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Othello (1989) Chaos In my review of Oliver Parker’s handsome yet ultimately unrewarding production of Othello (1995), I bemoaned my inability to recommend any other, better filmed version of the play. Well, here it is. This is the one to see. Though less money was spent on the production values for this movie--for all intents and purposes a filmed stage play--than on the catering services for Parker’s film, Trevor Nunn understands better than Parker how to wring emotion from a well-wrung text. His late 70’s Macbeth, starring Sir Ian Mckellen and Dame Judi Dench as the world’s most notorious upwardly mobile couple, remains the scariest adaptation of that midnight dark play I’ve seen. An impressive achievement considering the production’s almost complete absence of sets or props. When I first heard of Nunn’s1989 version of Othello, also starring the inimitable Mckellen as Iago, I assumed Mckellen would steal the show blind. One of our generation’s greatest actors starring as one of English drama’s most scene-stealing sociopaths...a no-brainer, right? I spoke too soon. This production happens to boast the best Emilia, Desdemona, and Othello I’ve seen—for the simple reason that they all seem human. Othello is a powerful tragedy because its two main victims, Othello and Desdemona, are both so likable and so clearly smitten with each other. But this fact is often consciously dismissed in favor of shifting the limelight to Iago, the sphinx-like villain, and the most “modern” of the bunch. He certainly has issues. Nunn directs for drama, not for symbolism or ideology. He’s not out to impose an artificially auteuristic vision on the play (the Civil War accoutrements are initially jarring, but very quickly prove an afterthought). And how much more affecting the play becomes with such a humanist approach; it really feels like a tragedy, not like bored actors going through the motions. Instead, these inspired thespians inhabit their roles, acting like they’re thinking of the words as they speak them. Shakespeare’s characters come alive as flesh-and-blood beings, not marble monuments. Imogen Stubbs is a girlish and excitable Desdemona. She’s old enough to love Othello with pure and unblemished affection, but young enough to also be a little stupid about it. She doesn’t see the warning signs. She’s an innocent, guileless with Cassio and even Iago, and thus ignorant of Othello’s growing misgivings. Stubbs gives a heartbreaking performance, full of vitality and pathos, and is easily the best Desdemona I’ve seen. Willard White is an Othello worthy of Desdemona’s love. His booming voice commands attention and respect—it’s easy to imagine him barking orders on the battlefield. Yet White’s voice is expressive enough to convey Othello’s lyrical quality as well: the general, who claims to be “rude of speech,” is actually one of Shakespeare’s most lucid speakers. When the Duke of Venice demands of Othello how he wooed the daughter of one of its aristocracy, Brabantio, Othello responds with a soliloquy so poignant and expressive the Duke can’t help but confess, “I think this tale would win my daughter too.” White emphasizes the musicality of Shakespeare’s language—his fluid comfort with the iambic pentameter is no doubt aided by his training as an opera singer. He articulates the words with a profound understanding enriched by the power of his vocal chords. Yet his performance is more than just a technical achievement, worthy of awe, but also deeply moving. He is convincing as both the love-bitten husband to Desdemona as well as the stoic general. In fact, that’s how White manages to convince the audience that Othello, the man who early on says of his wife, “When I love thee not, chaos is come again,” could eventually turn on the saintly Desdemona and suffocate her on their marriage bed. Iago preys on Othello’s insecurity. Othello is a man who vindicates his presence in a racist society through his military prowess. When Iago pours the pestilence in Othello’s ear, the honor that accompanies Othello’s role as General is questioned—he’s been made a cuckold, and with one of his own officers, no less! Othello switches gears from love-addled husband to emotionless soldier. He becomes deaf to Desdemona’s pleas. I can recommend this production on the basis of two touching lead performances by White and Stubbs as the doomed lovers and yet, ironically, neither were the reason I initially watched the movie. Perhaps you—like me—have watched or want to watch this version solely based on the fact that Mckellen is in it, and happens to be playing one of literature’s most famous villains, Iago. A character so admittedly brilliant (as Lucifer must be brilliant) and charismatic the audience is often left putty in his hands. Not here. I hated the vile, loathsome creature. Mckellen strips Iago of his superficial attractiveness, revealing the almost neurotic need for control beneath the professional surface. He shows him as a working class career soldier with a gigantic chip on his shoulder, but an otherwise picture perfect model of his type—all right angled turns and ramrod straight posture. Scratch the veneer, though, and Iago’s sick pathology shows through: he is a pathetically needy leech feeding second-hand off those around him while his insides are eaten away by an ulcerous hatred. I loved the little touches, such as Iago stealing cigarillos from a vacated conference table, collecting half-smoked cigar stubs, and spiking the wine in order to ensnare the great fly, Cassio. There’s a cipher-like quality to Iago I never quite recognized before. Imperial intellect though he is, Iago desperately needs others to realize his “art.” Like Shakespeare, he’s a dramatist par excellence, manipulating the storyline of those around him. He’s a storyteller, someone who can’t stop talking, who needs to be the center of attention. How chilling then, his last lines, directed at his prey, Othello: “Demand me nothing: what you know you know: From this time forth I never will speak word.” And the last image: the slow zoom in on Iago’s hauntingly ambiguous face. The center of the play, an abyss, a nihilistic void. This is a great production of a profoundly troubling, moving play. I would recommend it to anyone, young or old, neophyte or weathered lover of Shakespeare. Its rewards are great and it sticks in the mind, burrows into the unconscious. It’s the most satisfying Othello I’ve seen, and one of the very best filmed productions of a Shakespeare work. |
