Year: 2011
USA: The Weinstein Company
UK: Lionsgate UK
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Chastain, John Kani, James Nesbitt, Paul Jessson, Lubna Azabal, Ashraf Barhom, Dragan Miéanovié
Director: Ralph Fiennes
Country: UK
USA & UK: 123 mins
USA Rated: R for some bloody violence
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong bloody violence
USA Release Date: 20 January 2012 (Limited Release
UK Release Date:  20 January 2012 (Limited Release)

Movie reviews
Official US website
Official UK website

Videos: Trailer

Synopsis

Ralph Fiennes’ film of CORIOLANUS is a tense and timeless political thriller based around power broking, political manipulation and the arguments and prejudices of opposing social extremes. The backdrop is a republic caught up in a long and bitter war.

The personal journey of Caius Martius, the noble, but also complex, ‘Coriolanus’, the film is a portrayal of his honour, courage and confident self-belief that have all been carefully nurtured and conditioned by his mother and these qualities are central to his success as a great military leader.  However, they will also become the eventual cause of his destruction. His frustration and anger at the pressures placed upon him to compromise his political and social principles is his great tragedy. The hero’s personal and political struggles, and the state of the society in which he lives, are as relevant now as when the play, and Plutarch’s original source story, were written.

Caius Martius ‘Coriolanus’ (Ralph Fiennes), a revered and feared Roman General is at odds with the city of Rome and his fellow citizens. Pressured by his controlling and ambitious mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) to seek the exalted and powerful position of Consul, he is loath to ingratiate himself with the masses whose votes he needs in order to secure the office. When the public refuse to support him, Coriolanus’ fury incites a riot, which culminates in his expulsion from Rome. The banished hero then allies himself with his sworn enemy Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) to take his revenge on the city.

Filmed on location in Serbia, Montenegro and the UK.