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Shylock : 21st Century Complexity for a 16th Century Stereotype
Reprinted by permission of Canadian Jewish News
William Shakespeare’s multilayered play turning on prejudice, romance, heartbreak, trickery and tragedy, The Merchant of Venice, has been brought to the screen by Michael Radford.
This sumptuous film, starring Al Pacino as Shylock and Jeremy Irons as Antonio, opens across the country in the coming weeks.
As a work of art, The Merchant of Venice has always been problematic, given its demonization of Shylock, the stereotypical grasping Jewish usurer who demands his pound of flesh from his nemesis, the Christian merchant Antonio.
But in Radford’s production, Shylock is portrayed not as a demon but as an aggrieved, complex character whose cruelty toward Antonio is dictated by mitigating circumstances.
In his previous dealings with Shylock, Antonio has behaved quite badly. “The villainy you teach me, I shall execute,” Shylock rasps in a vengeful moment, bitter over Antonio’s deep-seated anti-Semitic attitudes.
And, of course, Shylock has been devastated by the flight of his beloved daughter, Jessica, with his money in tow. She has eloped with her Christian lover, Lorenzo, and expressed a willingness to convert to Christianity.
So if you’re wondering whether Radford’s nuanced version of The Merchant of Venice perpetuates hateful anti-Jewish notions, perish the thought.
Radford has clearly bent over backwards to clear the air and present Shylock as a truly tragic but calculating figure trapped by the anti-Semitism of 16th-century Europe and enmeshed in a catch-22 situation of his own making.
In a prologue that establishes the incendiary racial climate of the day, viewers are reminded that Jews in the mercantile city state of Venice were outside the boundary of its liberal ethos and subjected to the whims of intolerance.
Forced to live in a ghetto and wear red hats to distinguish them from their Christian neighbours, Jews were second-class citizens, always unsure of their personal security and physical safety.
This unsettling uncertainty emerges in the first few scenes as Jews are capriciously tossed off a bridge and as Antonio, in a blatant sign of contempt, spits in Shylock’s face. “Suffrance is the baggage of our tribe,” Shylock sighs in a world-weary aside.
Thanks to Radford’s skills as a director and screenwriter, The Merchant of Venice is a work of seamless magic and mounting tension.
But in his greatest achievement, Radford makes this signature Shakespearean play accessible and compelling to a wider audience.
In unobtrusive fashion, he has updated Shakespeare’s archaic, albeit transcendent, language and endowed it with a patina of modern currency. Even viewers who have been chary of Shakespeare will probably connect with his free-flowing dialogue.
Impressive as well are the sets (particularly a canal glowing orange at night) and the costumes. They set the mood and give the film its verisimilitude.
Radford coaxes admirable performances from his ensemble. Pacino, the centre of gravity in this intoxicating film, is a standout. But Irons and Collins are no less riveting.
This Merchant of Venice is an instant classic.
Original article by
SHELDON KIRSHNER
Staff Reporter
Reprinted by permission of Canadian Jewish News
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