Merchant of Venice: Literary Masterpieces

Merchant of Venice: Literary Masterpieces
by John Sichel

Merchant of Venice: Literary Masterpieces
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VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: Anthony Nicholls, Jeremy Brett, Joan Plowright, Laurence Olivier, Michael Jayston
Director: John Sichel
Writer: John Sichel
Producer: Cecil Clarke
Writer: William Shakespeare
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 120 minutes
Release Date: 1996-05-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Live / Artisan
Studio: Live / Artisan

VHS Movie Reviews of Merchant of Venice: Literary Masterpieces

Movie Review: How Much Anti-Semitism is Too Much?
Summary: 5 Stars

How the audience is supposed to interpret Shakespeare's intent at presenting Shylock as either the stereotypical Jewish moneygrubber or an heroic and sinned against ethnic depends largely on the interplay of three factors: his original intent in writing THE MERCHANT OF VENICE; the then prevailing popular caricature of the Jew demon that Elizabethan audiences expected and demanded in their entertainment; and Shakespeare's propensity to delineate a complex character by combining a series of competing and occasionally puzzling motivations. In the 1973 version, Laurence Olivier plays Shylock as one who stands out from everyone else not only by his wildly varying deeds but also by his equally varying manner of dress.

That generations of audiences have chosen to see multiple layers of allegory is simply a testimony to Shakespeare's dramatic skill, but in this version, Olivier's stellar performance places an entrenched anti-Semitism front and center so that a time-warped Bard's contemporary audience would pay money to see their demon Jew thoroughly humbled. Modern audiences are politically correctly conditioned not to appreciate Olivier's homage to a previous century's viewpoint.

Though Shylock is flawed grievously in many ways, it is less obvious that everyone on stage seems flawed as well, and this flaw is a direct result of anti-Semitism practiced not only by Shylock. And it is here that Shakespeare decides to try what was daring then and still is now. On the one hand, he gives the audience their gloating over the humbled Jew, and on the other, he holds up the play as a mirror against which they could look into their souls to measure the depths of or lack of their common humanity. Despite the cutting of some key scenes, the audience can sense that the entrenched anti-Semitism of the 16th century was so prevalent that it disfigures and reduces the basic decency of both violator and victim. Antonio, an otherwise decent sort, torments Shylock for no other reason than Jew-baiting. Even Portia, (Joan Plowright), who is presented as the near apotheosis of just womanhood indicates her own incipient prejudice as she warns Shylock about not spilling any Christian blood. And what of Shylock? Shakespeare permits him to speak in his own defense, and Olivier comes through in more than one scene, but behind Shylock's inner pain the audience of Shakespeare's day had to be manipulated into overlooking that Shakespeare had to walk a fine line between portraying Shylock as one sinned against but still ensuring that by the close of the play he would emerge as one ground to dust. Olivier manages to walk this delicate balance in a manner better suited to the 16th century than to the 20th.

As Shylock leaves the stage for the last time, Olivier as Shylock leaves the audience with the seeming mixed message that prejudice erodes the humanity of all it touches. This magnificently staged production manages to convince Olivier's audience just as well as Shakespeare's own.



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