William Shakespeare | Othello (1995)

Thirty years after Laurence Olivier played the Moor in blackface, one of the leading African-American actors, Laurence Fishburne, assumed the role. For perhaps the first time, Shakespeare's play was treated with a realism toward the racial issues that the play raises. And what better villain to have to torture Othello than Kenneth Branagh as Iago. It should have worked very well, but director Oliver Parker spends an inordinate amount of time with full close-ups of Iago and voice-overs that, after while, begin to be tedious and boring. The action between Othello and Desdemona (Irene Jacob) sometimes has an orchestrated feel, and there are moments when it is difficult to care about what happens to these people during their relationship games. The editing of text has been done so that the focus of attention is on Iago, and in effect, this unbalances the play and the film. Fishburne does his best to be passionate and caring, but it is Branagh who is on screen most of the time. It may have been better to call the film 'Iago'. In spite of these pitfalls, it must be said that this film saw the defeat of the 'received pronunciation' that had marked Olivier's and some of Branagh's films, and demonstrated once and for all that black actors can play Shakespeare. - J.R. Costa

Cast: Othello: Laurence Fishburne; Desdemona: Irene Jacob; Iago: Kenneth Branagh; Cassio: Nathaniel Parker; Roderigo: Michael Maloney; Emilia: Anna Patrick; Montano: Nicholas Farrell; Bianca: Indra Ove; Lodovico: Michael Sheen; Gratiano: Andre Oumansky; Senators: Philip Locke, John Savident; Duke of Venice: Gabriele Ferzetti.

Director: Oliver Parker; Writers: William Shakespeare, Oliver Parker; Producers: David Barron, Jonathan Olsberg, Luc Roeg; Production Companies: Castle Rock Entertainment, Columbia Picture Corporation, Dakota Imminent Films Production.

Colour. Runtime: 123 mins.