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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eccentric Masterpiece,
By
This review is from: Othello [The Tragedy of Othello] by Orson Welles - Import, All Regions (DVD)
Controversial and weird, this eccentric masterpiece adds a dimension to Othello present in no other film version: the frenzied mindlessness of evil. Welles' fast cutting, shortening of the play, plus the incredible performance of the legendary Dublin stage actor Michael Macliammor all add to this effect.
Welles himself portrays a stuttering, flubbering and blustery Othello. Yes, it looks a little canned -- see his similar walk through his relatively poor Macbeth. Here, however, it simply works in context, egged on by the extraordinary Macliammor (who in real life tutored boy Welles when he escaped to Dublin before his Mercury Theatre days). So Orson here, among a lot else, returns the compliment, resulting in one of the most fascinating stabs at Shakespeare caught on film in century 20. Some are troubled by Maclaimmor's face as a uniform mask of evil. But this simply shows how the performance is registering on a subconscious level. Also, both the performances and direction owe a lot to the silent film era and early German film expressionism, heavy influences on Welles who is too often held up (and then roughly put down) as boy genius gone bad. No, evil is not very interesting at all, finally. Those who have yet to face that bald fact out of life itself may balk at this production. There are also controversies over whether Welles ever really "finished" it (the fact is he "finished" quite little in his life), and about this restoration by his daughter Beatrice, recently slandered in a new Welles bio. I vote for Beatrice. The new soundtrack and music are simply necessary to make this film palatable, and the images are dazzlingly restored. Truth is, Welles goes in and out of vogue and not even viewable versions (much less scholar-certified definitive versions) of all his works are yet, to this date, available. Would the naysayers be happier if Beatrice Welles just collected royalties and went on a Paris Hilton ego trip? What some segments of the public these days seem to expect to be handed to them, duty free, is almost as appalling and parasitic as Macliammor's Iago. Everything here works up to the horrific finale and the inspired final frames. This is an Othello you will never forget, even if you only see it once. Sure, one needs to see other great Othellos if you can find them (Olivier's differently eccentic version is scarce as hen's teeth). But this grand and bold experiment will teach you a lot about both the play and its horrific, eternal subject matter -- what the American writer Louis Auchincloss called "motiveless malignancy." Next to Macliammor's Iago, Olivier's Richard III looks like an upstanding worthy fellow.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Othello,
By Galatea Gillie "GG" (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Othello [The Tragedy of Othello] by Orson Welles - Import, All Regions (DVD)
Excellent acting with Orson Wells as Othello. The Lawrence Olivier version is impossible to find. There are newer films of Othello such as the Lawrence Fishburn one but I cannot use them in my school classroom because they are rated R and the Orson Wells version is approved by the school district. My students found the film noir version interesting with the stark black and white and odd camera angles that increased tension in the viewer to match the tension in the play.
17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A must for fans of Orson Welles. For lovers of Shakespeare--ehh, not so much.,
By KJJG (Tujunga, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Othello [The Tragedy of Othello] by Orson Welles - Import, All Regions (DVD)
Visually stunning in many scenes, this is a fascinating example of Orson Welles cinematic genius and a confusing and frustrating rendition of Shakespeare's Othello.
If Welles had had the time and money to complete the film, it is possible that it could have been as great as many of Welles' idolaters say it is (and it isn't). Made in the early 1950s, Othello was filmed in the European fashion, which meant that the dialogue was to be dubbed in later. Consequently, the dialogue is often at odds with the action on the screen. Welles' Othello seems emotionally subdued in one scene, yet his voice rages with passion. Robert Coote, who portrayed the dupe Roderigo, evidently wasn't available when it came time to dub his scenes so we are treated to Welles' effeminate falsetto coming out of Coote's mouth. Hilton Edwards' Brabantio mouths his lines like a fugitive from an Italian 1950's Son Of Hercules epic. In one particular instance, Welles made a true virtue of necessity. According to one account, the costumes were unavailable for the scene of Roderigo's attempt on Cassio's life so Welles set the scene in a Turkish bath. It's a great scene. The acting is somewhat spotty. Welles brings a lot of smoldering emotion to his role. However, he tends to stalk through several scenes as if auditioning for a remake of Dracula. Micheál MacLiammóir seemed to interpret the malevolent Iago's primary motivation as constipation. His facial expression never changes and he moves from scene to scene as if he had a stick up his backside. Fay Compton's Emilia is refreshing. She offers the one consistently good performance throughout. Too bad her screen time is only about six minutes total. It's an absolute relief to watch her and her speech on the nature of men and women is one of the few that doesn't suffer from the dubbing. Welles ran out of money and he may have lost interest in the film as well. So, we don't know what his final cut would have looked like. However, his style in Othello seems heavily influenced by Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan The Terrible and Alexander Nevsky. Lots of dark, people running in and out of shadows, huge vaulted chambers, faces either cloaked or creased by shadows, odd camera angles. Very moody. Lots of jarring jump cuts, too. I don't know if this was Welles' plan or, like the soundtrack, just using what the present day restorers had to work with. All in all, this is probably a must for all true fans of Orson Welles (and Fay Compton) but a mild curiosity for lovers of Shakespeare.
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