"Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe"

Tim Blake Nelson's "O" is an interesting portrayal of William Shakespeare's "Othello" and follows in suit with other teen remakes of Shakespeare's famous plays. I feel that "10 Things I Hate About You" along with this film are the two best teen remakes as they explore the themes which Shakespeare set out to explore in in his plays. Jealousy, romance and gender roles dominate "Othello" and are transfered with reasonable success to this film. The film makers used reasonable vehicles to convert the seventeenth century Venison environment to a modern day environment marketable to teens.   

To start, "Othello" is one of my favorite Shakespearian works, and no hollywood style film, even Lawrence Fishburn's 1995 portrayal, could hit the mark with such a complex character. The choice of "B Rabbits'" hype man as "O" does little to explore the character but for a teen market Mekhi Phifer is perfect to bring attention to the character. With his fictionalized "Othello" the audience is exposed to the same ideas of racism, masculinity, jealousy and romance which Shakespeare included in his work. By using marketable stars such as Josh Hartnett (Iago) and Julia Stiles (Desdemona) the film makers were able to bring Shakespeare to a market which would likely look over such literary classics in favor of modern entertainment and mass media.

In an age where many adolescence avoid literature in favor of the instant gratification of modern mass media, using hollywood films as an outlet to bring these stories to their attention is a nobel cause. Yes, I am aware that this film was produced to gross huge profits but if it enabled even a few young viewers to return and read the play, the films value is much more then monetary. These legendary characters are forgotten by much of society, and anyway to breath life into them once more I feel is a worthy cause. Although I personally dislike this film and discard it as yet another unmemorable teen film, I feel that it's ability to "repopularise" Shakespeare and bring his stories to a mass youth audience is a worth cause.