O (2001)

An update of Shakespeare's 'Othello' with a young cast, set in an upper class prep school, & centered around basketball player Odin.

Director:

Tim Blake Nelson

Writers:

William Shakespeare (play), Brad Kaaya (screenplay)

Stars:

Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles, Martin Sheen

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mekhi Phifer	...	Odin James
Martin Sheen	...	Coach Duke Goulding
Josh Hartnett	...	Hugo Goulding
Andrew Keegan	...	Michael
Julia Stiles	...	Desi Brable
Rain Phoenix	...	Emily
Chris Freihofer	...	Assistant Coach
Elden Henson	...	Roger
John Heard	...	Dean Brable
Anthony Johnson	...	Dell (as Anthony 'A. J.' Johnson)
Chris Dong	...	Dutchman Player
Rachel Shumate	...	Brandy
Marshall Gitter	...	Radio Announcer
Lisa Benavides-Nelson	...	Ms. Serney (as Lisa Benavides)
Ken French	...	Scout #1

Storyline

Tough Coach Duke Goulding leaves nothing untried to lead his almost exclusively white boarding school basketball team, the Hawks, to victory after victory, but his own son Hugo feels his polyvalent technical excellence and tireless efforts -which require using stimulants- are not getting anything like the recognition he deserves, especially when coach gives the best player award to Odin James, the only black teammate, even saying he loves Odin like his own son, who in turn only calls super-rich Michael Cassio to share in the honor. So Hugo, who is liked by everyone, decides to set up the boys who stole his glory, and he knows a cocky adolescent's weak points are his pride and his girl. This Dixie Jago schemes to bring down a black Othello and his Cassio, playing into the poisonous power of jealousy, however badly this also hurts their loved ones and the whole team...

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Plot Keywords:

sex scene | love | basketball | boarding school | shakespeare's othello | 

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Taglines:

Everything Comes Full Circle...

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, a scene of strong sexuality, language and drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 August 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Othello

Filming Locations:

Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,916,625, 2 September 2001, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$16,017,403, 4 November 2001

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chickie the Cop, Daniel Fried Productions, Dimension Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The same year Julia Stiles starred in Save the Last Dance, where she is also in an interracial relationship with Sean Patrick Thomas. Both Josh Hartnett and Sean Patrick Thomas have appeared in different Halloween films: Hartnett in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) and Thomas in Halloween: Resurrection (2002).

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Goofs

In the end when Emily is confronting Hugo about telling O that Desi was cheating on him, she is pointing in O's direction with her left hand. In the next shot, she has changed hands and is pointing at Hugo.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Hugo: All my life I always wanted to fly. I always wanted to live like a hawk. I know you're not supposed to be jealous of anything, but... to take flight, to soar above everything and everyone, now that's living.

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Connections

Version of BBC Sunday-Night Theatre: Othello/II (1950)

User Reviews

A Stimulating and Fast Paced Film

O was a good teen film that comes out fast and ends up out in excitement. The story is about a frustrated teen (Josh Hartnett) who plays basketball with a star athlete,O (Mehki Phieffer) who's got everything, his entering in college basketball and the most popular girl in highschool, starts a plan to ruin O's life. Everything suddenly starts happening bad for O's life and everything then crumbles. The movie was very fascinating and everything in the film didn't make you bored because everything was stimulating and fast paced. There was some flaws in acting but it was still alright. The film is good and I highly recommend it.

Hedeen's outlook: 8/10 *** B