The movie "O" is very interesting. I like how it plays on Othello in a modern way. When we started it I was thinking of the new version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo Dicaprio. I liked the modern twist of Romeo and Juliet by using guns instead of swords, but in that version they kept the Shakespeare words.
"O" is very different in that it does not keep the old Shakespeare words and in fact changes some things around just to create a more dramatic story. Although, like Shakespeare needed help with creating drama? I don't think so.
There are many new movies that have remnants of Shakespeare in them. I think that's why people love them is because even though some may not enjoy reading him or trying to pick up on every double edge word he writes they actually enjoy the drama of the story. If you try to pinpoint other works where there are other details of Shakespeare you can see that there are many places where he comes up. One of my personal favorites where I immediately thought of Romeo and Juliet was with Taylor Swift's new music video, "Love Story". It definitely has that Shakespeare feel to it.
I included a picture of that captures the basic feeling of the video. She has an old dress on and in the background is a painting that has a medieval look to it with a peasant holding a lamb. This was just the first thing that popped into my head when we talked about Shakespeare in every day life.
Shakespeare's drama sure does have an appealing aspect to it! As sad as it is that people are not reading Shakespeare as much, I am glad that his drama is being displayed through modern films, music, and even literature... even if the audience is unaware of the parallel structures.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet, I was very confused because of the contradiction that was going on between the language and the setting of "present day." I prefer things one way or the other- like "O" where the plot is similar but the language matches the time and place or the new version of "Othello" which uses the language of Shakespeare as well as the era it was written in.
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