{image1}It's a dangerous game attempting to apply modern principles and ideas to classic works of art. However, it's not hard to rile the world these days in such a politically correct atmosphere.
So, it's to director and writer Michael Radford's credit that he makes good go of "William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice," starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons, as Shylock and Antonio, respectively.
Radford ("Il Postino") doesn't shy away from the heaping dose of anti-Semitism in Shakespeare's story of usury and love in late 16th century Venice, a city in which Jews were forced to don red caps and live in a ghetto, the gates of which were locked each night. Barred from nearly all means of earning a living, Jews in Venice were compelled to earn their livelihoods as moneylenders.
While it can be argued that Shakespeare, like a gangster rapper today, was just telling it like it was, his language and portrayal of Shylock as a demonic, Christian-hating usurer, doesn't help us give him the benefit of the doubt.
Radford is smart enough to give Shakespeare enough rope with this production. Pacino's Shylock is truly unlikable and Irons' Antonio -- who cannot repay his loan to Shylock and is compelled to allow the moneylender to reclaim his debt instead with a pound of his own flesh -- is a self-less man who puts his life in the balance to allow a dear friend to find true love.
{image2}And, for movie fans, that friend and his true love are the centerpiece of the film. Young Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes) yearns for beautiful Portia (Lynn Collins). He needs money to reach her Belmont estate and take the test that her late father conjured to find his daughter a worthy husband.
While at Belmont, Bassanio hears that his beloved Antonio has defaulted on the loan that has allowed him to make his trip and he must return to Venice to try and prevent Shylock's revenge on Antonio. In this, he gets a little help from a mysterious stranger.
Despite fine performances from Irons and Pacino, the film really belongs to Bassanio and, especially, to the ravishing and scheming Portia, who is determined to help her true love assist his friend, but also to test Bassanio's devotion to her.
Well-scripted and engaging, this dual-level film -- a romantic story that intertwines with a look at 16th century Venetian societal ills -- deserves points not only for going head to head with the work's anti-Semitism but for doing so in a way that will make clear to viewers the despicable nature of hate.
"William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice" opens Friday, Feb. 18 at Landmark's Downer Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
