O,
based on Shakespeare’s Othello with some passages from
the Verdi opera, takes place in Palmetto Grove Academy, a
prep school in Charleston, South Carolina. The Othello is
African American Odin James (played by Mekhi Phifer), a star
basketball player on scholarship who has attracted the romantic
attentions of an upper-class Desdemona named Desi Brable (played
by Julia Stiles). The wily Iago is Hugo Goulding (played by
Josh Hartnett), who wants the couple to break up, using weak-willed
Roger Rodriguez (played by Elden Henson), his Rodrigo. Hugo’s
father, Duke Goulding (played by Martin Sheen), is the coach
of the basketball team, which is in line for the state championship.
Michael Casio (played by Andrew Keegan), also on the basketball
team, is the boyfriend of Desi’s dormmate Emily (played
by Rain Phoenix) but would doubtless be Desi’s boyfriend
if Odin had not captured her heart. After Hugo has Roger do
his dirty work, resulting in the suspension of Michael from
the team, Hugo puts ideas into Odin’s head that Michael
is having sex with Desi. Hugo swaps an expensive watch at
a pawnshop for a gun, and the inevitable tragic deaths occur.
O, directed by Tim Blake Nelson, may serve
as a perceptive explanation for contemporary teenage interpersonal
intrigue, racism, premarital sex, suicide, and violence, but
the lesson is so apropos that the film was pulled from distribution
in the wake of the Columbine massacre; Miramax sold the rights
to Lions Gate, which held out until an appropriate quiet moment,
Labor Day weekend 2001. MH
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