"O"

A new adaptation takes Shakespeare to high school. The "O" stands for Othello." Also, "Oprah."

By Charles Taylor

Aug. 31, 2001 | After Julia Stiles starred in "10 Things I Hate About You," the 1999 high school comedy update of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," the celeb profiles that followed announced she would be playing two more Shakespeare heroines: First, Desdemona in "O," a high school update of "Othello," and then Ophelia in "Hamlet." By the time Michael Almereyda's "Hamlet" opened in the spring of 2000, "O" still hadn't appeared. And now, two years after it was supposed to open, it's finally being released.

The movie was delayed because of Columbine. After the Colorado school shooting, Miramax, which was set to release the film through its Dimension division, got cold feet about the picture's depiction of high school violence and reportedly was ready to shelve it permanently. Heated words and threats of lawsuits came from the director, Tim Blake Nelson. Finally, as it did when Miramax got cold feet about another controversial movie it was set to release, Kevin Smith's "Dogma," Lions Gate Films stepped in and took the movie off of Miramax's hands.

You can hardly be surprised by Miramax fearing that there were people stupid enough to assume that any movie showing a plot to incite murder in a high school would be a blueprint for America's youth. The assumption of all would-be censors is that people are too stupid to distinguish reality from fiction and that smarter, cooler heads (i.e., theirs) have to decide what audiences are capable of handling. Unfortunately, as Miramax certainly knew after Columbine, some of these people have gotten themselves into very powerful positions. (I direct your attention to Exhibit A: Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who just last week announced support for a lawsuit brought by parents who contend that their daughter's murderers were "inspired" by a song by the heavy-metal band Slayer.)

That doesn't excuse the fact that the people at Miramax caved in simply because of what they imagined might happen. Especially when they had a movie whose intentions are as serious as Tim Blake Nelson's in "O," and a movie where the violence is never presented as anything but ugly and destructive. I wish I could report that those principled intentions also make "O" a good movie. But the film is a plodding, earnest adaptation that strips the source of its richness and ambiguity.

For years academics and Shakespeare scholars have debated whether Othello is a true hero or merely a braggart (as F.R. Leavis contended). The man certainly has some of the showoff in him, but that doesn't keep him from seeming the most direct and likable of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, the one most possessed of sensuality and humor. Laurence Olivier captured those qualities beautifully in the 1965 film of Britain's National Theatre production when he made an entrance, fresh from Desdemona's bed, sniffing a flower that he playfully rakes along Iago's face. (I'd hate to see a production where Othello is presented wholly as a braggart; what's the point of a tragic hero you can't feel anything for?)

But the real mystery of the play remains Iago. Why does he do what he does? In finding an answer, directors and actors have to be very careful not to simplify the depths of his hatred. Put it this way: I think an actor playing Iago has to decide for himself exactly what motivates the character; and then do everything he can to keep those specifics shrouded from the audience. In a good production of "Othello," the inscrutability of Iago's evil translates as a powerful example of the poisonous irrationality of jealousy.

"O" scotches that mystery in the opening scene when the Iago character, named Hugo and played by Josh Hartnett, tells us exactly why he hates Othello (here called Odin Jones and played by Mekhi Phifer): Because Hugo has been deprived of his daddy's love. (With that pop-psych explanation, the O of the title could have easily stood for "Oprah.")

Odin is the star basketball player at a prestigious private high school in the South, and Hugo's father, Duke (Martin Sheen), is the coach. Duke is one of those driven coaches who spares his players neither his praise nor his blame. He doesn't hold back from criticizing Hugo in front of the other players when the kid screws up; nor, when Odin lands his team in the state championships, does Duke hesitate to tell a pep rally that he loves Odin like his own son. So Hugo goes about plotting his revenge, making Odin think that his girlfriend Desi (Julia Stiles) is cheating on him with his friend Casio (Andrew Keegan), using the rich rube Roger (the Rodrigo character, played by Elden Henson) as his stooge.

Next page: What better place for irrational jealousy to fester than among teenagers?