Pushed by his controlling and ambitious mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) to obtain a highly regarded, powerful position as Consul, Caius Martius 'Coriolanus' (Ralph Fiennes), a domineering Roman General, hates the idea of having to ingratiate himself with the public, whose votes he will need to secure the office.
When it becomes clear that the people of Rome do not want to support him, Coriolanus allows his anger to get the better of him, causing a riot that winds up with him being banished from Rome. He joins forces with Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler), who was once his sworn enemy, to take revenge.
Far from Shakespeare's best. We only perform this because of S, but all his stuff is not good. Coriolanus is a repellent character
if you're into shakespeare, worth a look. don't expect anything like 'gladiator' though.
wow... for the brits who would be more accustomed to the varied brit accents used, but applied in older shakespearean dialogue, and being unfamiliar with it myself, this was a tough one to follow but i could get most of what was said, it took quite a bit of concentration to follow (more so than contemporary dialogue of haywire). if either ralph or gerard spoke something in anger or a heated rage, their accents started to garble their unfamiliar shakespearean english so i missed a few things they said. it was brilliantly acted, and the dialogue was very much well melded into the emotions or moods of the moment. i did enjoy it, an unfamiliar play set in a very contemporary setting and conflict