癲狂院 Vixen Owl Cigar..。o○

"O": Dunking For Columbine....


Modern-day Shakespeare Done Right.
O is a controversial, contemporary interpretation of one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, Othello is intended solely for a very mature audience.
Teens can be very mature people, but it is the middle-aged directors that continually release films that are insulting to teenage intelligence, and the teens cheerfully accept them.
Although the characters in O are teenagers, the movie is not really for teens.
Unlike 10 Things I Hate About You (an adaptation of Taming of the Shrew ), Get Over It (Midsummer's Night Dream ) and even Clueless (Jane Austen's Emma ), O is a tragedy.
And if my high school English teacher taught me anything , she taught me that you can tell the comedies from the tragedies by the number of bodies on stage.
Of course, if you are unfamiliar with Othello, I will not ruin the movie by saying who dies.

The movie follows Othello almost perfectly.
Even the character's names are somehow related to their Shakespearian counterparts.
Mekhi Phifer plays Odin James (Othello ), the African-American star of his prep school basketball team.
Julia Stiles plays Desi (Desdemona ), the beautiful daughter of Dean Brable (Brabantio ) who loves Odin.
Hugo (Iago, played by Josh Hartnett ) is jealous of Odin because he (Odin ) has absolutely everything.
Furthermore, Hugo's father, the basketball coach (Duke), treats Odin better than Hugo.
So, Hugo decides to ruin Odin's life by telling him that Desi is cheating on him with Mike, a fellow basketball teammate.
And thus, chaos ensues.

Everything about this movie was excellent.
As I mentioned before, the plot was almost a flawless adaptation of Othello.
The transition from Venice to Charleston, SC worked well.
There is however, the issue of violence in O.
In case you are unaware, O was actually made two years ago but was never released because of the feared backlash after the school shootings (Columbine, in particular ).
In my opinion, the violence in O was rather shocking - even if you are familiar with O, but not because it takes place in an academic setting but rather because the adult characters from Othello have become teenagers.

【Julia Stiles】●O (Othello)○【Josh Hartnett】
A Dark & Tangled Web of Deceit...

"O" takes place in an exclusive boarding school in Charleston, South Carolina, where star-player Odin Jones (Phifer) is awarded an MVP award for his incredible basketball skills.
Him and his girlfriend, Desi (Julia Stiles) have a truly special (and realistic) relationship, and he is like a family member by the team's coach, The Duke (Martin Sheen, hamming it up, but he does it so well ).
Of course, Coach Duke already has a son, Hugo (Josh Hartnett, who finally gives a great performance after slumming it film after film ).
But Hugo and Duke don't seem to have a solid relationship, but rather a passive one.
Hugo then sets off an intricate scheme to bring Odin down.
The deception is lead to convince Odin that his girl is sleeping around behind his back with his buddy Michael (Andrew Keegan ).
There is no real justification for Hugo's plot to bring down Odin, but you sense the cold, callous, heartless man that Hugo is with each blank stare.

This sets off a downward spiral of events that leads to one of the most gut-wrenching climaxes I have ever experienced.
Sure Im aware of the outcome, and I expect tragedy to ensue, but the material is so expertly directed by Tim Blake Nelson, that I was viscerally effected by everything that takes place.
He handles such important issues as teen sex, drug use, and doesn't alleviate it with conventions that you'd expect from a major Hollywood director.
He delves deep into each character, but more so with Odin that you feel every searing emotion that breaks through.
Consequences are presented, and the very final outbreak of violence is so unsettling and realistic, that most audiences will shun the harsh authenticity that is presented.

Every performance is exquisite, but the real standout is Phifer.
After walking out of his debut performance in "Clockers ," I was more than certain that he was destined for greatness, and he most certainly proves me right in "O."
What's also truly unsettling is that you don't normally want to sit through a movie where young adults do the things they do in this movie.
Adults especially, don't want to even imagine that eighteen year-olds even conceive the notion of murder, or engage in such bludgeoning brutality.

In the end, its audacity alone should be rewarded.
There very well could've been some studio compromises done in order to tone down the brutality, but the end product is something that will not only never leave your mind, but leave with you ideas as to why this epidemic of teen violence has recently swept the nation.
More importantly, it also examines the timeless definition of the importance some people feel of gaining more power over another. Hugo never even considered the possibility of being Odin's equal.. He couldn't accept the fact that Odin could've been better than him, so his fear transformed into hideous rage.. Slowly but surely, he hurts everyone around him.. He always felt the need to be above and beyond Odin, when instead he should've just been his friend for life.. But what do you do when you're left alone in the dark when instead you'd rather soar like a hawk Because of rumor, jealousy, and greed, instead, he crashes, burns, and we're left with the scars and the questions as we walk out...

I highly recommend "O" to everyone, but I do offer this caveat: O is not American Pie 2 with guns, so please do not expect that.
There were several young people in the audience who found many parts of the movie incredibly hilarious.
They laughed during the love scene between Desi and Odin

Why??? Because sex is funny !!
Even more disturbing, they laughed when people died.
Why??? I don't know.
Of course, malcontents may say that they were laughing because the movie was so shlocky, but I think that it really ruined things for everyone else.


All in All, O is an Excellent Film that Everybody should see.
It is Dark & Sinister and an All-around Good Film.