Albert Finney stars as British diplomat Geoffrey Firmin in John Huston’s adaptation of Malcolm Lowry’s novel Under the Volcano. Firmin has a problem with alcohol and his wife has left him in Mexico prior to World War II. His is a dissolute life headed for disaster. Suddenly, his wife (Jacqueline Bisset) returns and announces she wants to get back together. His half-brother (Anthony Andrews) also returns and they attempt to nurse him back to health. There are hints that the Nazis are trying to infiltrate Mexico and his half-brother, fresh from the Spanish Civil War, voices his intent to join the Royal Air Force in anticipation of war. They visit a fair and a bullfight but, through it all, Firmin continues drinking and eventually finds he cannot forgive the affair the two of them engaged in prior to her departure. The day of her return ends with him at a dead end bar under the volcano rushing towards his fate.
Malcolm Lowry’s novel was voted one of the top 100 of the 20th Century by the Modern Library but it was considered unadaptable. As he did with other challenging works (Moby Dick, for example), Huston translated the novel to film, in this case memorably. Finney received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of the wretched alcoholic. He plays Firmin without excessive theatrics but rather with the clear focus an alcoholic has when they have chosen self-destruction. I suppose Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas is cut from the same cloth. The film here is stronger, though, and Huston’s classicist instincts (score by Alex North, filming in Mexico, the scene of Treasure of the Sierra Madre), elevate it. It is not an easy movie to watch, but it is masterful and a key film of the 1980s. ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰.
MJM 01-02-2012