Merchant of Venice, or 'ooo, pretty, must stab majority of main cast'

[burntcopper]

Just watched The Merchant of Venice, Al Pacino 2004 version. Oh my god *stabbity*. Seriously, by the end I just want to stab pretty much every character except Shylock. And Antonio gets a bit of his just reward by the end, so not so much stabbity and actually, y'know, is not a self-involved selfish fuckwit like the rest of the cast.

Long-term readers of this lj will already know my feelings towards Jessica, Shylock's daughter who runs off with her dad's money. However, after seeing the play for a second time and concentrating a bit more on the words, (though they probably edited her part down a bit for film so she comes across as more sympathetic), I now want to stab the rest of the cast. Many times. The largest knives being reserved for Portia. The lads are... well, Bassanio's a using fuckwit who gets by on being pretty and living off whoever he's sleeping with's money, that's established in the first scene when he asks Antonio for money. (also known as 'Hi, I've got you wrapped round my little finger to the extent that I feel completely comfortable asking my lover for the money to marry someone who I completely admit I'm only marrying because she's gorgeous and loaded'). His mate's just laddish and full of himself. And *isn't* marrying for money.

Portia though... oh dear lord. First act : 'Hi, I'm clever, funny, and I know I'm gorgeous. Aren't I great?' Second act : Not content with having got Antonio off the hook from the pound of flesh, she proceeds to twist the knife. Again and again and again. Just to show how clever she is and how much she's read the law, and she does this with complete glee because she's pleased with how clever she's being. 'Right, now that we've established that you can't cut Antonio because you can't shed his blood, you can't have the money you're owed either instead. Oh, and half your goods go to Antonio because you're reneging on the deal. And the other half goes to the court. And did we mention your lands? And Antonio, you can add another sting... Ooo, you have to embrace Christianity and leave your community and all that. Sucks to be you.' Pause. 'And while I'm at it, hubby, in payment for saving your boyfriend, I want that ring I made you promise never to take off. Just to see if I can. And then when I get home, I'm going to ask to see the ring and then call you faithless and inconstant for giving up the ring which I blackmailed you into giving up.' :winning smile: 'Aren't I *great*?'

STABBITY.

Though, um, I seriously don't get the people who call this play anti-semitic. Er, no. The entire play is about how the rest of the cast and society are anti-semitic and the only person who's in the right is the Jew, and considering the 'pound of flesh' is a joke at first, then after his daughter fucks him over he gets a wee bit focussed on revenge. But note that legally he is still in the right. And still a better person than the rest of the main cast. The point being that anti-semitism is wrong, no matter how pretty and rich you are.

In other news, great acting, gorgeous film, wonderfully set mood and tone-wise. And the way there's no concept of private space at any time. Props to the director and cast for making all the speeches sound like conversation or quite natural rants. Even if Al Pacino's voice has always annoyed me.

poisoninjest, feel free to wade in at any time...

:deep breath: Now I'm going to watch Battlestar Galactica, where everyone at least knows they're fucked up.

Comments

[poisoninjest.livejournal.com]

poisoninjest, feel free to wade in at any time...

Will do! *g*

Just watched The Merchant of Venice, Al Pacino 2004 version. Oh my god *stabbity*. Seriously, by the end I just want to stab pretty much every character except Shylock.

That's interesting... when I read the play, I want to stab everyone, including Shylock. When I watch the film, I don't want to stab anyone. I actually presented a paper on this at the Pop Culture Association conference last year, arguing basically, well, that Radford makes everyone as sympathetic as he possibly can--He plays up Shylock's grief over losing Jessica, Jessica's sorrow over leaving home, Antonio and Bassanio's 4-EVA LUV, and Portia's anger as much as possible--making it a nice movie to watch but not a very nervy adaptation.

I don't think Portia's just being clever, and I don't think she does the ring-trick just because she can. She's been put in an impossible position, a commodity literally purchased for her husband by Antonio (whether sexual or not, their relationship is a lot more important than his marriage, especially in that social context). When she approaches him as Balthasar and says "I saved his life, and if you love him you'll reward me," she wants to see if Bassanio will be faithful to her or to Antonio. He was faithless and inconstant in giving it up, and when she makes Antonio hand the ring back to Bassanio (instead of just handing it to him herself), it's like "okay--if you want me, and my money, then that's the last time you boys get to pass around something symbolizing my genitalia." She can come off as quite a bitch in production, but Radford cuts her bitchiest (and most racist) lines and makes her quite sympathetic, IMO.

Though, um, I seriously don't get the people who call this play anti-semitic.

In post-WWII production, most directors go out of their way to make sure it's not. And the text certainly gives the Christians flaws and Shylock some points of sympathy. (I have a colleague who's convinced it's just straight-up antisemitic and he and I argue about this all the time.) But he is painted as greedy, miserly, revenge-driven, hateful towards Christians, and more concerned with legalistic justice than mercy--all very common stereotypes in the place and time that they play was written, where it hadn't even been legal to be Jewish for a few hundred years. As far as I know, we didn't start getting sympathetic Shylocks at all until the Victorian era.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Well, Shakespeare couldn't resist an anti-Semitic dig by having Shylock bemoaning - in the company only of another Jew - both the loss of his daughter and his money in a way that makes it fairly clear that he values them on an equal level. But, like Tacitus who can be forgiven much for "they make a desolation and call it peace", Shakespeare can be forgiven much for "I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys". I've always hated Jessica for her casual attitude to her mother's memory.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

:cough: you're talking to someone who once did a slightly-too loud aside on the monkeys line of '*How much*?...you could get my brother for less than that, and he can cook.' which sent our entire theatre block (about thirty people) into giggles. Fortunately the company was very forgiving and has a sense of humour.

[grondfic.livejournal.com]

I saw Sher's Shylock at the RSC (back in the SENSIBLE days when it came regularly to the Barbican Theatre).

In that production, they really pulled out all the stops on the anti-semitism, and played ALL the characters except Shylock as unattractive bigots. In that one, Portia was in WAY out of her depth in the courtroom scene, and clutching at straws when she shrieked out the "blood" twist. Naturally the outrageoulsy-biassed court grabbed it as a convenient excuse.

Sher played Shylock as "exotic outsider"; but pulled out all the stops on the "wilderness of monkeys" speech. We were all reduced to tears; and BINGO! up came the lights for the interval, leaving us all shamefaced and sniffing.