One thing I can say about contemporary Shakespeare plays adapted to the silver
screen is that they are the only decent adaptations in the film industry today.
Directed by Michael Radford (Dancing at the Blue Iguana), The
Merchant of Venice is a fantastic variation of tragedy, love, death,
loyalty, and betrayal. Basically, it’s your typical Shakespeare play.
The film stars a trio of wonderful actors: Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare
in Love), Jeremy Irons (Die Hard 3), and Al Pacino
(do I really need to give an example here). Joined with Lynn Collins (13
Going on 30) and with Michael Radford at the helm, these fabulous actors
weave a realistic and believable story of old.
Summing up a Shakespeare story is an extremely difficult task so I will do
my best to keep it simple. Okay. Here we go. The scene is set in 16th century
Venice (hence the title) where the Jews are being persecuted and are forced
to live separately in bordered areas called “Ghettos.” Al Pacino
plays Shylock, a money-loaner, who lives in the Ghetto and has a beautiful daughter,
Jessica (Zuleikha Robinson). He is asked one day to loan out an obscene amount
of money to Antonio (Irons). The reason being that Antonio has a friend, Bassanio
(Fiennes), who has heard rumors of a beautiful woman, Portia (Lynn Collins),
who lives in her father’s castle and is looking for a husband. However,
Bassanio must hurry because a test to check his virtue awaits him in order to
win the hand of fair Portia. In order for Antonio to receive the money for his
friend, he must sign a bond with Shylock stating that if he does not pay back
the money within a certain amount of time, Shylock will be able to cut off a
pound of flesh of his choosing instead. While Bassanio is out wooing and winning
over Portia, Shylock’s daughter, Jessica, leaves him and converts from
Judaism to Christianity so that she may marry her love, who is a friend of Bassanio’s
and Antonio’s.
Bassanio loses track of time while he is with Portia and receives a letter
telling him of the failure of his friend’s payment to his bond and that
Antonio will be taken to court and tried. When Shylock finds out about his daughter,
he refuses to take payment in court from Bassanio, whose timely arrival is most
appreciated by Antonio, and insists it is too late to accept any sort of payment,
even double of what was loaned in the beginning. I do not want to ruin the ending
so I will not go any further.
I loved this film. I absolutely loved it. It has now managed to nuzzle its
way into my top ten favorite films list. Everything about this film is perfect.
The acting is phenomenal and brilliant. Pacino’s character of Shylock
is portrayed extremely well. He is very scary and even watching him on the screen
makes you not want to cross him in any situation. Irons’ portrayal of
Antonio is amazing, as well. You believe him to be a wonderful older man who
will do anything for his friends. Ranking up there with his fellow actors, Fiennes
acting was much more than I expected. When I realized he was in this film, I
thought, “Great. Another version of Shakespeare in Love,” but I
was wrong. His character is love-struck, but is delivered in a different way
from his role as Shakespeare, himself. You feel his passion for Portia and his
friend Antonio, which twists you in all sorts of directions.
Another aspect of the film that ranks just as highly as the actors performances
is the costume design. I was in awe after the opening scene with the large crowd
of people on the streets pushing and shoving, knocking off hats and throwing
people off bridges. The detail in every article of clothing is exquisite, right
down to the buttons on the shirts. My favorite costume in the whole film is
the white and blue outfit that Bassanio wears when he arrives at Portia’s.
This is one of the finest costumes in the entire film and is absolutely worthy
of praise. This outfit is your basic stereotypical Shakespearean outfit with
the tights and large feathered hat. I loved it.
Last, but certainly not least, is the lack of action. This film has almost
no action. It is dialogue-driven and it is extremely rare to see a film that
remains solely on dialogue. The closest the film gets to an action sequence
is when Jessica’s love comes to visit and climbs up the side of her building
to her window. Other than that, the pushing and shoving in the courtroom sequence
is the only other action you have to look forward to. The actors are so perfect
and the dialogue adaptation was done so perfectly, you will never notice that
this film had no big action sequences.
My only complaint about this DVD release is there are very few extra features,
but these few features are good. There is an audio commentary option with Director
Michael Radford and Lynn Collins, who played Portia. This is an exceptional
commentary, which helps you understand the making of the film and why Radford
has done what he did with the film. The second feature is The Merchant of Venice:
Shakespeare through the lens. This is a mix of interviews from the cast explaining
their character background and why they chose to play in this film. The third
link is for people like my mom: The Teacher’s Guide web link. This is
a link to sites on the Internet, but I can’t tell you what they are because
I own a Mac and for some reason, these sorts of things don’t like Macs.
Shame on you, DVD creators.
Overall, I think this should be in every home, right next to Kenneth Brannagh’s
Hamlet and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.
This is a fantastic DVD with decent features. It is well acted and directed
and the cinematography is just as good as the rest. This is definitely a rental,
but I recommend adding it to your collection permanently. Enjoy.
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