A flashy, heavily emotional (as it should be), frequently bizarre, but always visually and dramatically exciting rendition of Shakespeare's tragedy.

| Jun 7, 2022

The director's sheer delight in doing this, his warm exuberance at rediscovering himself in William Shakespeare, is to me, infectious, and --as long as Shakespeare chooses to co-operate -- makes for a real creative achievement.

| Mar 29, 2022

Qualifies as a film noir.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 22, 2021

Its narrative goes by such fits and starts that it is often hard to follow the story.

| Mar 30, 2020

Here Shakespeare definitely loses out. Okay if Welles had something else to substitute. But he doesn't.

| Jul 16, 2019

The film is edited into a frenzy, scene dissolving into scene with an energy that reflects the Moor's distractible mind and also happens to distract the viewer from the troubled production's threadbare seams.

| Aug 28, 2018

Seldom has a director encountered so many frustrations and obstacles, and turned those obstructions into inspirations, integrating them into his vision.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 26, 2014

Othello joins a gallery of ... Welles protagonists such as ... Kane and Macbeth, whose desire to believe themselves masters of their domains lead ... to solitary tragic fates.

| May 12, 2014

A Shakespeare movie that lives and breathes like few others.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 22, 2014

Othello came together in defiance of any unifying principle beyond the scrappy vision of its director. It's a work of seat-of-the-pants grandeur.

| Apr 22, 2014

There is no excuse not to see it.

| Apr 21, 2014

A stunning film.

| Sep 26, 2008

Low-budget but visually stunning.

| Jun 18, 2008

The visual rhetoric is synchronised with the verbal imagery: they hit sensory overload together.

| Jun 18, 2008

Welles genius behind the camera brings one of the Bard's darkest plays to life.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 18, 2008

Film is an impressive rendering of the Shakespearean tragedy.

| Jun 18, 2008

Individual scenes are in an unrestrainedly operatic bravura style, and while the film succeeds visually, it ultimately fails as drama.

| Jun 18, 2008

For all the liberties taken with the play, Orson Welles's 1952 independent feature may well be the greatest Shakespeare film.

| Apr 6, 2007

A folly perhaps, but a grand one.

Full Review | Apr 6, 2007

One of the filmmaker's great masterpieces.

Full Review | Apr 6, 2007