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Othello Movie Vs Play

Decent Essays

To be honest, I have never read Shakespeare’s work before. I also am not a big fan of Dramas or love stories. Othello has all of this, but it does also have a very suspenseful and dark side, which kept me interested. Shakespeare’s Othello is story that takes place in the 1600’s and is centers around four main characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army; his wife, Desdemona, his lieutenant Cassio and his trusted ensign, Iago. I found Othello to be a great story, play and movie because it encompasses all of the things we all experience in life such as: racism, love, jealousy and betrayal. As I read Othello, I found that once I started reading, I didn’t want to stop. I won’t lie, I did find the dialog challenging to follow at times. …show more content…

Iago shows no mercy and unlimited amount of cruelty. Iago’s destructiveness seems to all fall on the people that are closest to him. Another of my favorite scenes was right from the opening scene in the movie when Othello is in the boat crossing the river with Desdemona, Othello turns toward the camera and holds up a disturbing looking white mask to his face. I thought that was very symbolic of the story. It also gave me goose pimples because the scene was dark, foggy and depressing. The movie also shows the type of possessions that the character owned which does give you more of an idea of what type of possessions they used in their everyday life. Another example was when Othello was speaking with Iago while he was cleaning and assembling the guns. I thought that sent a message of violence as well. Although, I did not care too much for the background in some of the movie. An example of that would be the background at the end of the movie when they showed the ocean. You can tell it was not that realistic. I thought the actress Anna Patrick that played Emilia did a great job in portraying a woman of the times. Mr. Parker also does a great job in portraying the Othello’s weaknesses. These are all the reasons why I felt the movie had more …show more content…

He has a way of making you feel that you are really watching people from that time. I also seen a lot of the passion as Iago in him. When I read the play, I feel Kenneth Branagh nailed Iago’s image that I read in the play. In the play, Iago has to be two-faced all the time. He shows one side of him to one person, and another side to another. In the film, Iago works very hard to keep up his appearance with all the different characters. No character sees more than one side of him, and his plots are kept to himself. I think the role of Iago was a tough one to play because of the ability to make people truly believe how convening he was, but Branagh did a great job. I also noticed that when Othello was speaking, his facial reactions would visibly change when Othello looked the other way. It was incredible how quickly the change from an evil expression to a loving and loyal expression was made. In one scene, Iago and Othello are hugging, and Iago's face reflects contempt as soon as his face is beside Othello's face. This is another reason why I thought the movie brought more of the emotions out in me. I could actually see the facial reactions as well as eh facial reactions of my kids when they watched the movie with

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