1995 Othello movie - opinions

I've only just read and watched Othello for the very first time so I don't really know too much about it, but I'm just wondering how you all felt about the 1995 movie and how it compares to the text?

I personally thought Fishburne was perfect as Othello but, (and I'll probably be shot for saying this!) I just did not 'feel' the same Iago I heard in the text in the movie. I'm not saying Branagh was bad, just that for me, Othello in the film and text were very similiar but I can't say the same for Iago. Can't quite put my finger on why :nonod:

What does everybody else think of the film in general?

I think Branagh captured Iago well, manipulative but essentially weak.

I thought Branagh was good as Iago. Fishburne was attractive but does not line up with Shakespeare's portrayal of Othello- a bit too sexed-up.

My favourite is, and I think always will be, the 1989 film version of the stage production directed by Sir Trevor Nunn. It boasts a fantastic cast: Willard White as Othello, Ian McKellan as Iago, Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona, and Zoe Wanamaker as Emilia - and all of them give some of the best performaces I've seen. The production is starkly minimalist (though not as much as Nunn's Macbeth), which adds to bleakness of it all - Nunn (sensibly) expurgates what little comedy there is in the play, and what remains is unremittingly brutal. The scene where Othello strikes Desdemona is particularly well played, as is the horrific chemistry between Iago and Emilia.

I really did feel that the Branagh/Fishburne version paled in comparison.

I saw a 1965 version last night directed by Stuart Burge, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059555/, available in the local library.

I think the 1989 Othello was good but Ian McKellan was too old.