Fresh
Although this voyage into self-destruction won't be to the taste of many, there will be few unmoved by Finney's towering performance as the tragic Britisher.
Variety Staff, Variety
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Under the Volcano
Overview
Against a background of war breaking out in Europe and the Mexican fiesta Day of Death, we are taken through one day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a British consul living in alcoholic disrepair and obscurity in a small southern Mexican town in 1939. The consul's self-destructive behaviour, perhaps a metaphor for a menaced civilization, is a source of perplexity and sadness to his nomadic, idealistic half-brother, Hugh, and his ex-wife, Yvonne, who has returned with hopes of healing Geoffrey and their broken marriage.
Director and cast
- John Huston Director
- Albert Finney as Geoffrey Firmin
- Jacqueline Bisset as Yvonne Firmin
- Anthony Andrews as Hugh Firmin
- Ignacio López Tarso as Dr. Vigil
- Katy Jurado as Senora Gregoria
- James Villiers as Brit
- Dawson Bray as Quincey
- Carlos Riquelme as Bustamante
- Jim McCarthy as Gringo
- José René Ruiz as Dwarf
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
74%
Tomatometer
Fresh
The movie belongs to Finney, but mention must be made of Jacqueline Bisset as his wife and Anthony Andrews as his half-brother.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh
Daring as it is to have brought Under the Volcano to the screen in this faithful but incomplete form, Mr. Huston has done so without making compromises in the process.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
Rotten
As the tortured consul, Albert Finney has moments of technical brilliance, but Huston's direction gives him no inner life.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Fresh
Not for the purists, maybe, but the last half-hour, as Firmin plunges ever deeper into his self-created hell, leaves one shell-shocked.
Time Out
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