Heads or Tails

The Merchant of Venice is one of the famous Shakespeare’s masterpiece and also a film directed by Michael Radford in 2004. In this opportunity Michael Radford showed an easy movie to follow, because we can see clearly what the story is about and how well prepared the characters are. Through the story of each character we are in the middle of a comedy and a drama. We can see many different ideas from each one. The four main characters are: Antonio (The merchant of Venice) who is a Christian, Shylock, a Jewish man, Portia, a beautiful heiress and Bassanio, an Antonio’s friend
Love is one of the main themes in this story, but with different faces. In one side we have love between a man and a woman. In another side, we have love between a father and his daughter and in another side we have love between two friends. Every lover showed a different face for different issues lived in the story. We can easily see heads and tails during the film. However, the clearest love story is Portia and Bassanio.

Portia is looking for his husband with an especial way. Her father’s will was that a man has the opportunity to choose between three caskets of gold, silver and lead. If this man chooses the right one (with Portia’s portrait) he wins Portia’s hand in marriage. However, she was already in love and that lover was Bassanio. Unfortunately, Bassanio needed 3000 ducats to impress her family and allow the engagement with Antonio, a rich merchant of Venice and also a Bassanio’s friend was the only one who can help him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have money in that period and the solution thought was going to Shylock, a rich Jew in Venice and ask him for money. Shylock agreed and Antonio offered one pound of his meat that one closest to his heart.


When Bassanio arrived to Belmont he won the Portia’s hand in marriage. But, the ships of Antonio wrecked and he felt in troubles because of the treatment with Shylock. In this part of the film, I think that Portia needed more prominence because this character plays an important role and we can perfectly see how brave she was. In my opinion Portia needed more emphasis within the story. However, the film shows the virtues of Portia. She is very obedient, especially because she accepted what his father says. She is very female, as a woman in those times. What I like in this film is how Portia was presented, very cheerful and funny, especially through her dreams of marriage. Also, she gives to the story that characteristic of comedy, she is gracious and wit. I like the line of this movie. It is very easy to follow, it is not slow, it is not boring and it doesn’t lose time.

If we see different comments about the film we can note that there is no a specific category for this movie. To be honest, I do not like this issue, because if someone asks about it, I can not name it, because it has a little bit of this and a little bit of that. On the other hand, Venice is a beautiful place and it was not very well showed. Michael Radford could take more settings in this place without lacking the real essence of the story.



In my opinion, every character is well developed, especially the atmosphere of Shylock, he looks as a sad man. However, Portia calls my attention, I notice that the importance of a brave and intelligent woman. I think it was because she was very educated. If Portia would not have helped Antonio, he probably would have lost the last trial. The strength of Portia was definitely the strongest reason of my admiration. If you want to see what I am saying or if you want to say something different I recommend this movie to do that.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/merchant/summary.html