Othello

Othello
by Stuart Burge, John Dexter (II)

List Price: ~~$19.98~~
Our Price: $17.99
You Save: $1.99 (10%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $11.63 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

Compare Prices for Othello

Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD Cover Information

Actor: Derek Jacobi, Frank Finlay, Joyce Redman, Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith
Director: John Dexter (II), Stuart Burge
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 166 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-14
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Warner Home Video

Movie Reviews of Othello

Movie Review: A titanic actor's worst mistake
Summary: 3 Stars

This performance by Olivier is painful to me in all the wrong ways.

A reviewer has bemoaned the fact that the film was shot in close-up so that Olivier's body-language is not visible. The reason was surely that the director wanted to draw attention away from everything below that noble chin -- the hobbling, stamping gait, the jangling anklets and bracelets, the wild gestures (apparently devised by Olivier after studying apes in the zoo) and all the other amazing oddities he brought forth for an audience to whom black men were a rarity which needed explaining.

The pseudo-Caribbean accent, too, may have seemed a good idea in 1968 but never made any sense. The "Othello music," that collection of amazing set-pieces which offers such wonderful opportunities to an actor, is often thrown away by Olivier, who bellows deafeningly, gurgles or shrieks, losing the rhythm, the words, the poetry itself.

Sublime in almost every other role he took up, Olivier is here more of a curiosity than anything else. But such was his authority as an actor that the performance continues to reverberate down the decades, giving delight or offence according to the spectator.

Write your own review

More Othello reviews:
1 2 3 4 5

Summary of Othello

The original cast and soul-shattering impact of the play's 1964 staging by the National Theatre of Great Britain are captured on film. As the valiant war hero swept into a maelstrom of jealousy and revenge Olivier won his seventh Academy Award nomination. The movie's Desdemona (Maggie Smith) Emilia (Joyce Redman) and 'honest Iago' (Frank Finlay) also captured Oscar nominations. And the result Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times is that 'this Othello is one of the boldest you'll ever see.'System Requirements:Running Time: 166 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:?DRAMA UPC:?085391112105 Manufacturer No:?111210

Laurence Olivier's extravagant performance as the jealous Moor of Venice had its origins on stage at London's National Theatre; this 1965 film is a straight rendering of that production, shot on a soundstage with spare backdrops. However much the resulting artifact can actually be described as a film, one must feel gratitude just for the preservation of Olivier's pinwheeling turn. Yes, it's theatrical: the blackface make-up, the exotic gestures, the rumbly voice. Olivier doesn't connect organically with the character, but builds layer upon layer of effect until reaching critical mass; then his Othello explodes across the stage, keening in rage or flopping in agony. Before being encouraged to doubt his spotless wife Desdemona (Maggie Smith), Olivier's Moor flashes a broad grin that stands as a beacon of his shallow self-confidence; after the coin drops, his body hunches in misery. If Olivier dominates, this film nevertheless presents a marvelous Iago, by Frank Finlay, the evil engineer of the plot. It may just be Finlay's physical and vocal resemblance to comic Peter Cook, but he seems to embody the sarcasm and "sick" humor of the 1960s in his Iago--and his dry style is far more attuned to the movie camera than Olivier's. Olivier, Finlay, and Smith were all nominated for Oscars, as was Joyce Redman, as Iago's hapless lady. For a real shock, and a great lesson in Olivier's chameleon talent, watch Othello and then view the brief promotional film shot during filming, included on the DVD--you'll be astonished that the gray-haired gentleman, near sixty and with clunky eyeglasses, is the same volcanic performer that just erupted for 166 minutes on film. --Robert Horton

Art House & International DVD Video

DVD Video

Movies most talked about in Essential Shakespeare on Film

Much Ado About Nothing
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2003-01-07; DVD
Best price: $7.42
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~

Romeo & Juliet
HUSSEY,OLIVIA; Release date: 2000-05-23; DVD
Best price: $4.43
Price in other shops: ~~$9.98~~

Julius Caesar
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2006-11-07; DVD
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

Richard III - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-02-24; DVD
Best price: $24.00
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Macbeth (Fully Restored Version)
DVD
Best price: $10.95

Macbeth
Sony; Release date: 2002-05-07; DVD
Best price: $11.95
Price in other shops: ~~$19.94~~

Orson Welles' Othello
DVD
Best price: $14.99

Othello
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-08-14; DVD
Best price: $12.82
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-08-14; DVD
Best price: $14.69
Price in other shops: ~~$26.99~~

Hamlet - Criterion Collection
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2000-09-19; DVD
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops: ~~$29.95~~

Similar DVD Movies

The Taming of the Shrew
Sony; Release date: 1999-10-26; DVD
Best price: $6.24
Price in other shops: ~~$14.94~~

William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
Sony; Release date: 2005-05-10; DVD
Best price: $5.47
Price in other shops: ~~$14.94~~

Hamlet
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2004-02-24; DVD
Best price: $6.32
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~

William Shakespeare: Othello
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-11-02; DVD
Best price: $16.41
Price in other shops: ~~$24.99~~

Olivier's Shakespeare - Criterion Collection (Hamlet / Henry V / Richard III)
Image Entertainment; Release date: 2006-08-01; DVD
Best price: $56.66
Price in other shops: ~~$79.95~~

Julius Caesar
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2006-11-07; DVD
Best price: $5.41
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

Macbeth / McKellen, Dench (Thames Shakespeare Collection)
A&E; Release date: 2004-11-16; DVD
Best price: $12.08
Price in other shops: ~~$24.95~~

William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-08-14; DVD
Best price: $14.48
Price in other shops: ~~$26.99~~