Casting

Casting in a movie is sometimes the thing that makes a movie successful, and as far as the movie O is concerned who is cast as the lead characters is the thing that makes the movie. The part of Hugo has to be played by a person who is believably twisted. It would be a very difficult role to play just because of all the different angles he has to the character. In the book Othello, the character of Iago has so many different sides, he has to convince everyone he is something he is not. Hugo does the same thing, he hides his true self from those surrounding him, and this means that Josh Hartnett has to almost create a different character every time he is interacting with a different person. I think that the producers and casting directors did a great job finding actors who fit the descriptions of the characters in Othello, and it is very easy to see how they could fit into a true production of the play Othello. Yes, the story may have changed a little, but the underlying motives of the characters have not, and the actors accurately portray these motives.

Halo effect

The paintings in the back of the book, and the ones in the front, each has a different interpretation on Desdemona and her personality. My favorite one is the one where it appears that Desdemona has a halo, and is lying on the bed as Othello kills her. This view of her as an innocent and docile girl. I tended to view her as a strong-willed woman, who by the necessity of the culture, lived a quieter life than she might have wanted. You see how passionate she is a couple of times through the book. When she stands up to her father and marries Othello, shows she has the backbone to follow her heart. Plus the fact that she insists on following her husband into a war zone, shows that she won't back down. The fact of the day, however, is that a woman must stand behind her husband as a docile creature, only there to be seen and not heard. Desdemona, being a well-bread Venetian lady, acknowledges this cultural identity of women, and lives in a manner that follows this. I think, though, that to depict her as an angel goes too far, and would be seen by Desdemona herself as an insult. I think that she would want to be seen as an strong woman, who knew her place in the world, but still attempted to make her mark on her husbands life.

Adultery

I found it ironic that the entire premise for Iago's deception is Desdemona's unfaithfulness, but in Act 4, Scene 3, she has a conversation where she admits to Emilia that not even for the whole world would she be unfaithful to Othello. She seems to truly believe in the sanctity of marriage, and she cannot see how anyone could be unfaithful to the love of their life. Iago, however, is doing his best to convince Othello that the very thing his wife despises is the act that proves she does not love him. His whole plans hinge on the assumption that Othello is gullible enough to believe his wife could do such a thing, and in reality, she claims not to be. She is perhaps the purest of them all, because she is the only one to refute the possibility of infidelity.

Manipulations

I think that Shakespeare would roll over in his grave for this comparison, but I am about to draw a connection between Iago and Lisa, from "Girl, Interrupted" The two are master manipulators, and while people don't realize their full intelligence, they are always planning and working the situation to their advantages. They are always two steps ahead, and the situation rarely plays out in ways they didn't anticipate. Obviously I haven't gotten to the end of Othello, so I have no idea how its going to end, but I know how its going right now, and for much of the movie, and the book, the way we are able to realize how they are manipulating the situation and how the characters are oblivious drives me CRAZY! I hate sitting on the sidelines, feeling helpless as the other characters play right into their hands. The entire situation with the hankercheif drives me nuts, I just want to reach in and shake Cassio and Desdemona and Othello and ask them how they can be so oblivious! The same goes for Susanna, the way she lets Lisa push her around, and plants ideas in her head, it seems like it should be obvious, but Lisa and Iago are so good at hiding their true identities it is impossible for their true nature to be revealed.

Eyes

I am legit going to have nightmares after seeing the movie Girl, Interrupted. Angelina Jolie's character, Lisa has the most disturbing eyes I've seen since Voldomort's in Harry Potter. They were so captivating it was impossible to look away. In the movie, she sucked everyone into her world, dark and demented that it was. Susanna was not crazy when she went into the institution, but being around Lisa, and seeing her eyes, and subsequently getting sucked into a dark and twisted world by them, she began to see the world through those eyes. This slowly drove her crazy. I think that when we have friends who we are so close to we spend every waking hour with them, like Lisa and Susanna, we begin to see the world through the other person's eyes. And in the case of Susanna, it drove her even more crazy than she already was. It is often said that eyes are the windows to one's soul, and in the case of Lisa, this is true. The viewer looks at her, when she is staring deep into the camera and you know that somewhere in her is a little girl who is starving for attention. She controls everyone around her because she feels like she has no one and no control of her own life, and by controlling everyone else's mind she has a purpose in life. The despair that I saw in her eyes was heartwrenching and at the same time, I know that, because it was the 60's her condition, whatever it may be, probably went untreated or misdiagnosed. Something that modern medicine could have helped, drove a young women to the depths of despair. And this despair was evident in her eyes.