Scene Response 2

It's interesting to see how similar and different these are. First of all, I find it interesting that Orson Welles and Anthony Hopkins played Othello. The Welles one I can kind of understand, being so long ago, but Hopkins? I believe there were "blackface" laws in place by then and I can only imagine the buzz in Hollywood when that casting announcement came out. I will say that each of these scenes was good, but in different ways. The Orson Welles one did a good job of capturing an older time period, and Welles was powerful yet vulnerable in his performance. Iago in this one seemed a little too honest, he wasn't "pulling the strings" as it were. In the Hopkins version, Othello was much less powerful and came across as more of a charming friend to Iago. Also, it didn't seem like Iago and Othello were doing anything, in their world, I couldn't tell you what action they were involved with during the scene. Iago in this version was much better at being sneaky and manipulative. My favorite version was easily the newest one. Othello was powerful and vulnerable at the same time. He pushed Iago to talk out of a place of power more so than just friendship. Iago was also the best in this version. He played a perfect blend of caring friend with evil intentions. I liked that the director had him literally in Othello's ear by the end of it. The other thing I really liked about this version was that by using cuts and stretching the length of time that the conversation was taking place in, it made it feel more like something Iago was working on all day. Rather than a five minute conversation, this version made it look like Othello had been trying to get the information out of Iago all day long. This added even more to Iago's manipulations because he was patient and waited for the right moments to speak.