Scene-Response-Blog 16

A common theme throughout Shakespeare’s writings is the decent of one of his characters from hero like qualities to absolute destruction. This theme reigns true in the film adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Othello,” “O.” The main character Odin, is a huge basketball star in his private school who quickly descends into the depths of murder with the help of his antagonist Hugo.

A particular scene that showed the beginning of his descent occurred in the gymnasium during one of their games. In an earlier scene, one of the star players, Mike, got into a fight so he was not allowed to play in the rest of the games. Hugo decided to use this as an opportunity to help destroy Odin. The scene begins with the game already in progress. Odin is playing well as expected and the team is winning. Hugo sees Mike in the stands and encourages to go hang out with Odin’s girlfriend Dessi. Odin does not seem bothered by this at all, but as the game ends, he sees Dessi celebrating with Mike. Earlier, Hugo had put thoughts in Odin’s head that Dessi was cheating on Odin with Mike. During that conversation, Odin blew off Hugo and basically told him that he didn’t know what he was talking about. But when Odin saw Mike with Dessi at the game he became jealous. Now the best part about this scene is there was no interaction between Mike and Odin or Dessi and Odin, but you could see the look on Odin’s face when he saw them celebrating as the jealousy swept over his eyes. The non interaction between these characters are vital for the audience to believe that Odin is beginning to believe what Hugo has been whispering in his ear. In that close up shot of Odin, the audience is pulled into Odin’s jealousy.

I really like this scene because it is the turning point in Odin’s character. Before this scene, Odin was strong and a superstar. He had no doubt in his mind that he was in love with his girlfriend and she was faithful to him. But at that single moment, all the doubt Hugo put into his head became a reality and the descent began. Ultimately, Odin would continue to believe Hugo and make bigger and bigger mistakes. Finally in the end, Odin let Hugo’s lies completely upend his life and he committed murder-suicide.