Any self-respecting fan of the action or thriller genres has seen Gerard Butler wielding heavy weaponry at least a handful of times, but the last place you’d expect to see the grizzled Scottish ass-kicker locking and loading is in a Shakespeare adaptation. Thank the filmmaking gods for Ralph Fiennes, then, who did just that in his directorial debut Coriolanus.
The original is estimated to have been written sometime between 1605 and 1608, and while Fiennes stays true to the material by leaning into the original Old English dialogue, the setting is suitably contemporary. The Harry Potter veteran leads the cast as the titular general, who protects his territory from its enemies at all costs.
Vanessa Redgrave’s Volumnia demands more from her son, though, pushing him to aim higher. Battling back his foes and irritating his colleagues and superiors with his arrogance, he eventually finds himself banished from Rome – leading him to seek out Butler’s Tullus Aufidius, in order to put their years of bad blood and animosity to one side in order to destroy the city.
As you’d expect, Coriolanus wasn’t an easy film to market, which is part of the reason why it ended up flopping at the box office in spite of widespread critical acclaim, with the hard-hitting war story currently Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an impressive 92 percent score.
Fiennes instantly established himself as a potential filmmaking force, too, with stunning visuals and brutal action offering respite from the political intrigue and backstabbing machinations. Shakespeare isn’t exactly big business among the general public these days, but a Reddit thread has at least tried to drum up some support for Coriolanus.
If we’re being honest, the easiest way to sell the project would be to cut a dialogue-free trailer that features the battle scenes, Butler getting up to his usual tricks, and the wince-inducing knife fight between the enemies-turned-friends-turned-enemies again, without even making mention of the Bard at all.
