Brilliant, angry Ralph Finnes as Coriolanus, the time set in Serbia or is it Afghanistan, Iraq or Chechnya? Gritty, powerful, so watchable.
Jon Snow himself as a newscaster, speaking Shakespeare’s blank verse turned into breaking news and interviewing Roman experts on the current events for Fidelis TV.
‘Coriolanus becomes a national hero, but he’s incapable of wooing the public because of his honesty, disdain for flattery and inability to compromise. The craven tribunes of the people (brilliantly played as shifty political opportunists by Paul Jesson and James Nesbitt) demand his banishment, and he’s driven into exile. There he forms an alliance against Rome with his deadly Volscian enemy Aufidius (Gerard Butler), the guerrilla fighter with whom he shares a warrior’s code and a homoerotic attraction. From this decision tragedy inevitably ensues, as he fails to live up to the necessary ruthlessness his actions demand.’ (Guardian review)
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