Under the Volcano

Huston’s shattering adaptation of Malcolm Lowry’s dense modernist novel is many things: its director’s most personal project since Wise Blood; a curious, evocative snapshot of Mexican village life; a showcase for Albert Finney, who turns in a towering lead performance as a former British consul drinking himself into an early grave during a celebration for the Day of the Dead; a frank reckoning with mortality that ends up taking on the aspect of a Greek tragedy; one of the most sensitive and well-observed depictions of alcoholism in film history; and, ultimately, one of Huston’s finest films. With Jacqueline Bisset as the ex-consul’s estranged wife.