Great Works I: Remixing Memory

For staters, a few scenes were altered in the storyline and some of the lines were removed. For example, Desdemona and Othello did not have any sex scenes in the play. They never had the chance to seal their marriage with all the events from the war with the Turks to the drama between everyone occurring. A few lines were removed but that may be due to the fact that, since it is a movie, those lines may not be needed because we can see the character’s facial expressions and actions. We can decipher what they feel or how they are processing the information around them. My favorite aspect of the movie is seeing the actor playing Iago. The actor did a great job playing such a sinister role. His single dialogues are where we are reminded of his true face. He blends in well with the rest of the characters and he hides his intentions well as he acts as a guide to Othello throughout his trauma. He even preforms a little ritual with Othello, proclaiming his loyalty to his as a “blood brother”, where they draw blood from their palms and shake on it. He also provides Desdemona comfort when she goes to Iago for help on settling her fears on what Othello accuses her of and calls her.

The Othello adaptation was great success in my eyes. It was amazing to actually visualize the play with our eyes instead of just reading it. One key difference between the play and the adaptation was the sex, in the actual play; Desdemona and Othello never consummated their marriage. This I believe is a better interpretation than the original play. In the original text, Othello could’ve just had sex with Desdemona to see if she’s pure as she claims. If she had bleed after they had sexual intercourse, than that would’ve ultimately proved her loyalty and pureness. But Othello is an irrational individual who does not use basic logic and never seems to have had sex with Desdemona. I feel as if the name of this play should’ve been “Iago” instead of “Othello’, the entire story is about Iago the evil envious villain that manipulates individuals. It’s extraordinary the way Iago plants the seeds of doubt in Othello’s head, which causes him to be suspicious and jealous of Cassio which therefore causes him to be mentally unstable, ultimately leads him to murdering his innocent wife Desdemona and committing suicide. Iago is by far the most villainous character we’ve encountered in all of our readings, it’s truly astonishing how he gets away with all those things. Overall this adaptation was a great, it made more sense than the actual original play.

One major difference between the film and the original play written by Shakespeare is the presence of a sex scene between Othello and Desdemona. This particular scene in the film causes a change in the original story. The original plays shows Othello saying “… you chaste stars. / It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood”(5.2.2-3). This shows us that the method that Othello picks to kill Desdemona is very careful not to bloody the sheets. He believes that Desdemona was unfaithful and that blood on the sheets would be symbolic of her innocence. The sex scene gets rid of the importance of Desdemona trying to prove her innocence at the end. She can no longer prove her innocence by losing her virginity, which is an important part of the original play. While this scene separates itself from the original, other scenes in the movie serve to further points made in the book. A scene like Othello imagining Desdemona with Cassio helps show us his increasing suspicion and descent into a jealous rage. While this scene is not apart of the original story, like the sex scene, it serves to further the points made in the original play, as opposed to the sex scene that changes the play. The scene of Othello and Desdemona’s consummation of marriage gets rid of Desdemona’s attempt to prove her innocence as well as Othello’s unwillingness to spill her blood on the sheets. This takes away from the symbolic nature of the wedding sheets and the method of murder. The attempts to fit the play into a two hour movie, disposes of a lot of the original story in exchange for more visually pleasing scenes.

The movie was interesting but there was one particular interpretation in the movie that differed from the play’s storyline. In class we mentioned Othello saying, “The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue. The profit’s yet to come ‘tween me and you.” (II.iii.8-10) and we attributed this to Desdemona and Othello not yet consummating their marriage. Being that the purchase is the wedding and the fruits are the sex,; however, it seems as if the movie director took a different direction when regarding this quote. In the movie it is obvious they are having sex after he says these lines, so the “purchase” could be Desdemona’s virginity and “the fruits” could mean enjoyable sex in contrast to their messy and painful consummation. I think this is successful, because it continues the happiness and love we see between Othello and Desdemona in Act I and gives the audience more enjoyable scenes before we get to Iago’s trickery in the remainder of the play.

Oliver Parker has done such an amazing job by adapting the original play to a movie. He follows the same plot, and I think it is an excellent idea to keep the original and try to illustrate the play as it is. It is true that is similar to the original but the dialogues do not match in all cases, some of them are drop as well as some of them are add. This is because Oliver Parker wants to keep the play as realistic as possible.

However there is a big difference from reading a play and watching a play; both of them use the sense of the sight but just the movie use the sense of hearing. This is why so important for Oliver Parker to change some of the dialogues plus add some pauses to give a different environment and feeling to the play. Sometimes a fact speak louder than words, meaning that watching the movie sometimes we do not need the dialogues just by looking what the characters are doing or what they are not we can tell their feelings or what they want to transmit us.

A good example it is when Brabantio come up to Othello to groan about her stolen daughter by saying, ‘‘O, thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?, Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her! Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy, So opposite to marriage… Lay upon on him. If he do resist, subdue him at his peril’’ (2.2.80-100) By reading the whole quotation in the book and comparing it with the movies dialogue ‘‘Barbantio: O, thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?, Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her! Lay upon on him.’’ (09:30) we can notice that the movie use silences to emphasize the power and the anger of the Senator, Desdemona’s father. As well we notice that the book use so many adjectives or verbs that bring up the concept of power. Those are to fear, to resist, to stole, abuser of the world, thief, peril…etc It is obvious that all those words by Barbantio have something in common, and he was trying to show his superiority upon Othello and how he do not deserve his daughter. On the other hand the movie just keeps a quiet and intense background with powerful but brief words. Those words or silences are helped by the visual images where the characters use an intense look to show their power.

The film focused much more on Othello’s jealousy of Desdemona’s alleged affair rather than make it seem as if Othello’s negative reaction can stem from multiple sources like in the play. Honestly, I think focusing primarily on jealousy makes the story seem like more of an actual love story and not just a tragedy. Romantic jealousy is irrational and painful; Othello portrays that very well. In Act IV, Scene 1, Othello falls into a trance but in the movie, his body begins to shake as if he is having a seizure. It left more of an impression on me to see a man shaking with jealousy rather than to read the words, “Falls in a trance.” The scene when he begins to drown Iago in the movie was saddening and frightening to watch at the same time. The images he has of Desdemona with Cassio are a visualization of his fear. He never stops loving Desdemona or even thinks any less of her. Her death is simply necessary to him because he thought she was an unapologetic and unfaithful wife; murdering her was his only option. Based on the movie, I can see how this is a love story. Based on the written play, I see the story more as a critique towards Othello’s character. Granted, I am not a Shakespeare expert and probably cannot fully appreciate his prose. Therefore, I may not be picking up on Othello’s genuine jealousy in the play. Regardless of my comprehension of either representation of the work, I am more intrigued by the film than the written play.

The transition from novel to screen play proved to be a letdown. By far I am not an excellent writer, however the film lacked the passion and emotion the original manuscript delivered. The script ignored vital lines in the original and lengthened certain scenes, creating a hollow feeling. While reading Othello, Shakespeare is able to bond the reader to the play, making it more than a read. The page turner uses minimal words while providing a detailed and symbolic analysis of each character. This is the major drawback of the film. Drawn out lines proved less interesting, rather dull, forcing the viewer to watch unnecessary footage. Cutting lines in favor of elongated scenes proved detrimental in my opinion. The film felt dull, a cliché of the romance genre. Shakespeare crafts sentences that deliver a punch to the reader, the detailed sentences must be broken down, forcing the reader to think. A classmate also points out the following using the example, “She wished she had not heard it, yet she wishes/That heaven had made her such a man. She thanked me,/And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,/I should but teach him how to tell my story,/And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake.” (1, 3, 187-192). This line is beautifully scripted making words feel indescribable. It goes beyond saying that they have a mutual attraction toward each other, rather they are the current center of the universe.

Credit goes to  r.beregovich

The film version of Othello featuring Laurence Fishburne  had several adaptations that were not in the book we read. The one I will focus on is the scene where Iago is alone and speaking to the camera. He has a chess board in front of him with a black piece and 2 white pieces. Iago then says how he is going to take down the Moor which is signified by the black chess piece. I thought this is important because it signifies that Othello is most identifiable by the color of his skin. It also mirrors the complexity of a chess game with the plan that Iago concocts. Iago plans his actions and has a plan for each way that Othello or somebody can react. This is similar to a chess game where players will think of every possible outcome to ensure they make the right move going as far as to make a move now that will come in handy 5 turns after. This scene captures how Iago plotted to go after Othello from the very beginning and was also able to show how race plays a part in the whole thing.

“Her father loved me; oft invited me;/ Still questioned me the story of my life/ From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes/ That I have passed./ I ran it through, even from my boyish days/ To th’ very moment that he bade me tell it:/ Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,”. (Othello, Act I, Scene iii, Line 128-134).

In the film version of Othello from 1995, when the actor playing Othello recites this speech to the Duke, the film shows flashbacks. This is a choice that is different from the written play. During the speech, the film shows Brabantio and Othello spending a lot of time together at Brabantio’s house, showing that the two were close. Then the film shows when Othello first sees and meets Desdemona. The flashback then shows when Othello and Desdemona start spending time together and eventually falling in love. The most prominent part of this flashback that stuck out to me was the film showed Othello giving Desdemona the infamous handkerchief that becomes very important later on in the play, somewhat showing some foreshadowing. This is important because the written play never mentions a handkerchief until Iago’s wife, Emilia, steals the handkerchief from Desdemona for her husband to frame an affair between Desdemona and Cassio. I believe this choice tries to show the audience that this handkerchief is important in a subtle way. I think this worked when I watched the film but only because I knew the significance of the handkerchief in Othello. If I was watching the film without having read the play beforehand, I do not believe I would have even noticed the handkerchief in the beginning of the film because it was introduced in such a subtle way during the flashbacks which contained no speaking because it was during the time Othello was speaking to the Duke.

In the film version of the play Othello, certain things were easier to understand by seeing the actors facial expressions and body language.  This was especially true when it came to Iago.  Watching Iago in action helped the viewer to really understand how manipulative that man truly was.  He was quite friendly and touchy-feely with Othello whom Iago claimed to hate.  In one scene, Iago was seen hugging Othello and then plotting with Roderigo against Othello in another scene.  Iago was quite convincing when it came to pretending to care for Othello.  Iago never had a facial expression that revealed his true feelings for Othello while around the man.  During Iago’s asides around Other he would be all smiles meanwhile he would be discussing a scheme he would perform against Othello in his head.  This way Othello was unable to discover Iago’s plans and still trust the manipulative man.  Seeing this manipulation helped the audience to really understand Iago and what he was doing.