William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

Starring:Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes, Lynn Collins, Zuleikha Robinson, Kris Marshall, Charlie Cox, Heather Goldenhersh, Mackenzie Crook, John Sessions, Gregor Fisher, Ron Cook, Allan Corduner, Anton Rodgers, David Harewood, Antonio Gil-Martinez, Al Weaver, Norbert Konne, Marc Maes, Jean-FranÃ§ois Wolff
Director: Michael Radford
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Rarely has The Merchant of Venice, one of Shakespeare's most complex plays, looked as ravishingly sumptuous as in this adaptation, directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino). In a decadent version of renaissance Venice, a young nobleman named Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love) seeks to woo the lovely Portia (newcomer Lynn Collins), but lacks the money to travel to her estate. He seeks support from his friend, the merchant Antonio (Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune); Antonio's fortune is tied up in sea ventures, so the merchant offers to borrow money from a Jewish moneylender, Shylock (Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon). But Shylock holds a grudge against Antonio, who has routinely treated the Jew with contempt, and demands that if the debt is not repaid in three months, the price will be a pound of Antonio's flesh.

Amazon.com

Rarely has The Merchant of Venice, one of Shakespeare's most complex plays, looked as ravishingly sumptuous as in this adaptation, directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino). In a decadent version of renaissance Venice, a young nobleman named Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love) seeks to woo the lovely Portia (newcomer Lynn Collins), but lacks the money to travel to her estate. He seeks support from his friend, the merchant Antonio (Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune); Antonio's fortune is tied up in sea ventures, so the merchant offers to borrow money from a Jewish moneylender, Shylock (Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon). But Shylock holds a grudge against Antonio, who has routinely treated the Jew with contempt, and demands that if the debt is not repaid in three months, the price will be a pound of Antonio's flesh.

The Merchant of Venice is famous as a "problem play"--the gritty matters of moneylending and anti-Semitism sit uncomfortably beside the fairy tale elements of Portia and Bassanio's romance, and some twists of the plot can seem arbitrary or even cruel. The strength of Radford's intelligent and passionate interpretation is that he and the excellent cast invest the play's opposing facets with full emotional weight, thus making every question the play raises acute and inescapable. Irons is particularly compelling; kindness and blind prejudice sit side by side in his breast, rendering the clashes in his character as vivid as those in the play itself. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strained..........2007-06-06

Like most of Shakespeare's plays, there is more than one story at work here, and if your only familiarity with Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" is your last high-school production you probably think it's all about Portia and her romance with Bassanio. This storyline is usually the most popular with teenagers and it does play an important role in pushing the action forward, but it is not the meat of Michael Radford's movie. Instead, this version focuses brilliantly on the conflict between Shylock and Antonio.

It is difficult to imagine a more complex and dark story arc than the one about the clash between these two. Is Antonio the hero? Or is it Shylock? Or is this a contest between villains? One, Shylock, a much despised and downtrodden man, the victim of a lifetime of anti-Semitism, essentially loses his soul and relishes what he sees as his one chance for revenge upon his oppressors in Christian theocratic Venice too much. The other, Antonio, seems like the perfect example of clean and virtuous Christian nobility - a status he has used to routinely degrade and humiliate Shylock while freely making use of his services as a moneylender when it served his interests to do so.

Most productions are unable to capture the depth of these characters, but Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons are superb. Pacino is tormented and angry and is probably not someone you would want to socialize with, but still you can feel the essential craving for justice that underlies it - a justice he deserves. Irons' Antonio would probably make a wonderful dinner companion - handsome, witty, and cultured - and yet there is superciliousness and a hypocritical streak in him that cannot be ignored.

By the time the trial is over, and Portia's legal arguments have spared Antonio and denied Shylock his pound of flesh, the audience is so deeply involved with both characters that no outcome would be completely happy. Perhaps that is why Shakespeare let the romantic storyline play on, to lighten the gloom with some comic relief and a more pleasing finale.

This may not be a version of the play that will appeal youngsters, but it should keep an adult at the edge of his/her seat, and leave them with a much greater appreciation of how REALLY GOOD Shakespeare was as a writer.

Terrible.......2007-06-03

Leaves out important lines. Alters the characters in senseless ways. Ultimately, just not entertaining. The Great Al Pacino's accent is so bad, it is hard to escape the feeling he is mangling it on purpose. Get any of the Kenneth Branagh movies instead.

Great visuals, awful acting.......2007-05-17

I must disagree with those who think that the acting in this version of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice is 'impeccable' 'stunning' and so on. Actually, the acting is just awful. It is the sort of verbal acting you see in the worst amateur, and regrettably, in most 'professional', productions of Shakespeare.

What you hear in this production is just words said without real understanding or motivation. You hear 'Shakespeare' when you should be hearing real people talking. Look away from the seductive and beautiful visual images of the film and you will hear what I am saying. None of the characters speak in a real way, including Al Pacino's Shylock. His is a mechanical way of talking and a totally unsympathetic characterisation of someone who has been subjected to the most appalling discrimination in a racist society.

Shakespeare can be real and not sound like 'Shakespeare'. The Director, Peter Brook, wrote a little book in the 60s or 70s called 'The Empty Space' which focusses on what he calls The Deadly Theatre. Shakespeare, he says, is particularly prone to deadly productions. This production of The Merchant of Venice is a prime example of The Deadly Theatre and it is a great shame that other reviewers can not see that very basic fact.

It is an awful production disguised by stunning visual images.

Dazzling in Production.......2007-05-11

My Profile: 43 yo (and hopefully getting better). No qualifications whatsoever as movie o literary critic

As one of my favorite plays, the production is impeccable and sometimes I cannot espape seeing those canaletto's painting coming to life.. this is impeccable in photography and production.. yet it still does not outperform those BBC productions I saw in the late 70's.. one aspect that I do not give the 5 stars.. the homosexual intensity displayed here is just too unbearable..was it part of the idea to show this out-of-the-closet expressions as part of the new version??

Three caskets, two rings, and one pound of flesh.......2007-04-20

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Before I watched the Michael Radford's movie, I read the play "The Merchant of Venice". I did not find the play one of Shakespeare's best - I much prefer his tragedies and historical chronics. Perhaps whatever was funny and comical four hundreds years ago does not seem this way now.

"Merchant of Venice" is based on three different stories - one is the story of three caskets - a girl should marry a man who would solve the riddle of three caskets, the gold, the silver, and the lead one (very weak premises - with many suitors, the secret of the caskets should have been solved in the first day); the next - the story of the merchant who loans the money for his friend from a rich Jewish moneylender and signs the contract that he would give a pound of his own flesh if the debt is not repaid in time (the most interesting and controversial one), and the last one - the story of the rings. While I think that the play is enjoyable, it's got too many holes in the plot to be called an outstanding Shakespeare's work. What is truly outstanding - Shylock's character. He is in the same category as Lear, Yago, and Othello. I am sure that Shakespeare did not write an anti -Semitic play but he described the anti-Semitic views that reigned in the society during his times. He treated Shylock as a human being and with the compassion, which he expressed in the famous Shylock's monologues:

"Shylock: He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew."

"Shylock: I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that."

By refusing to show the mercy, Shylock orchestrated his own downfall. It is unspeakable that he was spat on by a seemingly decent man but demanding that man's flesh is equally unspeakable. I think that's the reason Shylock was outsmarted at the court and had to lose his case because, technically, Portia's reasons were weak - if Shylock was entitled to the pound of flesh, he was also entitled to the blood that comes with it. To argue that would be the same as to say that one buys an apple but refuses to take the seeds in it or to rent a room but without air in it. What was different in the play comparing to the movie, in the play, we don't see Shylock after the trial - whatever happened to him is behind the scene. In the film, he's got a long shot - after he had to leave his house and convert to Christianity, he became a real pariah - Christians don't want him because he did not become a Christian by his good will and Jews don't want him because he betrayed the faith of his ancestors. And don't forget that his own flesh and blood, his beloved daughter Jessica betrayed and robbed him. The look at Shylock's (Al Pachino's) face in the end of the film is one of the reasons to see it. It is a nice looking movie with one compelling performance (Pachino) and one surprisingly pleasant performance - Lynn Collins who looked like a young Cate Blanchette and delivered her line convincingly. I liked her intelligent, gentle, and full of life Portia. The celebrated Venice known as "serenissima" looked mostly dark and dangerous which I think was rather appropriate because of the disturbing scenes that took place in the city.

3.5/5

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