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List Price: $19.99Amazon.com's Price: $17.99 You Save: $2.00 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781569385227
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
ISBN: 156938522X
Label: Acorn Media
Manufacturer: Acorn Media
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Acorn Media
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 12, 2002
Running Time: 96 minutes
Sales Rank: 36230
Studio: Acorn Media
Theatrical Release Date: January 28, 2002
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Set amid the racially charged politics of London's Metropolitan Police Force, Andrew Davies's deft and gripping adaptation of Othello achieves an ideal balance of realism, contemporary relevance, and respect for the rhythms of Shakespeare's play. John Othello is a black police officer who is named commissioner after he defuses a race riot. His friend and colleague Ben Jago (Shakespeare's Iago) is furious at being passed over for the top job, and he secretly begins a plan to destroy Othello by making him believe that his new wife is having an affair.
Eamonn Walker makes Othello's tragic fall believable and moving, but the story belongs, as it often does on stage, to the villain. Christopher Eccleston's Jago is a wonderfully complex creation, defined by his wickedness but as much a victim of it as any other character. Funny, tragic, and crackling with energy, this is an unmissable performance. Credit should also go to Davies for his script--which echoes Shakespeare's without ever quoting it directly--to a strong supporting cast, and to director Geoffrey Sax, who balances the film's realism with slightly stylized touches that give more dramatic punch to key scenes. Othello offers a daring new version of a familiar story, and it succeeds both as a powerful modern drama and as a testament to Shakespeare's insight into human weaknesses. --Simon Leake
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Othello Adaptation
This video was a great contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello. The the country's racial tension, Othello's insecurity, Desi's innocence, and Iago's master manipulation were clear for the modern audience. I still love the original, but this was great too.
Rating: - Great to compare with Fishburne-Branagh film version
I teach "Othello" in an intro to literature course for non-liberal arts majors; it's their only chance to study literature at my college, and I find this a well-balanced counterpart to the 1995 Oliver Parker-directed film dramatization starring Laurence Fishburne & Kenneth Branagh. My students tend to prefer the "original" with Shakespeare's language to this BBC-CBC production, but I like this for the energetic gallows humor it provides. While some of my students have seen "O," made around the ... Read More
Rating:  - Teaching Othello and Transformation? Look no further!
I loved this "Othello" and as such, I highly reccommend it, for all that's worth. Especially if you are an English teacher looking for a successful and interesting transformation of Shakespeare's Othello into a contemporary context. This masterpiece theatre 2001 production is an excellent example of what is possible. Remember to look for the related Materpiece Theatre website resources that accompany the production.
This "Othello" has been translated into the modern language/ context ... Read More
Rating: - Love it or hate it... it's clever
...and I think quite good, actually.
Don't expect Shakepeare's Othello and you won't be disappointed. This retelling of Othello dispenses with Shakepeare's poetry, replaces it with modern dialog and drops the story down into modern day London. This adaptation also uses the maybe too clever device of having Iago speak directly into the camera and letting the audience know what he's up to, a device lifted from BBC's political thriller, 'House of Cards.' If you're not a purist, it all works. ... Read More
Rating:  - A Travesty
This is a terrible adaption of Shakespeare's Othello. It's more like an adaption of someone's interpretation of Othello, one that I do not necessarily agree with. This movie steers so off-course that it doesn't accurately follow the storyline in the original Othello, thus changing everything and really not having anything to do at all with Shakespeare's play. There is virtually no acting going on in this movie. Instead, there are a lot of in-your-face shots of the characters, giving the viewers a forced ... Read More
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