O Play Vs Movie

If anyone is ever looking for a movie based on a Shakespeare play, poorly adapted into a modern story about high school basketball players, and complete with uninspired acting, then the movie O, directed by Tim Blake Nelson, is the perfect choice. The movie, which stars Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles, and Martin Sheen, takes place in modern America and centers around private school basketball players. The star of the team, Odin, is favored by Coach Duke which rubs many players, especially the Coach’s son and Odin’s best friend, Hugo, the wrong way. The story follows Odin; his girlfriend, Desi; Hugo; Roger, Hugo’s pawn in carrying out his elaborate revenge; Emily, Desi’s best friends and Hugo’s girlfriend; and Michael, another basketball player
Hugo, played by Josh Hartnett, who represented Iago, had dark hair and eyes, sharp facial features and shifty eyes. He perfectly fits the part of Iago, an untrustworthy and malicious man; he clearly looked like he belonged around danger. The other character who perfectly fit her role was Desi Brable, who represented Desdemona, played by Julia Stiles. She had blonde hair and an innocent but beautiful face. In the play Desdemona is first described by her father as a girl who could do no wrong and that is exactly what she looked like. In addition to her physically fitting the part, Julia Stiles has tackled other roles from movies based on Shakespeare’s plays. First, in 10 Things I Hate About You as Kat Stratford (who represents Bianca Stratford from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew) and then in Hamlet (2000) as Ophelia. The only complaint that can be given as far as casting goes is the age of the actors. Mekhi Phifer (Odin), Josh Hartnett (Hugo), and Elden Henson (Roger) were 27, 23, and 24 respectively at the time of filming. They easily did not look the age of high schoolers which is a common problem in many movies and TV shows centered around high schoolers. Fortunately, the ‘R’ rating of the movie suggests an older audience who probably are not around high schoolers regularly and this flaw could go unnoticed by many
In the play the Duke of Venice has no familial relationship to any other character but in the film, Coach Duke (who represented the Duke of Venice) was Hugo’s (Iago) dad. This made the Coach’s favoring of Odin even more unbearable to Hugo. It really highlighted the reason for Hugo’s envy and although it did not perfectly match the story, it perfectly represented, in a more relatable way, the kind of betrayal Hugo felt. In one scene after Odin embarrassed himself in front of a crowd and college basketball scouts Hugo said “Yeah, Dad. Who’s your favorite now?” which further shows his disdain for being second best behind Odin. The Coach also played a much bigger role in the story than the Duke of Venice did. In the play, the Duke of Venice become much less involved after the first act but in the movie he continues to make appearances up until the very end. His reappearances continue to put attention onto the jealousy Hugo feels towards Odin for being more talented and therefore more loved by his coach. It makes Hugo’s jealousy more believable; instead of just feeling betrayed and jealous because he did not get the promotion he wanted like in the play, he also felt betrayed and neglected by his father. This makes it more clear for the viewer who may not know the extent of Iago’s anger in the play and how the play correlates to the movie. The most obvious difference between the play