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Aug. 19th, 2006 10:25 amLast night I resumed my private Shakespeare Festival by watching Othello, with Kenneth Branagh, Laurence Fishburne, and Irene Jacob. I like this version quite a bit. It gets the usual film treatment of being chopped up and whittled down to fit a 2 hour movie frame, but Laurence Fishburne is an excellent Othello, and Branagh is a very good Iago.
There doesn't seem to be any consensus on this film other than, as in other Branagh Shakespeare films, it is beautifully shot. But reading reviews on Amazon, it seems that while many people think Fishburne is the best thing in the film, a lot of them don't like Branagh's Iago much at all. Then there are a lesser percentage of reviews who think Branaugh plays the definitive Iago, but that Fishburne's Othello is sorely lacking. This includes the so-called "professional" reviews offered by Amazon, of which there are two, one of each type. Fewer are the reviews that actually liked both Branagh and Fishburne.
I dunno, I might have to pick up the Lawrence Olivier version of this play from 1965, which many who don't like this version consider to be the definitive one. I just don't like the idea of Olivier playing the part in black face, but I know he gives a compelling performance. There is also an Orson Welles version out there which is not considered exactly a classic (he also takes the role of Othello -- so many actors fail to realize that Iago, while not the hero, is the most complex and compelling character in the play). There is a British stage production on film with Ian McKellen as Iago, that I'll almost certainly have to see someday. One reviewer mentioned a stage production with James Earl Jones as Othello, gawd I wish there was a film version of that!
The dvd for this film was very bare-bones, just a movie trailer as an extra, and was also pan and scan, which I always dislike.
Plans for the day: I'm going to take an hour walk in a few minutes, then get my stuff together and head up North. I want to stop at Frye's and spend some money, and I'll have to hit my comic shop. I don't know when the bowling party is because I haven't been able to check my e-mail, but I'll be there on time or I won't. I don't have anything to read for writer's night, I haven't had the time to write and anyway anything I wrote recently would be on the computer that won't boot. One of my goals is to get that fixed today. We'll see.
There doesn't seem to be any consensus on this film other than, as in other Branagh Shakespeare films, it is beautifully shot. But reading reviews on Amazon, it seems that while many people think Fishburne is the best thing in the film, a lot of them don't like Branagh's Iago much at all. Then there are a lesser percentage of reviews who think Branaugh plays the definitive Iago, but that Fishburne's Othello is sorely lacking. This includes the so-called "professional" reviews offered by Amazon, of which there are two, one of each type. Fewer are the reviews that actually liked both Branagh and Fishburne.
I dunno, I might have to pick up the Lawrence Olivier version of this play from 1965, which many who don't like this version consider to be the definitive one. I just don't like the idea of Olivier playing the part in black face, but I know he gives a compelling performance. There is also an Orson Welles version out there which is not considered exactly a classic (he also takes the role of Othello -- so many actors fail to realize that Iago, while not the hero, is the most complex and compelling character in the play). There is a British stage production on film with Ian McKellen as Iago, that I'll almost certainly have to see someday. One reviewer mentioned a stage production with James Earl Jones as Othello, gawd I wish there was a film version of that!
The dvd for this film was very bare-bones, just a movie trailer as an extra, and was also pan and scan, which I always dislike.
Plans for the day: I'm going to take an hour walk in a few minutes, then get my stuff together and head up North. I want to stop at Frye's and spend some money, and I'll have to hit my comic shop. I don't know when the bowling party is because I haven't been able to check my e-mail, but I'll be there on time or I won't. I don't have anything to read for writer's night, I haven't had the time to write and anyway anything I wrote recently would be on the computer that won't boot. One of my goals is to get that fixed today. We'll see.
