The film is most notable for musical appearances by jazz greats Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, and Johnny Dankworth, but is also of interest for its revision of the play's tragic ending: at the conclusion of All Night Long when Cousin's wife Emily Betsy Blair recognizes that her husband's claims about Delia's infidelity are inventions, his machinations are revealed and Aurelius and Delia are reconciled.
Featuring strong performances by Maggie Smith as Desdemona and Frank Finlay as Iago, the film is best remembered for Laurence Olivier's legendary blackface presentation of the title character. Olivier's performance, embellished by a wig of kinked dark hair, heavy black stage makeup, and an accent that has been described variously as Nigerian, South African, or West Indian now appears as a grotesque impersonation of blackness but was widely praised at the time for its ostensible authenticity and was greeted with enthusiasm by audiences.
His Othello dominates the film throughout, grandly controlling in the opening scenes, relentlessly brutal in its closing moments, and always the sensual victim of Iago's eerily gentle manipulations. Identifying in Iago an anxiety based in repressed homosexuality—a reading that would influence later portrayals of the character by such actors as David Suchet , Ian McKellen , and Kenneth Branagh —Finlay plays him as a man whose angst about his own nature arouses in him a viciously racist revulsion of his commander.
The film, set in the New Mexico desert, gave singer-songwriter Richie Havens, known to contemporary audiences for his opening performance at 's legendary Woodstock Festival, his first acting role as Othello, the pacifist leader of a hippie commune.
Although the film was panned by critics who found its attempts to integrate Shakespeare's play with contemporary anxieties about race and religion both clumsy and tedious, the soundtrack, which includes memorable tracks by Havens, Tony Joe White, and Jerry Lee Lewis, is now much sought-after by collectors.
Returning to the tradition of featuring white actors in the play's title role, Miller's production stars Anthony Hopkins as a stony Othello whose dark side is gradually nurtured by Bob Hoskins's energetically nasty Iago. Crowded interior shots give this studio production a claustrophobic texture that appears at first to emphasize its personal over its political dimensions, but the film develops a feminist edge as the malevolence of the male characters is increasingly focused on Desdemona Penelope Wilton and Emilia Rosemary Leach , whose love and wit prove woefully inadequate defenses against the forces of patriarchal outrage.
Twenty years later, another made-for-TV movie, this time a modern-language adaptation set among senior officers of the London Metropolitan Police, explored the play's intersections of sexism and racism by turning Othello into a taught crime thriller about the death of a black drug addict at the hands of three white police officers.
When Dessie's ostensible infidelity is established using to falsified DNA evidence, she is murdered by her husband who then commits suicide, clearing the way for Jago to be appointed Commissioner. In a moment of triumphant revisionism, Eccleston's Jago closes the film by peering directly into the camera and insisting that the film's events have had nothing to do with race or politics, but only with love.
Directed by Geoffrey Sax for Masterpiece Theatre, this stylish production's explicit confrontation of institutionalized bias and its deep cynicism seem even more apt now than they did when the film first aired. This is a visually lush film that emphasizes the stark isolation of its stunning Mediterranean setting and the casual sexism of the masculinist military culture it depicts.
Parker draws on the play's lengthy production history, offering knowing nods to memorable moments from earlier stage and film productions, but he also provides innovative touches, adding, for instance, a dream sequence depicting Desdemona's alleged adultery. The film takes full advantage of the camera's ability to approach its subjects unseen and so to draw viewers uncomfortably close to the action.
This manufactured voyeurism is then jarringly exposed and exploited by Branaugh's Iago as he peers jauntily into the lens to confide his destructive plans to the viewer. Branaugh's is an Iago disturbing primarily in his ordinariness. There are private flashes of a sinister and brooding habit, but his outward manner is so relaxed, amusing, and temperate that his perfidy seems improbable even as it unfolds. Fishburn's Othello, by contrast, is a commanding physical presence whose unassailable strength—we see him defeat Iago handily as the two fence—foreshadows his eventual descent into violence.
He is angry at his daughter's choice of husband but can do nothing once the marriage has taken place, and the Venetian Senate has accepted it. He warns Othello that Desdemona is a clever deceiver. Roderigo A Venetian nobleman in love with Desdemona.
He has more money than sense and pays Iago to court Desdemona on his behalf. Iago, playing on Roderigo's hopes and gullibility, continues to help himself to Roderigo's money, and Roderigo never gets his heart's desire.
Iago involves Roderigo in an attack on Cassio, for which Roderigo pays with his life, as Iago kills him to ensure his silence. Cassio Othello's lieutenant in the Venetian defense forces. Cassio accompanied Othello as his friend when he was courting Desdemona.
He is popular, he speaks well, and he is lively and trusting. Iago eventually convinces Othello that Cassio is Desdemona's paramour. Cassio is appointed governor of Cyprus after Othello's death. Bianca A courtesan prostitute , in love with Cassio. She is skilled in needlework and agrees to copy the handkerchief that Cassio gives her; then she throws it back at him, believing it is the token of his new love.
Emilia Desdemona's lady-in-waiting and Iago's wife. She knows Iago better than anybody else and is suspicious of his actions and motives. She does not realize until too late that the wicked person who has poisoned Othello against Desdemona is Iago, her own husband. His primary role within the play is to reconcile Othello and Brabanzio in Act I, scene iii, and then to send Othello to Cyprus.
The governor of Cyprus before Othello. We see him first in Act II, as he recounts the status of the war and awaits the Venetian ships. Ace your assignments with our guide to Othello! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why does Iago hate Othello?
How does Emilia help Iago? How does Iago use Bianca to trick Othello? Why does Iago hate Cassio? Why does Roderigo wake up Brabantio? Why does Othello go to Cyprus? Why does Roderigo agree to kill Cassio? Does Cassio die? How does Roderigo die?
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