William Shakespeare: Othello
by Trevor Nunn
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Actor: Clive Swift, Ian McKellen, Michael Grandage, Sean Baker, Willard WhiteDirector: Trevor Nunn
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 205 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of William Shakespeare: Othello
DVD Review: Not perfect but getting there
Summary: 4 Stars
I have never made up my mind if it is more painful to watch "Othello" or "King Lear." In both cases, you feel like leaping onto the stage and strangling the leading character for being so utterly stupid. It is the supreme test of any actor to make these men sympathetic enough to move an audience to tears. Once during a lecture, someone asked me for a fast distinction between comedy and tragedy and I came up with "Comedy is what happens when women are in charge, tragedy when men are." I do not think I have seen a really satisfactory performance of "Othello" (in which a good man in charge is taken over by an evil man). More often than not, Iago steals the show, mainly because he is having such a good time duping the entire cast right down to the last few minutes of Act V.
However, we now have an Image Entertainment DVD of a nearly complete "Othello" (ID2622RZDVD) shown on British television in 1990, based on a Royal Shakespeare production directed by Trevor Nunn. Now I do not know what Italian military uniforms looked like in about 1865, when this play seems to be set, but the ones you see are far too much like American Civil War garb. However, there is a point that helps us understand Iago to this "anything but the historical period setting and costuming" attitude toward staging classics nowadays.
Nunn was astute enough to cast an opera baritone, Willard White (whom you might have seen as a magnificent Porgy on an EMI video of the Gershwin work), in the title role. He is able to do with the great rolling iambic lines what another black actor found utterly beyond him in a film version not too long ago, and in the early part of the play he gives us a very likable Othello.
His evil genius, Iago, is played by Ian McKellen as all soldier, standing at strict attention at times even when addressing the audience. Here the blue Union uniform looks just right for a man who will use any "good cause" to conceal his villainy. Unhappily, though, he often lapses into whispers and mutterings that are simply unintelligible-and that too seems to be a sure sign of recent film making.
Nunn has given Imogen Stubbs all the right moves for Desdemona; but I find her voice a little squeaky and her physical appearance a little too girlish to bear the weight of the role. Yes, she is very good but somehow I found her not right. Perhaps you will disagree entirely.
Clive Swift (from "Keeping Up Appearances") is directed to shout far too much as Desdemona's father, while Michael Grandage as the idiot Roderigo is made to fall onto the floor like a spoiled brat (which he is) in a temper tantrum (which looks absurd). The Cassio (Sean Baker) is adequate, the Bianca (Marsha A. Hunt) amateurish. On the other hand, Zoe Wanamaker makes a superb Emilia, and Nunn has found some interesting aspects of her relationship with her "honest" husband, Iago.
The only lines I noticed omitted are most of those between Cassio and the clown, here a silly solider, in a scene that is almost always entirely cut. The pacing is at times far too slow-the video runs 205 minutes-but you really must see this production many times for the great acting of White and McKellen. English and Drama Departments, take note.
Description of William Shakespeare: Othello
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