Under the Volcano (1984)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) For old-school Hollywood fans, it’s remarkably easy to be attracted to Under the Volcano. Just look at the cast and crew: Directed by John Huston; featuring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset; a character study of an alcoholic diplomat in the last stages of a broken-down marriage in 1938 Mexico. It’s all incredibly glum, with the incredibly downbeat ending kicking depressed viewers well after they’re down. So, yeah—if you’re expecting a good time, this is not the film to watch, even if you can argue that the protagonist’s self-destructiveness makes the ending a foregone conclusion from the get-go. (But remember—the film goes the extra mile to make the ending even worse than what you can expect.)  Production values are not bad, showing off the location shooting at nearly every turn. Finney is not bad in an extremely drunk role, but Under the Volcano itself fails to adhere—the atmosphere makes it clear that it’s not going to end well, and that doesn’t give much reason to care about the inexorable spiral toward the end. As much as Huston has a celebrated series of classics under his belt, a deeper look in his filmography reveals that he has plenty of less-than-impressive films in his lower tier. Something to keep in mind for completists.