Othello

Product Description

Othello loves not wisely but too well. Desdemona epitomizes unconditional love. Coming between them is their most trusted friend iago orchestrating an entire chain of fateful events. He is perhaps the most cunning villain of all time. Studio: Castle Rock Hm Video Release Date: 09/19/2000 Starring: Laurence Fishburne Kenneth Branagh Run time: 125 minutes Rating: R Director: Oliver Parker

Amazon.com

Oliver Parker, a stage and film actor (Hellraiser), made his directorial debut with this scaled-back version of Shakespeare's play about the paranoid Moor, Othello (Laurence Fishburne), and his manipulative friend, Iago (Kenneth Branagh). Parker gets the story so lean he starts running a little short on the author's subtext, and if it's possible to overemphasize the banality of Iago's scheming and Othello's malleability, he does so. The director throws out what is universal in the story and makes it all seem merely ordinary, human, and unfortunate, which is the opposite of what watching Shakespeare should be. In the end, it's hard to care what these characters have done to one another. Branagh's Iago is a little flat and unfocused, while Fishburne is excellent as a quieter Othello than we're accustomed to. With Irène Jacob (Red) as Desdemona. --Tom Keogh