OTHELLO
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1995 Ben Hoffman
Shakespeare's drama, OTHELLO, is one among many of his great plays. This story of the beautiful Desdemona (Irene Jacob), the daughter of a Venetian nobleman, who elopes with her lover, Othello the Moor, (Laurence Fishburne), a renowned warrior, like most of Shakespeare's plays ends in betrayal, deceit and tragedy. Some years ago I saw James Earl Jones in a live performance that made me burst into tears as he tore at his breast, as he bemoaned his having killed his beloved wife. You could feel his terrible hurt. Fishburne, one of my favorite actors, (What's Love Got To Do With It?) however, is not quite ready to do justice to Shakespeare; at least not to the role of Othello.
Iago (Kenneth Branagh) is the conniving villain who despite having been Othello's right hand man for some ten years, is overlooked and instead, a promotion goes to Cassio (Nathaniel Parker). >From then on Iago plots against Othello and Desdemona, to make Othello suspicious, jealous of his wife. Othello is filled with disbelief and demands proof; Iago supplies the "proof." Branagh plays it cool without histrionics but then, Branagh is not new to Shakespeare.
Directed by Oliver Parker.
2.5 Bytes
4 Bytes = Superb
3 Bytes = Too good to be missed.
2 Bytes = So so.
1 Byte = Save your money.
-- Ben Hoffman
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