Essay | Hath a Film Not Drama?

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, Italy....
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