Not as good as it might have bee

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2012)

Roughly 10 years ago I was in London and saw Fiennes play Coriolanus on stage (directed by Jonathan Kent, I think) in a theatre that was where Hitchcock had filmed The Lady Vanishes. Fiennes and the entire production were knockouts. I even remember the way his helmet merged with the shadow of his cheeks and his eyebrows. Wow, this was powerful! The movie version, in modern costume, was good, but instead of the modern costuming and artillery making things more real to us in the 21st century, they just called attention to the cleverness of Fiennes the director. Besides, as another reviewer said, people today simply don't talk like people at time Shakespeare wrote the play. Fiennes, toning his voice down for the screen so as not to rant, toned Coriolanus down as well. He was good, no mistake about that, but on stage he was great. A few weeks after I saw the movie I saw the DVD of the BBC's Coriolanus with Alan Howard as the lead. Better than wow! Howard was fantastically good--far better than Fiennes on screen. And Gerard Butler, in the Fiennes film, was no match for Mike Gwylim in the BBC film. I don't remember who played Menenius in the Fiennes film, but in the BBC film Joss Ackland was superb (and did not overact, as he sometimes does, e.g., Citizen X). You don't have to Balkanize Shakespeare to make him pertinent. In the original context, the pertinence shines through better. Coriolanus's battle with himself about the citizens and with the citizens was more understandable without the modern costumes (today, the issues would be different). OK, so the BBC version didn't have the budget for big battles. So what? I honestly don't remember Fiennes asking his wife for "A kiss. Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge," but that may be my bad memory (I even forgot the line was in the play) or Fiennes underdoing it too much. But when Howard spoke that line, it was memorable! Do yourselves a favor and try to see the BBC Coriolanus with the great Alan Howard. If you don't agree with me, you'll at least have seen a viable alternative to Fiennes's movie Coriolanus.