Barnes & Noble

An audacious updating of Shakespeare’s Othello, this well-acted drama hews closely to the Bard’s themes while giving them a decidedly contemporary edge. Mekhi Phifer portrays Odin "O" Jones, the star basketball player and only African-American student at an elite private school, where he enjoys the respect of fellow classmates and the affection of the dean’s daughter, Desi (Julia Stiles). Hugo Goulding (Josh Hartnett), ostensibly O’s best friend, secretly envies him and plots to undermine him. Director Tim Blake Nelson (Kansas) uses high school sports as a metaphor for battle, in place of the bloody war Shakespeare employs as a background for the conflicts in Othello. Like the original work, this film vividly and tragically illustrates the corrosive effect of envy on a man’s soul. Made in 1998 but held back because of several high-profile outbreaks of school violence, O demonstrates just how timeless Shakespeare's fundamental themes remain. Stiles, who joins Nelson on the DVD commentary track, proves as nimble here as in an earlier Shakespearean update, her turn as Katarina in 10 Things I Hate About You -- an equally deft 1999 modernization of The Taming of the Shrew. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

A modernized retelling of William Shakespeare's Othello, O changes its setting to an elite private school in the American South. Odin (Mekhi Phifer) is the only black student at Palmetto Grove and also the star basketball player, with hopes of reaching the NBA. A popular student, he is dating Desi Brable (Julia Stiles), the daughter of the school's dean (John Heard), and they are deeply devoted to each other despite their different backgrounds. His best friend Hugo (Josh Hartnett) is a starter on the basketball team, and the son of the hard-driving coach Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen), who considers Odin as much his son as Hugo. Hugo is jealous of Odin's widespread popularity, so he hatches a scheme to ruin Odin's reputation with the help of Roger (Elden Henson), his rich roommate who will do anything to be popular and get Desi's attention. Through carefully planned revenge, he begins to make Odin believe that Desi is carrying out an affair with teammate Michael (Andrew Keegan). As Odin begins to receive merely coincidental signs to prove it, he begins to slowly lose his grounding and turns to Hugo for help, not knowing that he is being set up. As the basketball season comes to a close, Odin's jealousy begins to consume him, resulting in the loss of everything he cares about the most. O was sometime actor Tim Blake Nelson's directorial follow-up to his well-received debut Eye of God. Jason Clark

USA Today

One of year's most emotionally stirring. Mike Clark

Product Details

• UPC: 031398825524
• Source: LIONS GATE
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:34:00
• Sales Rank: 8,068

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Monster's Ball / O
• Monster's Ball / O