Cast: Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles, Elden Henson, Andrew Keegan, Rain Phoenix, John Heard, Anthony Johnson, Martin Sheen
Director: Tim Blake Nelson
Producers: Daniel Fried, Eric Gitter, Anthony Rhulen
Screenplay: Brad Kaaya, based on "Othello" by William Shakespeare
Cinematography: Russell Lee Fine
Music: Jeff Danna
U.S. Distributor: Lions Gate Films
There are two ways to adapt Shakespeare into a contemporary setting. The first is to take the story and dialogue (perhaps judiciously pruned) and dump them wholesale into modern times. The second is to extract the essence of the material and re-work it for our era. Two recent screen versions of Shakespeare's plays have provided a case study in the contrast between these methods. Michael Almereyda's sluggish, borderline-incoherent Hamlet attempted the former with decidedly mixed results. Tim Blake Nelson's O, based on "Othello", takes the latter route, and the result is a stirring and affecting piece of drama that retains the basic structure and thematic grist of its source while developing a plot and characters that speak directly to current-day movie-goers.
In its re-telling of "Othello", O re-locates the story into a United States high school, circa 2000. In keeping with the violent nature of Shakespeare, O does not shy away from bloodshed. Quite the contrary, in fact - it embraces it, but not in an exploitative manner. In fact, the film actually provides a measure of insight into how teen violence can be sparked. A simple emotion (in this case, it's jealousy, but it could be another), unchecked and stoked, forms the foundation. Mixed with the rampant hormones of the teen years, this combination becomes as explosive and unstable as nitroglycerine. Doesn't it make more sense for us to view a thoughtful motion picture like O, digest what has to say, and open a dialogue with our children rather than abdicate responsibility and attempt to blame movies/TV/music (anyone except ourselves and society in general) for school violence?
The Othello of O is Odin James (Mekhi Phifer), the god of the Palmetto Grove basketball team. He's the lone black student in an all-white prep school, but he has a good heart, is smart, and is unstoppable on the court. He has won the love of the dean's daughter, Desi (Julia Stiles in the Desdemona role), and the respect of his teammates - all except one. Hugo (Josh Hartnett as Iago) is keenly jealous of Odin - not because he's popular or has the affection of Desi, but because Hugo's own father (Martin Sheen), the coach of the basketball team, considers Odin to be more of a true son than Hugo. The coach lauds the young black man while pushing aside his offspring. This breeds resentment and hatred, and Hugo puts a plan in place to destroy Odin by sowing seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of Desi's love and fidelity. Odin, who is on some level insecure, reluctantly takes the bait.
Obviously, the single most memorable aspect of any Shakespeare play is the dialogue - the Bard is arguably the most quotable author ever to write in the English language. Yet, in an endeavor such as O, where all of those lines have been stripped away, we see the strength and universality of the themes present in the play. Certainly, there are contrivances in the plot, as there are in the original, but these are easily set aside as part of the process commonly referred to as the "willing suspension of disbelief". The intent of director Tim Blake Nelson (Eye of God) is not to create some bizarre dream world like the one of Ian McKellan's Richard III or Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, but to fashion a dramatic milieu that approximates high school in the '00s. At the same time, he is not looking for a hard-core, gritty reality - the story needs room to breathe.
Someone should introduce Julia Stiles to Kenneth Branagh. One could easily imagine the gifted, versatile Stiles fitting effectively into one of Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations. This is Stiles' third such endeavor, following in the wake of 10 Things I Hate About You (a modern-day telling of "The Taming of the Shrew") and Almereyda's Hamlet. Josh Hartnett shows more range here as the tortured, manipulative Hugo than he evidenced in the whole of Pearl Harbor. And, in the title role, Mekhi Phifer allows us to see the good and the bad in Odin, the sports deity with the tragic flaw of jealousy. Supporting roles are filled by Rain Phoenix as Desi's roommate, Elden Henson and Andrew Keegan as cogs in Hugo's plan, and Martin Sheen, acting decidedly un- Presidential, as the coach with the "winning is all" mentality.
O was ready to be released two years ago, when Miramax Films, the company that owned the rights at the time, cravenly shelved it because they feared the controversy that would accompany it in the wake of the Columbine tragedy. Had the film been exploitative rather than thought-provoking, that would have been the right decision, but Miramax, fearing bad publicity, ignored the fact that this picture has a message. The once daring distributor, whose early library includes countless foreign and independent classics, has turned into a peddler of pretentious puke. Eventually, Lions Gate picked up the rights and the movie was able to see the light of day. And that's a good thing for everyone who appreciates Shakespeare or a serious examination of the volatile issue of school violence.
© 2001 James Berardinelli