Friday, June 08, 2012
"O"
Adaptions of Shakespeare have always been around. Leonard Bernstein and
Company had their way with Romeo and Juliet in West Side Story; Gus Van
Sant treated Prince Hal in My Own Private Idaho; Gil Junger turned the
Taming of the Shrew into 10 Things I Hate About You; and in 1999 Tim
Blake Nelson turned Othello into the High School Basketball Drama "O".
Events in a town called Columbine delayed the movie's release.
It has taken me over a decade to get around to watching this movie now
available on DVD for a song. Othello becomes Odin a black basketball
star whose Iago becomes Hugo, a coach's son jealous of his father's
neglect played by a 21-year-old Josh Hartnett. The husky-voiced 6' 3"
dreamy-eyed Hartnett generally plays more appealing everyman characters.
One of those actors you have to check the credits to see who was playing
that character, he has repeatedly made most sexy men lists despite the
lack of an action hero persona or an overly gym-trained bod.
In retrospect the movie almost looks like a pilot for the TV Series One
Tree Hill. Two thirds of the way through the movie Hugo plants Desi's
scarf, a gift from Odin, mirroring Desdemona's handkerchief. About the
same time an 'in' joke is planted in which an English Teacher accuses
Hugo of not knowing his Shakespeare. In the end this is a tragedy and it
ends in typical Shakespearean style with piles and cross-piles of dead
bodies. One more thing, nothing dates a movie faster than hip jive talk
that's no longer current.
Company had their way with Romeo and Juliet in West Side Story; Gus Van
Sant treated Prince Hal in My Own Private Idaho; Gil Junger turned the
Taming of the Shrew into 10 Things I Hate About You; and in 1999 Tim
Blake Nelson turned Othello into the High School Basketball Drama "O".
Events in a town called Columbine delayed the movie's release.
It has taken me over a decade to get around to watching this movie now
available on DVD for a song. Othello becomes Odin a black basketball
star whose Iago becomes Hugo, a coach's son jealous of his father's
neglect played by a 21-year-old Josh Hartnett. The husky-voiced 6' 3"
dreamy-eyed Hartnett generally plays more appealing everyman characters.
One of those actors you have to check the credits to see who was playing
that character, he has repeatedly made most sexy men lists despite the
lack of an action hero persona or an overly gym-trained bod.
In retrospect the movie almost looks like a pilot for the TV Series One
Tree Hill. Two thirds of the way through the movie Hugo plants Desi's
scarf, a gift from Odin, mirroring Desdemona's handkerchief. About the
same time an 'in' joke is planted in which an English Teacher accuses
Hugo of not knowing his Shakespeare. In the end this is a tragedy and it
ends in typical Shakespearean style with piles and cross-piles of dead
bodies. One more thing, nothing dates a movie faster than hip jive talk
that's no longer current.
