Othello vs. O
Many Shakespearean plays have been used by Hollywood; the text is sometimes used as an exact script for the film and sometimes the text is used as a basis for the film but not an exact replica. A version of the play Othello written by William Shakespeare that appeals to teens is director Tim Blake Nelson's O. He uses Shakespeare's Othello as a guideline for his powerful movie about a rich white dominated school and a young black basketball star. Nelson uses many of the ideas from the original play in his adaptation but he uses these ideas in a more modern way as to appeal to a younger generation. There are many similarities between both the play and the film, but there are also some differences which lead to the idea that Nelson did not want to copy the play exactly; he only wanted to use it as a guideline for a modernized story. There are a few similarities between the film and the play which help develop the idea that the movie is based on the play. The comparisons between the play and film are mainly in the plotline used by Nelson in his adaptation. Nelson uses many ideas from Shakespeare for the basis of his film. In both the play and the movie, a black man is living in a white dominated society where he is of high r
The film serves as an interpretation of the text in many ways. It uses the plotline of the text to develop the story but modernizes the characters to appeal to a younger audience. This is apparent when the audience sees Odin as a basketball star and not a warrior as he is portrayed in the text. In the film, like in the text, race becomes an issue. There is reference to racial slurs in the film; there is reference to how uncivilized black people are in Africa when Othello describes Africans as being "cannibals that eat each other,/ The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads/ Do grow beneath their shoulders"(Act I, Scene III, 142-144). Nelson uses Othello's background of life in Africa which was tough and displays a more modern background for a young man. Nelson displays Odin's background as being one that involved the law and drugs. In Act I Scene III, claims are heard that Othello uses "spells and medicines bought of mountebanks;"(Act I Scene III, 61) to win over Brabantio's daughter, Othello wants him to ask Desdemona about her love with Othello. Nelson uses this scene to develop the background of Odin. Bob, the dean of Palmetto Grove and Desi's father, brings up that Odin was involved in drugs and the law before he came to this school. Odin claims that he no longer does drugs and asks Bob to drug test him. In both cases, each character is putting forth a test for the father of their love; Othello tests Brabantio to ask Desdemona if her love with Othello is true and Odin wants a drug test to prove he is no longer doing drugs. Nelson also uses the ancient scarf that Othello gives to Desdemona in his adaptation. The same scenario is used in the movie where it is stolen by a friend of Desi's, and she gives it to Hugo. He then gives it to Michael to give to his girlfriend but his girlfriend finds out that it belonged
Some common words found in the essay are:
Shakespeare's Othello, Venice Cyprus, Cassio Emilia, Scene III, Hugo Michael, Odin Othello, Grove Desi's, , Nelson Othello's, Brabantio Desdemona, scene iii, black people, play film, basis film, love othello, shouldersact scene iii, names setting, character names, text film, characters movie, othello desdemona, grow beneath shouldersact, heads/ grow beneath, act scene iii, beneath shouldersact scene,
Approximate Word count = 1239
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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