The whole movie is very corny

You have to grant that the movie has guts. It is unfortunate then that the screenplay often feels like too much of push and the radical directions the plot goes are often unearned.

Solid adaptation despite some issues thanks to a strong cast.

Very dramatic. Like really, what a highschool…

This was a better modernization of Shakespeare than Get Over It was earlier in the year, most likely because Othello as a play makes for much better cinematic material. They nailed all of the main plot developments of the play and portrayed them in a way that allowed dumb high school students to understand the subject matter. Stiles is one of my favorite actresses & both male leads performed well. The reservations I had were more related to the source material as basic jealousy doesn't generally escalate to the point of multiple homicides, but I digress. They did a good job.

The plot and storylines of the movie is written and constructed in a superb manner. Most of the actors in this film could've used some work on their skills, however Josh Hartnett doesn't get the recongition this movie deserves, the movie also doesn't get the recognition it deserves. This film follows the likes of a Basketball Phenom with hopes of going to College, Pros, and The Top of the popularity class(Odin). Along with his Teammate/Classmate/"Friend" (Hugo) wants the same things, but only achieves one. Top of the popularity Class. He gets jelous that he can't even get the top popularity. So he concocks a plan, to fill Odin's head with lies, and try to turn his life into a tailspin. Hugo convinces Odin that his girlfriend is cheating on him (Desi/Julia Stiles) with Odin's best friend (Micheal/Andrew Keegan). The twisted ending adds interest into the mindset and make you wonder, whats going through these characters heads. It's a must watch!

O is just a bunch of weak stereotypes slapped onto a lazy teen drama. The idea that anyone could enjoy this angsty bullshit is lunacy.

O is a disappointing film. It is about NBA hopeful Odin James who is the only black student at an elite private school. in the deep American south Mekhi Phifer and Josh Hartnett give terrible performances. The screenplay is badly written. Tim Blake Nelson did a horrible job directing this movie. I was not impressed with this motion picture.

Thos is a stupid unrealistic, racist movie. Dont wastes your time!

The script doesn't do a great job of translating the tragedy into a believable modern conflict, which could be due to its understated manner - but it hits enough right notes to be somewhat watchable.

Basil Iftikhar Othello movie reaction Othello, the movie and the play, are both well known and have been seen/read by many. After reading the play and watching the movie I have my own view on each. I feel as if the play does not do as much justice as the movie does. The movie clearly portrays the motives of characters while with the play more deduction is needed to really figure out what is going on (that's why we study it so much). For example when you are finished reading the play, some still wonder what exactly is Iago's motive because it is briefly discussed in act one, but after watching the movie the jealousy of Iago is clear. Iago's jealousy may seem out of proportion in the movie because it is using a highschool setting, and his plans of deception (murder) seem too far fetched, but through his facial expressions and actions you can get a tighter grasp on why and what is actually happening. When he is talking to Oden in the weightroom you can clearly see that he is trying to push Oden to feel as if Dezzy is cheating with all the pauses and the whispering type speaking. In the play you cannot exactly unravel this type of information because everyone reads with their own tone of voice as well as the language is older english, the movie modernizes things for us to better understand the events. What I liked about the play that is better than the movie is that things are not so out of proportion because it matches the setting. For example Othello probably does not want to divorce or separate from Desdemona because it is very against the Church at their time and setting, but Oden easily could have broke up with Dezzy. Usually when things get as heated as Oden was making it out to be, like when he broke down the backboard or when he rants at Dezzy, the couple will break up. That is just normal in this day and age. Overall I would give the play a 6/10 and the movie the upper edge with a 8/10 primarily because the movie is more directed towards my type of audience, while the play is a legendary play it was just hard to read and relate to. I think I would prefer reading the play first then watching the movie because I really enjoyed having those moments where the parallel match and you mind explodes. One really good parallel is in the beginning when Oden, during his speech, calls out Cassio rather than Iago, then you see Iago boiling inside. This parallels to Cassio being Othello's lieutenant and Iago being mad about that. Another good parallel was when the coach of the basketball team was drawing a play he kept saying use Iago as a distraction, and Iago was mad about that. This shows a lack of role and Iago getting upset about as he does about his role in the play.

I think the movie O does a great job representing the play Othello, and keeps almost all of the same aspects of the play in the movie. It does a great job showing the struggle that Odin (Othello) is going through in a way that makes sense to teenagers. A lot of the people that read Othello are high schoolers, so putting the story in a high school setting for the movie really makes it more interesting. I think that the play really amplifies some of the pain that Othello goes through in the play. For example in the movie, Odin does cocaine and goes way to hard in the bedroom with Desi. In the play, the worst Othello does is slap Desdemona, not including killing her which happens in both. These are very different things, but the movie really shows the amount of pain that Odin goes through. I also think this makes the story a lot more realistic. They mention how Odin is from the hood, and had troubles with the law previously before the time of the movie. This makes the killing at the end a lot more plausible of a thing than in the play where Othello is just a nice guy who loves Desdemona so much in the beginning. By the end though, he kills her, which is a big swing just because of jealousy. Knowing that Odin had a rough background made his decision at the end seem a lot more likely. Another issue I had with the play was that Desdemona and Othello are never honest with each other, and it seems like if they were, everything would have been alright. In the movie, Desi begs Odin to ask her straight up if she is cheating, and he does. She repeatedly says she isn't, but he doesn't believe her. Odin believes that she is cheating so much, that it doesn't matter what she says or does. He is already 100% convinced and them talking about it shows that. One thing that I think the play does better than the movie, is develop Emily. In the play, she starts out just trying to help Iago in any way possible, but by the end you see her understand the monster that Iago is and try to stop him. This doesn't happen in the movie I think. She is kind of just an afterthought the entire time. She gives the handkerchief to Iago, but other than that you don't learn that much about her. At the end, she does find Odin after he strangled Desi, but she never becomes the good person that tells everyone Hugo's plans and gets him arrested. I think this is mostly because of the lack of dialogue at the end. She does tell Odin what Hugo has done, and confronts Hugo, but without the great dialogue like in the play, it is nearly impossible for Emily's character to show change. One other interesting change is Hugo dad. Iago's dad isn't in the play, but in the movie, Hugo's dad causes all of Hugo's jealousy. His dad just adds more emphasis and creates a clear reason for Hugo to be jealous, like Iago has in the play in when he is overlooked as lieutenant. This is most obvious at the beginning in the award ceremony, when Hugo's dad says Odin is like a son to him and doesn't mention Hugo, and also when they are eating dinner together in Hugo dad's office and he asks Hugo about Odin because he cares about Odin more than Hugo. I enjoyed both the movie and play, but I liked the movie a little more because I feel like it was more clear and I could relate to it more as a teenager. I would rate the play as a 6 and the movie as a 7 out of ten. The story and situations were very similar, so they get similar grades with the movie having a little bit better score.

I have always been someone who likes watching something more than reading it. The movie O was not much different from Othello, but it was adapted into a more understandable scenario. The main thing that makes Shakespeare so hard to read, is his use of language. Watching a movie makes things a lot easier to understand, especially when it is set in the 2000s. I liked the seriousness in the text of Othello and it made the severity of the play more extreme. I think the movie O lacked that. Since the movie was set in such a relatable way, with high school students, the movie was easier for me to understand. On the other hand, I think the fact that it was written with such a modernistic approach, made it lose some of the drama of the written play. When Oden is playing in the basketball game and “loses it”, I thought that it was harder to understand why he was acting the way he was in the movie. I also did not think that the relationship between Hugo and his dad mirrored the relationship between Iago and Barbantio in this movie. I think in the text, Iago seemed more jealous and more wanting of Barbantio’s affection, than in the relationship between Hugo and his dad in the movie. The coaches power was lacking and I felt he did not have as much authority in the movie, as his equivalent does in the play. Another thing to mention, is that the racial tension in the play is much more prominent than in the movie. Maybe they had to leave out a lot of the racial comments in the movie for obvious reasons, but I definitely thought that the racial tension was not as strong as it is in the play and it should be highlighted because this is a huge reason of why Othello acts the way he does. Oden, portraying Othello in the movie, is seen as way more popular than Othello is in the play. Oden is seen as the “cool kid” and liked by all of his peers. Othello is seen as more of an outcast in the play, and is rarely seen as a “cool” character. Overall, I do like watching movie interpretations, but it sometimes confuses me on which things are from the movie, and which things are from the original text. I am a visual learner, so I understand things better when I watch a movie or video about the topic, rather than just reading the text. I would say that ultimately I choose watching the movie interpretation, over reading the text, especially with Shakespeare. One must be careful though when choosing a movie to watch, because sometimes the movie’s interpretation can lead the reader astray from what is actually happening in the original text. I did not get too confused with the difference between O and Othello and I think that was largely due to the setting of the movie, versus the play. I would recommend reading the original text and watching the movie adaptation, because I did get a better understanding of what was being told in the text, but do not let yourself blend the two plots together, because they are usually not the exact same.

Isabel Stallings The Kinkaid School English 10-D December 3, 2015 Othello Movie Review When I watched the movie "O", it helped better my understanding of the plot in Shakespeare's Othello. I believe all students who read and or study this novel should watch the movie after they read the novel because it puts an interesting understanding of the play. I think the movie did a good job explaining the plot with a modern twist. I think on this debate, watching the movie AFTER you read would help, but I think the students should at least read the play and attempt to understand it before they watch the movie. I would give the movie an eight out of ten because it helps describe the plot while still showing the controversy of this show. Also, it gives a good modern twist while staying almost identically true to the plot. Although, it doesn't go into much detail on the relationship of Iago and Emilia. Iago tells Emilia to shut up a few times but it's not nearly as problematic as it was explained in the novel. It misses that key point in the plot and that's one of the parts of the movie I missed and did not enjoy. Also, the movie forgets to include the true rage Iago has against Othello. The film does not go much into detail about his true rage or motive. I understand it is a part of the mystery to guess Iago's true motive but I feel like it left the audience guessing too much. However, I enjoyed how the movie included how despicable Iago truly is. Also, it includes a conversation between Othello and Desdemona that is not in the book. It is when Desdemona exclaims to Othello that if he thinks she is cheating on him, he should come out and ask. Which I think showed reverence to more modern times because that conversation most likely would have happened today rather than the time period during the play. I would rate the book of Othello an eight and a half out of ten. I think it was an excellent tragedy but everyone's death felt rushed at the end of the play. I had never read one of Shakespeare's tragedies before this but overall it had a very advanced and well thought out plot. I think it was not too difficult to comprehend once I got the hang of the wording and Iambic pentameter but it was a little tricky when we started. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and script version of Shakespeare's Othello.

I believe that Shakespeare's "Othello" is meant to be watched because by doing so, audience members can see the subtle meanings, jabs, and jokes that Shakespeare intended for his play. This work of art is meant to be seen and viewed as an actual movie and not read as a play; when watched as a movie or play, the actors can manipulate their surroundings and use actual people and props to make the audience understand their actions clearly and effectively: the effect is stronger on the big screen. The same cannot be said for reading the play. Watching the play or movie can also be better understood by modern audiences; because many people do not fully understand Shakespeare's language when they read the play. I have never been much of a fan of sad story lines, so this Shakespearean tragedy was not my favorite. I would rate the play about a 6 out of 10. The first dislike about the play is simply my personal dislike for depressing endings, and another dislike is the language. The language and style that Shakespeare uses is hard to understand; therefore, reading the play was more about figuring out what each sentence meant, and not about understanding and enjoying the story. On the other hand, what I did like about the play was how we could see (or read) most of the play through Iago's eyes; I liked how we could see the wheels in Iago's head turning and we could see what he was thinking and feeling, and how he was going to carry out his deceiving plans. I would rate the movie version of "Othello" a 7 out of 10. I enjoyed watching "O" because it helped me understand the play. For example, when I watched the movie, I could actually see with my own eyes and therefore understand what ignited Iago's desire to destroy Othello: the coach (Hugo's father) treating and loving Odin more than Hugo, Odin receiving the most valuable player award and then calling up Michael Cassio instead of Hugo to share the prize, and Hugo's father saying that he loved Odin like his own son, in front of his actual son (Hugo). Although the movie is a modern adaptation and therefore the examples in the movie are not exactly the same as the examples from the play, they helped me understand the plot better. I also enjoyed how "O" stuck to "Othello's" script very closely, for this aided me in understanding the timeline and plot of the play. However, I felt as if the drug scenes like the scene where Hugo is injected with steroids were not necessary, because nothing like that happened in the actual play. Overall, I prefered the movie over the play because it was easier to understand and I enjoy watching movies over reading plays.

The movie O is a great adaptation of shakespeare's play Othello. In the movie, the characters are portrayed as best as they could be in the form of teenagers attending a prestigious college prep school who, for the majority, make up the school's basketball team. The main character ,Odin , is similar to Othello in many regards. Both are noteable athletes/warriors who have earned a respectable position in their teams or groups. Othello is a general, and Odin ¬the team captain of a would-be championship winning basketball team. He is the teams most valuable player who scores lots of their points. He, like Othello, is manipulated by a close friend, Hugo or Iago, into believing that his partner was cheating on him with his lieutenant, or in Odin's case, his best friend. The makers of Odin did a great job of transforming the script into a more modern version. The plot is very similar, except for a few additions to make it appeal to more modern audiences. The ending scene has the same outcome as the book, and you can see the similarities in the character's final lines in the play and movie. I would rate the movie an 8, as even if I hadn't read Othello, it was still entertaining enough to watch, and the language was such that it was much easier for me to understand. I would rate the play a 7, because it has more intricate lines that allow for a more in depth look at the plot, and each character's personalities. The detail, and genius, in Shakespeare's writing are non universal and can only be truly seen in his original work. I did not enjoy having the decipher the more challenging lines of the play, but it did help me understand how Shakespeare writes and forms sentences. I preferred the movie just because I thought it was more relatable and had more modern touches, like the gun used to shoot Emilia and Othello in the last scene. I enjoyed both versions and would recommend them to whoever would read or watch them.

Othello Play vs. Movie Review On a scale from 1-10 I would rate the play version of Othello a 7. The plot was very complex and obviously well thought-out, but while reading it I usually found myself becoming lost in the Shakespearean language and not fully interpreting all of the words on the page. I understood the general plot and course of events, but not every written line seemed relevant. Also, since these plays were originally meant to be performed and not read in book form, I think I would've been able to comprehend some of the text better and would have overall enjoyed the story better if I had seen it performed. Having it performed would give the text a new form of life that it does not necessarily have on its own. What I liked most about the play version of Othello was not just the complex plot, but some of the references that were made to the Bible in some of the characters' lines. Iago specifically has a line where he twists the words of a Bible verse to, in a sense, proclaim he is a god and also to say that he is two-faced. I think the way Shakespeare sets this reference up is very clever. What I didn't like about the play were the sometimes dry or seemingly unnecessary lines. There were parts of the play where characters would ramble on for pages at a time and their words would drift away from the main topic they were speaking about in the first place. Those unnecessary monologues took away from the overall story for me when I was reading it. I would give O, the movie adaptation of Othello, a 8 on a scale from 1-10. Modernizing the play made the story much more relatable, and therefore much more interesting for me. One thing that I really like about the movie is that Desdemona actually sticks up for herself and directly denies cheating on Oden (Othello) in the movie, while in the play she's a lot more passive and doesn't ever deny anything. Another thing that I think works well in the movie is that Oden's (Othello's) rage is a lot more apparent. The movie focuses a lot on how the rumors of Desdemona's affair with Cassio affect him mentally and emotionally, and I feel like even though his anger is definitely talked about in the play, I didn't get as much of it out of the words alone. One last thing that I liked about the movie was how much of Iago's double-sidedness is shown. In the play I got a good sense of Iago's bad side, but didn't have as easy of a time seeing why everyone was so fond of him. His character in the movie (Hugo), however, shows the character's double-sided personality really well. The audience sees more of him developing trust and bonding with Oden (Othello). There wasn't anything in particular that I hated about the movie. The drug dealing scenes weren't necessary, but they added an interesting subplot and helped to raise the stakes in the movie. Overall, I enjoyed the movie adaptation of Othello more than I enjoyed the play. I found myself becoming much more invested in the characters and the overall plot while watching the movie than I was while reading the play. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that Shakespeare always intended for his plays to be performed and not read, so I believe that only reading them takes away from the overall affect that stories can have on an audience. Although I enjoyed both the play and movie versions of Othello, the movie was much more entertaining for me.

Weak attempt at drama

I see three stars as "I liked it". Usually. I can't say I did. Can you like a tragedy? You can use stars to say it was well done. And I suppose it was. I don't normally stay with a movie with such recurring, blatant language, but I did. I feel like they could have cut some of it out and still communicated hurt and anger. But I'll say that the film gives you the danger of jealousy.

Even though the setting and subject matter is timely, something gets lots in this Shakespearean adaptation. Mekhi Phifer and Julia Stiles give very good and realistic performances, however, Josh Hartnett doesn't have the chops to pull off the conniving and scheming energy that his character requires.