be seen in English.
Shakespeare's
story involves a Roman who cares more about battle than about
politics. This is Caius Martius (Fiennes), a general who has led Rome
against its nearby Volscian enemies. Warfare has cut off Rome's food
supplies, there's rioting in the streets, and he leaves to join the
siege of the enemy city Corioles.
When
he prevails, he's given the honorary title "Coriolanus,"
returns home and at the urging of his strong-willed mother, Volumnia
(Vanessa Redgrave), runs for Consul. He is, alas, not a diplomatic
politician (it's unwise to hold the people in contempt). Banished
from Rome, he joins forces with his former Volscian enemy, Tullus
Aufidius (Gerard
Butler),
and they attack it. Only his mother can persuade him to lay down his
arms.
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Transfer
this story to "a place calling itself Rome," add the
trappings and the suits of modern warfare, supply updates from cable
news, and you have a movie which is not so much about the private
patrician scorn of Coriolanus as it is about the motivation of most
action heroes, which is to strut in macho display, inspire slaughter
and mayhem, and provide reaction shots when things blow up real good.
This is all done well by Fiennes, but as a man who starred in this
play 10 years ago in London, he has deeper feelings for it, and the
key scenes are those between Coriolanus and his mother, to whom he
seems more romantically attached than to his wife, Virgilia (Jessica
Chastain).
I
admired the movie even though I found it neither fish nor fowl. As
Shakespeare, it has too much action footage (Coriolanus' face seems
permanently streaked with blood), and as action, it has too much
Shakespeare. I suppose the action is the price Fiennes had to pay to
do the Shakespeare, because a film this expensive must appeal to the
masses.
What's
the question Shakespeare has Coriolanus ask about public opinion?
"What's the matter, you dissentious rogues/That, rubbing the
poor itch of your opinion/Make yourselves scabs?"
