The Merchant of Venice

One of William Shakespeare's most powerful comedies has been given a bold cinematic adaptation in this film version of +The Merchant of Venice. Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes) is a young and vital member of the aristocratic classes in 16th century Italy; however, Bassanio's impulsive nature and lavish ...more

One gets the sense that Shakespeare's choice to make Shylock a Jew in +The Merchant of Venice was a quick (and undeniably wrong) shorthand to represent villainy for Elizabethan audiences. But Shakespeare also gives him one of the most famous defenses of human equality in the English language ("If you prick us do we not bleed..."), and in Michael Radford's adaptation, this humanity is teased out even further, making Shylock the tragic center of what is ostensibly a comedy. And it's this tension ...more