CLIP SHYLOCK: Antonio. [Antonio spits on him]
MICHAEL RADFORD: You start with Antonio spitting on Shylock and you understand what it is that is between them.
Director Michael Radford wanted this vivid image to provide a back story for the characters of Shylock, the Jew, and Antonio, the Christian merchant. Antonio needs money in order to help his friend Basanio woo the lovely Portia. When Antonio seeks the loan, Shylock reminds the merchant of his recent abuses.
CLIP SHYLOCK: Fair sir, you spat on me on Wednesday last, you called me dog and for these courtesies I will lend you money?
ANTONIO: Id like to call you that again and spit on you again. If you would lend this money lend it not to a friend, for what do you know of friends, but rather to an enemy who if he break you may with better face exact the penality.
The penalty Shylock seeks is to exact is a pound of flesh when Antonio proves unable to repay the debt.
MICHAEL RADFORD: What is so wonderful is that Shylock has every right to be angry about what happens to him, hes a man of great digniity, thats how we play him, but he goes to far. (:37)
CLIP PORTIA: Then must the Jew must be merciful.
This is when Portia, now promised in marriage to Basanio, arrives at court in the guise of a young male judge. She advises Shylock on the quality of mercy.
CLIP PORTIA: It droppeth like the gentle rain from heaven upon a place beneath. It is twice blessed, it blesseth him who gives and him who takes.
But Shylock, blinded by revenge, chooses not to be merciful. For director Michael Radford, the play speaks to a contemporary audience about prejudice and mercy, and tells them that there are no simple answers.
MICHAEL RADFORD: That the world hasnt changed in 400 years, that people are still at each others throats, are still misunderstanding each other and behaving appallingly to each other. But at the same time that people are complex, that people are good, vicious, vulnerable, violent. That your sympathy can sway from one side to the other without it cancelling itself out, that humanity is complex, and the world is complex, the more we understand that humanity is complex the more tolerant we become.
The Merchant of Venice has been called a problem play because Shylock can be depicted as a racial stereotype. But Radford sees Shakespeares work as very modern because it sees all the characters as flawed, multidimensional individuals. Antonio is wrong for abusing Shylock yet we can sympathize with him when Shylock comes to claim his pound of flesh. Shylock is justified in wanting revenge yet he needs to learn the value of forgiveness. These contraditcions, as well as having comic and tragic elements collide, bring a freshness to Radfords production. It is also refreshing to see an actor like Pacino doing Shakespeare and blowing the dust off the classic text.
CLIP SHYLOCK: If a Jew wrongs a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge? If a Christian wrongs a Jew, what should his sufference be? By Christian example, why revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
Pacinos Shylock recalls the unconventional casting of Harvey Keitel as Judas in The Last Temptation of Christ. But having these New York method actors in period settings brings immediacy to the text. Radford, who cast British actors Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes in the other major roles, praised Pacino for his approach to the Bard.
MICHAEL RADFORD: What he brings is an intensity and ferocity of purpose, and a wonderful subtlety of characterization.
The Merchant of Venice doesnt have as much innovation or driving passion as Pacinos Looking for Richard. But it does revitalize a problem play for a modern audience so that we can see how relevant Shakepeares themes still are. -----
