It\u2019s fitting then that the film takes place entirely on the Day of the Dead. The Mexican holiday is a festive period of remembrance that usually starts on November 1st, when friends and family gather together to honor those who have passed on with the creation of altars, sharing of stories, and donning of colorful costumes and face paint. It\u2019s also a time when the boundaries between the earthly and divine realms become porous; as Dr. Vigil tells disgraced British consul and late-stage alcoholic Geoffrey Firmin (Albert Finney) at the beginning of the film: \u201cWhen the spirits are with us, the road to heaven must be easy.\u201d Firmin has few illusions about where he\u2019s headed, but he\u2019s past due for a visit with the ghosts of his past. Much of Under the Volcano<\/em> could thus be considered a final judgment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though the screenplay was written by Guy Gallo, it\u2019s easy to see why Huston was drawn to the material; he was no stranger to battles with the bottle himself. Lowry\u2019s source novel, which took him over ten years to complete and publish, is a fecund text, rich in symbolism and allusions and unfolding in a twelve chapter structure that functions as a sort of countdown clock, not merely for Firmin but possibly all of humanity. Set in 1938, the creep of fascism and imminent war loom large in the minds of its characters. It would be an impossible task to stuff all of the book\u2019s digressions and imagery into a coherent film, so Gallo and Huston don\u2019t even bother trying, shearing it all down to its true essence: a Danteaen tour of one man\u2019s personal hell (so one literary reference remains, at least.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s unclear how long Firmin has been in his small Mexican outpost beneath the Popocatepetl volcano, but we do know that he\u2019s recently resigned from his diplomatic position. We also don\u2019t know how long he\u2019s been drinking like he has, but he now exists in the constant state of maintenance between \u201cthe shakes of too little and the abyss of too much,\u201d as he puts it. He longs for his wife Yvonne (Jacqueline Bisset) who has divorced him. At his friend Dr. Vigil\u2019s urging, he prays to the Madonna for her return in a drunken stupor. The next morning, she appears in the bar where he\u2019s holed himself up. Dressed in a mussed tuxedo and missing his socks, he doesn\u2019t seem to have slept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Albert Finney is canny casting for this immensely challenging role. It\u2019s not simply that he\u2019s an actor of titanic talent; coming up in the British film scene around the same time as prolific drinkers like Richard Burton, Oliver Reed, and Peter O\u2019Toole, there\u2019s a spectral quality to his performance here. It\u2019s as though he\u2019s playing a man he could have become if things had gone differently for him. When Firmin is in the giddy throes of a manic mood swing, it\u2019s easy to see why people like Yvonne and his half-brother Hugh (Anthony Andrews) are drawn to him and hold onto a futile hope that he can be saved. When he turns cruel, twisting the knife of Yvonne and Hugh\u2019s infidelity into their chests, we too despair at his recalcitrant refusal to help himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finney is well-supported by Huston\u2019s camerawork, which embodies Firmin\u2019s unstable state of mind in subtle but effective ways. Rather than attempt to recreate his intoxication via visual trickery or topsy-turvy effects, Huston opts instead for a woozy equilibrium, giving the frame a seasick sway that, like the omnipresent volcano that hovers over the proceedings, threatens but never quite tips over into catastrophe. And while the calavera costumes and marigold ofrendas probably read as exotic in 1984, now that knowledge of the Day of the Dead is more widespread in America, the celebratory backdrop is simply one more aspect of life that Firmin is alienated from.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the Volcano<\/em> is undoubtedly the work of a filmmaker at the end of his career, just as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre<\/em> was made with the vigor of someone just getting started. As the film closes with a downward pan from the peak of Popocatepetl into darkness, we sense a certain exhalation of breath, as if Huston is laying some of his own monsters to rest. He had two more films in him \u2013 1985\u2019s Prizzi\u2019s Honor<\/em> and 1987\u2019s The Dead<\/em>, released the same year he passed \u2013 but there\u2019s a definitiveness to this conclusion that feels pointed. If heaven can be a place on earth, so can hell, and Huston knew both during his lifetime. Better choose wisely while you can. “Under the Volcano” is streaming on HBO Max<\/a> and The Criterion Channel.<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/under-the-volcano-1024x576.jpg\")
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