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Hath a Film Not Drama?
Summary: Michael Radford's 2004 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice" helps those who study the play understand it better. Unlike other recent film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, Radford chose to keep the story in its original setting rather than transport it to a more recent setting. In addition, the film's primary focus on Shylock and his emotional anguish enables one to understand better Shakespeare's themes of discrimination, greed, and revenge, rather than become distracted by the subplots of love and camaraderie.
The 2004 film, The Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford, is an excellent tool for students studying Shakespeare's play of the same name. The film's story taking place in Shakespeare's intended setting, Venice, Italy during the Italian Renaissance, and Radford's decision to focus the story on Al Pacino's riveting performance as the Jewish moneylender Shylock make the film one of the more memorable adaptations of Shakespeare's works into motion pictures.
It has become a popular trend in filmmaking to take classic plays by Shakespeare, and transport them into a modern or post-17th century setting (Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard Loncraine's, Richard III). This is accomplishable for most plays of Shakespeare, because their themes and characters are timeless. However, the story of The Merchant of Venice is not timeless. It can only have taken place in the age of Shakespeare, in Venice...
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This section contains 577 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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