Coriolanus
“Rome made him a warrior. Pride will make him its enemy.”
Director
Ralph Fiennes
Release
20 January 2012
Runtime
123 Minutes
Certificate
15
Synopsis
Rome is suffering unrest. Food shortages and political frustration have turned citizens against the governing elite. At the same time, the city remains at war with the Volscians. Caius Martius has little patience for the public's complaints. He understands battle. Politics is another matter. Martius leads Rome's forces against the Volscian city of Corioles, where his extraordinary performance earns him the honorary name Coriolanus. His mother Volumnia sees victory as the beginning of something greater. She wants her son to enter politics. But gaining power requires Coriolanus to seek approval from citizens he openly despises. His inability to hide that contempt becomes disastrous. Political opponents exploit his temper. Public support collapses. Eventually Coriolanus is expelled from Rome. Humiliated and furious, he seeks out his greatest military enemy, Tullus Aufidius. Rather than kill each other, the two men form an alliance. And Coriolanus prepares to return to the city that rejected him — this time at the head of its enemies. The Independent Cinema Office describes Fiennes' film as a contemporary reworking, retaining Shakespeare's original verse while placing the warfare in a modern setting.
The Movie Trailer
Coriolanus brings Shakespeare's political tragedy into a modern world of guns, television cameras and urban warfare without abandoning the language that made the story endure.
Caius Martius is one of Rome's greatest soldiers.
On the battlefield, he is almost unstoppable.
Away from it, his contempt for ordinary citizens makes him dangerously incapable of the compromises politics requires.
After another brutal victory, Martius is awarded the name Coriolanus and encouraged to pursue political power.
He seems destined to become consul.
Instead, his arrogance turns the public against him.
Banished from Rome, Coriolanus makes an extraordinary decision.
He joins forces with the enemy commander he once tried to destroy.
THE SOLDIER
Coriolanus Knows How to Win Wars, Not People
Coriolanus is built for battle.
There, pride and aggression are strengths.
Politics demands something else.
He must listen.
Compromise.
Ask for support from people he considers beneath him.
And that's where one of Rome's finest soldiers becomes almost helpless.
His tragedy doesn't begin because he lacks ability.
It begins because the abilities that made him extraordinary in war become liabilities everywhere else.
THE PEOPLE
Rome Wants a Hero — Until the Hero Speaks
The public can admire Coriolanus as a warrior from a distance.
Standing before them as a politician is different.
His victories don't erase his contempt.
His opponents recognise the weakness immediately.
They don't need to invent Coriolanus's arrogance.
They simply need to give him enough space to reveal it himself.
REVENGE
Exile Turns Rome's Greatest Weapon Back Against It
Banishing Coriolanus solves Rome's immediate political problem.
It creates a far more dangerous military one.
The city has taken one of its greatest soldiers, humiliated him and sent him away.
Coriolanus responds by offering his talent to the very enemy he spent years fighting.
His revenge therefore carries a brutal irony.
Rome trained the man now marching towards it.