Otelo

My road to appreciating William Shakespeare was indeed a long and strange one--I spent my high-school years loathing this author, who seemed to specialize in stilted, pretentious language for the sole purpose of pissing off contemporary students. Years pass, and my final 2 semesters in college require me to become re-acquainted with an author I never wanted to have to read again. I could almost hear the centuries-dead Bard rattling his jaw with laughter from beyond the grave, chuckling to himself: "I'll teach you to acknowledge my genius yet, just wait!" And a funny thing happened: I actually started to appreciate Bill S. at the end of the first course, and flat-out praised him at the end of the second (which wrapped up with "Othello," now my hands-down favorite Shakespeare play); I graduated with a new-found appreciation for an author I had ignorantly written off years before.

As I have only seen one filmed adaptation of "Othello" (Tim Blake Nelson's well-done teen drama "O"), I picked this version up with great curiosity, wondering what direction it would take. Set in present-day London amid growing racial tensions, John Othello (Eamonn Walker) is a straight-arrow cop whose honesty and courage earns him a promotion to Police Commissioner; his best friend and confidant, Ben Jago (a wonderfully over-the-top Christopher Eccleston), is poisoned with jealousy at this, thinking it is a racially/politically motivated move at a position that is rightfully his. Caught in the middle is pure-hearted Dessi (Keeley Hawes), Jago's intermediary to Othello's destruction.

This "Othello" is a gritty, hard-hitting, and compelling production; the contemporary elements are integrated with ease (cell phones, DNA testing, Internet sites, handguns, etc.), the dialog has been substantially modified for modern ears, yet retains the tragic poetry of Shakespeare's text, and the triangle of key performers is of skilled equality. Eamonn Walker is a toweringly confident Othello, with a winning smile and perceptive eyes that portend everything from rapt euphoria to poisonous jealousy to homicidal rage; Eccleston has a field day with Jago, the bitter, bigoted cop once bound by devotion to his friend, now bound by the devotion to tear him to shreds; Hawes has a smaller but no less substantial role, and comes across as a confident, strong, intelligent woman who knows herself, and is not merely a pawn.

While the entire production is gripping, there are several scenes in particular that stand out: Othello's fearless address to a gang of citizens rioting outside the police station over the beating death of a black man goes from palpable tension to calm seamlessly; Jago's raging 'aside' upon learning of Othello's promotion--his bigoted, blustery rant as he stalks down the corridors of New Scotland Yard swings between sarcasm and seriousness, aided by Eccleston's ability to keep the character grounded in reality; and the scene where Othello, stricken with a full-blown paranoia over his wife's (seeming) misdeeds, tears through their apartment looking for incriminating evidence, filmed in a dizzying style that recalls Roman Polanski's "The Tenant." As a meditation on the frailty of love and the perils of trust, Shakespeare's "Othello" taps into emotions and manipulations that still exist in society; this film faithfully recreates those sentiments through impassioned performances and inspired direction (by Geoffrey Sax). Don't let the words "Masterpiece Theatre" deter you from seeing "Othello"--it really IS that good.

(Note: "Othello" is not rated, but would merit an "R" for violence, sexuality/nudity, and some harsh profanity.)

Othello's story is moved nowadays when prejudices, racisms and all kinds of discriminations are constantly fought. The modern 'Othello' has two guidelines or two focuses: (1) racism and (2)sexual love.

(1)On the one hand Othello proves a rational, humanistic and open attitude against discrimination, (2) on the other hand he questions the 'purity' of his woman, even her purity before her marrying him. It seems a little bit strange that a man that fights prejudices finds hard to accept that his wife had a life before him (although she didn't have much of life, as we find out) and cannot find the wisdom in him to give her the benefit of the doubt.

But we know that Othello must kill Desdemona and a large part of the film focuses on Othello's obsession for her (Desdemona aka Dessie). There needs to be built the kind of love and sexual jealousy that leads to murder. And it is believable, but only if we take it out of the context and we ignore the status of this modern Othello. But if we take into consideration the forward-thinking context of today's story and the leading position of Othello in this context...well, I raise at least one eyebrow looking at Othello's actions.

From the writer who brought us the devilish Francis Urquhart in the HOUSE OF CARDS series comes this wonderful modern retelling of the Shakespeare play. After John Othello (Eamonn Walker) is given the job of superintendent in the wake of a racial police scandal, Ben Jago (Christopher Eccleston) schemes to ruin his one-time friend. Christopher is perfectly lean and hungry as Jago. Eamonn Walker plays the role so soft-spokenly, it becomes even more nerve-wracking as he's driven mad by jealousy. Originally aired in the US on MASTERPIECE THEATER, and beautifully shot for a TV production. (8/10)

If there is one thing that this movie proves, than it must be the fact that Shakespeare is of all times and doesn't necessarily need to be situated in 16th century England. All you need is a good writer who is able to convert the story into modern times and that's exactly what Andrew Davies has done.

In this version of "Othello" we see how Ben Jago, destined to become the new commissioner of the London Police Department, is passed by his friend John Othello. Othello got the job because he proved to be a good link between the poor and rebellious parts of the community, who are sick of all the police brutality and the racism, and the police department. But Jago isn't all too happy with the fact that his best friend has 'stolen' his job from him and he decides to make Othello's life a living hell from now on, driving him to despair and horrible acts of jealousy...

I know that there are many people who love Shakespeare the way it was once written and find it a mortal sin to adapt it. Personally I don't have any problem with it. I liked the more or less classical adaptation in the movie "Shakespeare in Love" a lot, but I find this version of Othello at least as good as that other movie. I guess it is just a matter of taste... What makes this movie so good for me, next to the interesting story, is the acting. Eamonn Walker is really very good as the charismatic John Othello, but it is Christopher Eccleston as the excellently evil and backstabbing Ben Jago that I admire most. Perhaps it has more to do with his role in the movie than I might think at first, but I find his performance wonderful and hope to see more of him soon.

Anyway, despite the fact that so many people seem to hate it for many different reasons, I really liked this movie. Even though some may find it sacrilegious, I hope they will make many more adaptations of Shakespeare's work like this. I give it an 8.5/10

It's been a long while since I've seen this, but bristling at the poor reviews I am moved to make a couple of remarks.

One is that upon seeing it on public TV, I immediately purchased it and showed it to all my friends and family, who were similarly impressed. Both Othello and Iago are wonderfully inhabited by their actors.

Two is that Davies elevates his diction and provides rhythm in his "modernizing" to the extent that I remember being moved to write embittered love poetry after watching it. (I know that the world doesn't need more embittered love poetry, but it is pretty cool that his language put me in that place.)

I like my Shakespeare adaptations to be coherent and this setting is pertinent and coherent. All in all, an excellent experience.