Coriolanus
Tags: tragedy

Plot synopsis:
The play opens in Rome shortly after the expulsion of the Tarquin kings. There are riots in progress, after stores of grain were withheld from ordinary citizens. The rioters are particularly angry at Caius Marcius, a brilliant Roman general whom they blame for the grain being taken away. The rioters encounter a patrician named Menenius Agrippa, as well as Caius Marcius himself. Menenius tries to calm the rioters, while Marcius is openly contemptuous, and says that the plebeians were not worthy of the grain because of their lack of military service. Two of the tribunes of Rome, Brutus and Sicinius, privately denounce Marcius. He leaves Rome after news arrives that a Volscian army is in the field.
The commander of the Volscian army, Tullus Aufidius, has fought Marcius on several occasions and considers him a blood enemy. The Roman army is commanded by Cominius, with Marcius as his deputy. While Cominius takes his soldiers to meet Aufidius' army, Marcius leads a rally against the Volscian city of Corioli. The siege of Corioli is initially unsuccessful, but Marcius is able to force open the gates of the city, and the Romans conquer it. Even though he is exhausted from the fighting, Marcius marches quickly to join Cominius and fight the other Volscian force. Marcius and Aufidius meet in single combat, which only ends when Aufidius' own soldiers drag him away from the battle.
In recognition of his great courage, Cominius gives Caius Marcius the agnomen, or "official nickname", of Coriolanus. When they return to Rome, Coriolanus's mother Volumnia encourages her son to run for consul. Coriolanus is hesitant to do this, but he bows to his mother's wishes. He effortlessly wins the support of the Roman Senate, and seems at first to have won over the commoners as well. However, Brutus and Sicinius scheme to undo Coriolanus and whip up another riot in opposition to his becoming consul. Faced with this opposition, Coriolanus flies into a rage and rails against the concept of popular rule. He compares allowing plebeians to have power over the patricians to allowing "crows to peck the eagles". The two tribunes condemn Coriolanus as a traitor for his words, and order him to be banished. Coriolanus retorts that it is he who banishes Rome from his presence.
After being exiled from Rome, Coriolanus seeks out Aufidius in the Volscian capital of Antium, and offers to let Aufidius kill him in order to spite the country that banished him. Moved by his plight and honoured to fight alongside the great general, Aufidius and his superiors embrace Coriolanus, and allow him to lead a new assault on Rome.
Rome, in its panic, tries desperately to persuade Coriolanus to halt his crusade for vengeance, but both Cominius and Menenius fail. Finally, Volumnia is sent to meet her son, along with Coriolanus's wife Virgilia and child, and a chaste gentlewoman Valeria. Volumnia succeeds in dissuading her son from destroying Rome, and Coriolanus instead concludes a peace treaty between the Volscians and the Romans. When Coriolanus returns to the Volscian capital, conspirators, organised by Aufidius, kill him for his betrayal.

Review: Ralph Fiennes captured the timeless concepts that Shakespeare expressed in his play brilliantly - so much so that I feel there will be strong/visceral audience reaction to the film's depiction of themes that reflect in today's front page stories.
This film ranks with Kenneth Brannagh's "Henry V" and Baz Luhrmann's "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" for making a film in Shakespearean English accessible by 21st Century Man. I've always believed that some folks in the U.S. malign William Shakespeare's writings today, because they were forced to read his plays in a cold classroom setting in their youth.
Coriolanus has the right ingredients for a good movie, great story(can you top Shakespeare?) and a strong cast.Only thing that was unknown so far is the director.IMO Mr. Fiennes did very well in his debut, his camera moves around at eyes height and often lingers close up to actors faces(it keeps the film from being stagy and lets you see all the nuances they convey).Locations are interesting and there are couple of nice fight scenes.The language is Shakespirian but i had no problems understanding it( not my native lang.), musical score is kinda tribal and quite appropriate for the theme of the film.
The action, the direction and some powerful performances – most notably from Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave – carry the film and more than compensate for the language barriers.
There are a couple of truly violent moments in the film which blast the cobwebs off the old play and hook the modern, desensitized audience into the story.Coriolanus is a tense and violent political wartime thriller which makes Shakespeare not only accessible but utterly captivating.
Using story-telling techniques combining CNN, CSI, and YouTube along with images of street demonstrations, riots, and urban warfare, Fiennes gives us a Coriolanus befitting our times, clarifying how the titular hero can fall from national hero to banishment in a matter of minutes on the whims of a fickle populous easily swayed by political spin-masters.
Which is why i'm glad to say I was pleasantly surprised by this film.For a first time director Ralph Fiennes really did a great job making a modern adaptation of one of the lesser known Shakespeare works.
I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan, but I have to say that the use of the his dialogue here actually worked in the context in the film even with the modern setting.
I enjoyed ever minute of this film and if you are a fan of good story telling, Shakespeare or war movies, you will enjoy Coriolanus..
A modern-day spin on one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays, Coriolanus is an ambitious and lyrical Greek tragedy that has everything you'd expect from the mind of the Bard; betrayal, revenge, pride, conflict, monologues, dilemmas, death- it's all in there.
Set in a city on the verge of collapse that resembles Tripoli but calls itself Rome, the film charts the rise and fall of general Coriolanus (Fiennes); a fiery soldier of war-torn Rome who earns his stripes in a bloody battle against an insurgent army lead by Turrus (Gerard Butler).
His contemporary vision of a 300+ year old morality play is one awash with thought, feeling, values, complexities, politics and emotion- pure, unadulterated Shakespeare.Coriolanus is far from the vision of just one man, though.
Who says Shakespeare isn't relevant?Set in Rome (though the film was shot in Belgrade with a distinctly Eastern European look to it) Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut tells the story of Caius Martius Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes), Rome's most prominent general, whose army is fighting fiercely in a war with neighboring state Volsces.
The cast's delivery of the script is, on the whole, superb: Butler has never been better as the fearless Gladiator-esque Aufidius, Ralph Fiennes impresses both behind the camera as well as in front as the hot-tempered, maniacal Coriolanus (a role he has played previously on the stage), and both Jessica Chastain, as the ever concerned wife Virgila, and Brian Cox as the effusive political adviser Menenius, make an impact in smaller roles.
If the director and script writers truly wanted to pay homage to Shakespeare, they would've adapted the script to modern, powerful dialogue befitting the contemporary environment.Thou shalt not watch this movie without subtitles.
Though drastically pared down--a twelve line speech often reduced to one--it is Shakespeare as the Bard wrote it.The themes of the play are universal, transcending time: the fickleness of the mob, the jealousy and treachery of politicians, the mutual respect of men in the profession of arms even when they are adversaries, the conflicting pull of family loyalty.There isn't a bad performance anywhere.
I love the modern takes on Shakespearean plays , but this was really hard work , i'm sorry the original dialogue just doesn't fit, it's far to wordy for modern audiences , Should have been a very relevant film for the recent financial troubles in Europe and great powerful performances from Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler, along with superb action sequences and cameos from various actors did make me want to stay till the end , but i couldn't and for only the second time in my life walked out an hour in , along with others at the same showing , I have no doubt some that know the story will love this .
"If Greece has taught us that marble bleeds, Rome shows us that dust flowers." Cecil Roberts.Shakespeare's tragedy, Coriolanus, directed by Ralph Fiennes, has been successfully translated to the screen, just as Richard III (1995) was by Richard Loncraine.
Both productions shift the scene to modern times, and despite my prejudice about tinkering with the Bard, I liked both, in part because Fiennes is a fine Coriolanus and Ian McKellen a better than fine Richard.It's modern Rome, besieged by angry citizens whose leader is Gerard Butler's Aufidius, longtime enemy of Coriolanus.
To see the four leads on the screen, along with the reliable Brian Cox as Menenius, is to witness the best of cinema acting, although Redgrave dominates as she pleads, cajoles, and finesses her son to speak gently to the commoners and to compromise the siege.There is something static about the filming, perhaps because Fiennes sees it in its Shakespearean form and himself as a theatrical performer.
"Static" even though Fiennes relies on MTV-like quick cuts to enhance the action and perhaps mitigate the elegant prose for regular film goers.The contemporary thematic parallels with the play are obvious: the puzzle that still is the Balkans, or Iraq and Iran for that matter, with families pitted against each other, the citizenry versus the military, and power another deal away.But the play's the thing, and no matter how much gifted director and adapter play with the original, Shakespeare is always there with stunning dialogue, deep characterization, and humanity still crazy after all these years..
People who complain about this play being set in modern times are missing a vital fact about Shakespeare himself: he set Julius Cesar in Roman times, but yet his soldiers yell "fire" in battle, the actors often wore Elisabethan battledress, not togas, and they speak of the "clock striking"...long before Rome had striking clocks.
Shakespeare has always been "iffy" for me, but I think this film may have made me a solid fan.Everything is translated into the modern setting perfectly, and the Shakespearean-English only added to the atmosphere.
I enjoyed the comparative "Romeo + Juliet" but undoubtedly due to my familiarity with the story.It's probably a good tale with clever twists and turns but I couldn't follow it and I expect most people whom haven't studied it, or speak like Yoda, will also have a hard time, which makes for some tough viewing."The tongues o' the common mouth: I do despise them;"I'm not going to rate it because for some this film will be great, the production is very good but for the likes of me and I'm sure more than are willing to admit, you may as well watch it on mute..
Coriolanus (2011) Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox. I downloaded this as soon as it came on Pay-Per-View and watched it last week two times.
The overall direction of the movie can be picked up on but so much is lost in translation too.I think if you knew the story of Coriolanus before you watched this film you'd find it much more satisfying.
Being more familiar with theatre would also benefit you but if you're going into this film with no knowledge of the language or the story, your experience would probably match mine.Having said that the acting of Ralph Fiennes carries so much power and emotion and some of the scenes are incredible.
The trailer is extremely misleading, it makes you think you are going to watch an action movie, while it is more like a political drama.The acting might be good, I don't know because I could not understand the dialogue.
it doesn't make sense being in the 20's century like how traitors control audiences and people and the way the council win the people votes..to be honest this movie could have entered the top 250 movies of all time if it was done right but in almost every aspect it was done wrong and without enough innovation to begin with, showing the traits of Coriolanus and his enemy wasn't as good at it should have been and their relation too also the scene where he died and the sound tracks were weak.
It's a device we've seen before with Romeo and Juliet (1996) and Hamlet (2000), and while it would seem appropriate to place the first Coriolanus film in its own time, the story translates to an age of media and modern warfare relatively well.
While this film may not prove Coriolanus is the best of Shakespeare's plays, it nevertheless reflects that the neglected play is brilliant.Fiennes' film has a strong look and helps the viewer feel some of the intense conflict, though it's not a great film.
The 2011 Ralph Fiennes-directed film of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus is updated from its ancient Roman origins to a modern day battlefield that could easily be Iran or Afghanistan.
well i can summarize this film easily its CRAP.these past 2 or 3 years it looks like the Us has tried to take a different angle on movies and its in my eyes not been successful, i think there are coming less good movies now and a lot more crap, but as long as people are paying to watching i guess they feel all is OK..
Perhaps ill attempt to read the play and then go back and re-watch the film to get a better understanding of why this story is so revered.+Fiennes +Ambitious directing...-...But the time line just doesn't fit with the dialogue -Drags -The rest of the cast didn't really stand out 5.2/10.
As a first-time director, Ralph Fiennes gives a good account of himself in a challenging production, but is under-served by two sources from whom one expects better: Fiennes the actor and William Shakespeare the scenarist.Caius Martius (Fiennes) is a proud Roman, rather overmuch in the minds of many of his compatriots.
Despite counsel of his mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) and patrician friend Menenius (Brian Cox), Martius' knack for blowing up at the wrong time proves his Achilles heel."Coriolanus" is one of Shakespeare's more interesting problem plays, articulating an elitist attitude that seems designed to annoy inhabitants of future democracies.
If you know what is happening, and Fiennes the director does a good job making it clear, you can glom onto what the various characters are saying easily enough, and enjoy the way they play with their deliveries.
Based on William Shakespeare's play about a Roman general spurned by those he serves, Coriolanus is a surprisingly well-crafted directorial debut for lead actor Ralph Fiennes.
If anything, too much of Shakespeare's writing was cut out in order to make the movie shorter, and some scenes and characters suffer because of it.Second, it is transported to a modern setting despite the language, in order to demonstrate its universal themes.
The modern settings with news-rooms, tanks and trucks work very well, but the war-action scenes sometimes feel shoe-horned in just to try to make Shakespeare more thrilling and pander to audiences, and a key plot element that involves the Roman practice of a hero showing the people his physical wounds in order to gain their trust, doesn't work anymore.The acting is generally good, although the wide range of accents are too distracting, and Azabal chews the scenery and ruins her scenes.
Now,i think the movie was good,seriously good,but it could have been much much better had they not used archaic.Well Ralph,i am extremely sorry to say that your Directorial Debut wont be a "fan raiser".This film was directly enacted from william Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus'(well may be too much)and hence it enjoyed some appeal and originality.However i would like to point out that 'ARCHAIC IS NOT MADE FOR MODERN CINEMA'.The use of archaic in the movie was merely disappointing and annoying throughout and it began to wear out the spark that the movie could have had.Archaic is good for books,where u have ample time to read and enjoy every sentence.However in A movie it just seems like a blur,as if they are trying to challenge your brains and ears in thinking & hearing faster beyond human capacity.Regarding acting,i would like to point out the fact that Ralph still has 'Voldemort' hangover.Many of his scenes (especially angry ones)reminded me of voldemort and not at all of coriolanus.Hopefully he will come out of it sometime.Vanessa was the crowning glory of the film,putting aside everyone else (including gerard,whose weird accent mixed with archaic seemed like he was mocking us for wasting bucks on his movie,sad move gerard).Overall,i am big fan of Shakespeare's works,but this one does not entirely justify it.Archaic in the backdrop of modern rome??
The most powerful performance, however, comes from Vanessa Redgrave as Coriolanus' mother.Good support from Brian Cox. Jessica Chastain seems a bit out of her element in a Shakespeare play.Hard to dislike Shakespeare, so this is a rarity..
You perhaps wouldn't really expect Gerard Butler to see in a Shakespeare movie but he is simply a good actor, that plays his role well.
Well, I'm a sucker for a good cast and that of Coriolanus is right up there: Ralph Fiennes (who also directs), Brian Cox, Jessica Chastain, Vanessa Redgrave and, with a heavy heart, Gerard Butler.
Fiennes is powerful, absorbing and a very fine Coriolanus in Nev's book and this marks an impressive directorial debut.For those who know, understand and love the works of Shakespeare, this apparently ranks a little below Olivier's Henry V.
Once I was able to understand then I started to admire Shakespeare's least appreciated novel and Ralph Fiennes violent adaptation of Coriolanus.
Also the modern acting tendency towards naturalism can make the Shakespeare's words, so dense in meaning, unintelligible.Neither of these traps are completely avoided in Fiennes production of Coriolanus which nevertheless may be considered one of the more successful Shakespearean adaptations.
This is less of an issue in Coriolanus than in other Shakespearean play since the hero himself is a man of few words (by Shakespeare's standards).The language is sometimes at variance with the on-screen action.
But no such a thing is possible in "Coriolanus".No play from Shakespeare is more fit for adaptation to modern times.
This is a movie adaptation of the William Shakespeare play Coriolanus.
Ralph Fiennes played his role very well, especially when his character becomes angry.All in all, this is good movie adaptation.
I started reading about Coriolanus after listening to the Coriolan Overture of Beethoven when I bumped into the Shakespeare's play and finally into this film.What I expected was a silly adaptation of Shakespeare with smug characters and obsolete dialogues that was probably going to put me to sleep half into the movie.
It was done with expert skill and Fiennes employs respected British newsreader Jon Snow (not the Game of Thrones character), which surprisingly works.Like with any Shakespeare play and adaptation there are plenty of themes in Coriolanus that everyone from movie fans to academics can sink their teeth into.
English movies has a special taste it's fine sort of art, melody, texture, and mysterious harmony.in this film I saw Vanessa Redgrave playing with camera not act front of it, or perform her own opera years gave this lady more than we can handle with such performance like that, Brian Cox in one word "MAGNIFICENT" even when he finish his life, Jessica Chastain if a rose can act then we call about Jessica's style "Rose Acting", Gerard Butler a powerful voice can left any meaning any feeling to anybody even he can't speak English, at last the mid-eastern talents Ashraf Barhoum & Lubna Aazbal good choice for the creative director they were rebels souls with tiger sounds.Ralf Fiennes excellent director brilliant actor make me reconsider with Shakespeare again, Fiennes succeeded to turn a classic play to modern cinematic vision with every benefit screenplay, customs, sounds, actors, camera, editing, locations and well directing.Thanks to you for enlightening me.
As much as I like Jessica Chastain, I feel like she is not needed in this film.Overall, this is a good adaptation of Shakespeare and I love how it is set in modern times.
This is not a war movie or an action film, any more than "Macbeth" would be.This is an adaptation of Shakespeare's play.
This movie is Ralph Fiennes trying to interpret and portray a Shakespeare's play "Coriolanus" in a modernized form.
A bleak piece, and less well known than Shakespeare's other darker plays, the modern setting suits it: if anything, it makes the archaisms in the dialogue more accessible.Fiennes' direction is gritty, and all the performances are excellent, though Fiennes himself and Vanessa Redgrave stand out.This film works well as both a contemporary action drama, and also culture!.