Othello (2002)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Andrew Davies, based on the play by William Shakespeare
Directed by Geoffrey Sax
Starring Eamonn Walker, Christopher Eccleston, and Keeley Hawes.

Features:

• History of Othello on film
  
• Production notes
  
• Cast filmographies
  
• Scene index
  

Rating: NR.

Anamorphic: Nope.

My Advice: Rent it.

Masterpiece Theatre, long an arena for excellent literary adaptation to film, has crossed paths with the Bard of Stratford-on-Avon in the past, often to great acclaim. Their most recent encounter, an adaptation of Othello, maintains their high standard for quality productions, but unfortunately, the particulars of this adaptation prevent it from achieving the stellar heights of other such attempts.

In this "retelling" of Shakespeare's Moor of Venice, John Othello (Walker) is a rising star in the police department, renowned for his fairness, his ironclad ethics, and his extreme competence on the job. When a case of false arrest turns darker with the death of the suspect in custody, racial tensions look ready to jump off the scales. To appease the public, Othello finds himself made captain of the precinct, much to the chagrin and hidden rage of his mentor, Ben Jago (Eccleston). Jago schemes to unseat Othello, simultaneously satisfying his own jealousy and the deep-seated racism of his fellow police officers.

While I am not one to immediately dismiss "alternate setting" adaptations of Shakespeare, such an adaptation must be undertaken with extreme caution. It is all too easy to allow our modern sensibilities or contemporary issues to cloud the original intent of Shakespeare's plays, pushing aside the issues and lessons that he presented in favor of a more "trendy" understanding of the work. Such muddying of the waters is tragic on two levels, the first in that it insults the original (by implying that it is too "dated" to be of any relevance to a modern audience), and distrusts the audience (by implying that we need modern window dressing to understand the story).

Such is, unfortunately, the fate of this Othello. Shakespeare's original depiction of jealousy and love turned to obsession is still there, but all too frequently overshadowed by scenes straight out of the Rodney King fiasco or the more recent Rampart scandal in Los Angeles. While I don't think it inappropriate to depict the racism inherent in the plot of the story, it should never confuse the issue of Jago's motivation (which has always been very clearly an issue of jealousy, not a distrust of Othello's dark skin). The real shame is that the individual performances are excellent, and the failure of the adaptation is on the staging and arrangement of scenes rather than in the depictions of the characters. Too much screen time is given over to the scandal and corruption in the police forcej, taking valuable character development and interaction away from the central players.

Walker's Othello is excellent - calm, competent, and impressive, but capable of radical fits of frustration and emotion, particular where Dessie is concerned. Eccleston's Jago is a magnificently two-faced villain, though the director's conceit of staging Iago's asides by having Eccleston speak through the "fourth wall" is a little jarring and annoying at times. Hawes is competent as Dessie, though no scene is in danger of being stolen when she's on screen.

The DVD is nice, including a history of Othello on film, production notes, and filmographies for the impressive cast. A commentary track by the screenwriter, explaining why he made the choices that he did when updating the play to a contemporary setting, might have gone a long way towards excusing some of the faults and pitfalls of the endeavor. And I've always wanted to see someone give me an option for subtitling the original play throughout the movie, to see for myself what dialogue was changed and where.

If you're a Shakespeare buff, or liked Walker in his stint on HBO's Oz, this one is definitely worth renting. And if you don't possess the literary purist streak that I do, it might even be worth owning. As a film, it's an excellent drama. As an adaptation of Shakespeare's original, it leaves a bit to be desired, much like most treatments of this most difficult play on screen.