Othello 1995 vs 2001

                        1995                                                                                             2001

                                                                       

           

Othello is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. I remember fondly memorising the lines "making the beast with two backs" and "circumcised dog". Iago was and still is one of the worst villains to ever be written down and Othello is the noble savage undone by his passions. I had never had the chance to watch Shakespeare on a stage so I had to make do with watching Othello on tv so I did. 

I first watched the 1995 adaptation of the play with Lawrence Fishbourne. It is very faithful to the source material and does not stray too much from the play. I thought it was okay although hearing medieval English is not as enjoyable as reading it for some reason.  The movie was okay. 

However the 2001 version starring Eammon Walker was far superior in my opinion. The writers of the latter version did a very good job of inserting the story of Othello into a modern setting. The Iago of the 2001 version is way more cunning and devious. He is almost likeable. The villain of the modern version has a more logical reason for plotting Othello's downfall. The Iago of Shakespeare's play hates Othello because either because he is simply evil, racism or latent homosexuality. The Othello of the play seems too gullible it is almost unrealistic whilst the modern version is a more complex character. And the ending of the modern version is bittersweet and unexpected. I wish they would have continued with the story and made a sequel to the 2001 Othello. 

The great thing about the 2001 Othello is that it is free to watch on Youtube.

Final verdict. The Othello 2001 is way better than the 1995 adaptation in my opinion. And I know it is an unpopular opinion. Maybe I am too much of a Philistine to appreciate Shakespeare's Othello in its purest form. But everyone is entitled to their opinion. I enjoyed the 2001 version much more and will watch it over and over again. 

Further thoughts.

The black male white female pairing has always been controversial. It seems even during Shakespeare's time the idea of a black male being romantic with a white female was tendentious. Since the days of Othello there have been numerous incidents of black males murdering their white girlfriends and wives. The story of OJ Simpson and Nicole comes to mind.

OJ and Nicole the modern Othello and Desdemona 

The black man's lust for white women, the white woman's curiosity of the black man's sexual prowess and the white man's fear of the black man's violent sexual urges are issues as old as the hills. The Bible talks about Aaron and Miriam's displeasure of Moses marrying a black woman. There is truly nothing new under the sun. In my opinion every race has the right to protect their women from foreigners. It is perfectly natural to want to keep "your" women within the confines of the tribe and nation. To approve of foreigners taking your women is the height of cuckoldry. And Muslim men making it unlawful for non-Muslims to wed Muslim women is the right thing to do. 

Today white women who "betray their race" and date blacks and browns are called mud sharks or coal burners and when they are raped and killed they are said to have paid the toll. Memes like this are abound on social media.

On the other hand television shows and adverts bombard white women with race mixing images designed to lead them astray. Who is behind the push for race-mixing? Is it a plot to destroy the white race?

So what is the lesson behind the play Othello? Is it a warning against race mixing? Yes. There is no other way to decipher the play. It is a cautionary tale about the perils of dating the outsider. A caveat that many white women like Nicole Brown ignore and pay the ultimate price for their lust.