One of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays has been turned into a British movie, which I saw last night.
Coriolanus is a tragedy, dealing with pride, and vengeance, and the folly which results from such… Set in ancient Rome, the filemakers have kept the story intact, but made the setting contemporary; it is a Rome of cell-phones and CNN-like news networks, where armies duke it out with tanks and AK-47s, rather than swords (with some neat throwbacks, e.g. the police line with their shields raised, resembling a Roman testudo); also, the movie was shot largely in Serbia and Montenegro, using locals in casting, and the story and setting have parallels with the modern Balkans, too.
A Roman general, Caius Martius, who is a war hero for his exploits abroad (given the title Coriolanus after taking a city, Corioles, belonging to the Romans’ biggest enemies at the moment, the Volsci), but despised by the people for his lack of pity when earlier, many people had rioted for food (during a famine; he had scorned them openly as unworthy), is banished, and decides to take revenge on the city, by joining his biggest enemy (the leader of the Volsci, Aufidius), in order to avenge himself.
Yet, notwithstanding his lack of pity for the less fortunate, one sympathizes with him to some degree, as he is constantly manipulated by those closest to him – both his enemies, and those who love him, and a hungry media. He is partly a victim of forces beyond his control (but only partly, because his prideful, angry responses victimize himself further). A tragic hero, indeed.
Well worth seeing.