on the tragic villain.

so in a fit of haute culture fetishism, i decided to download the latest remake of the merchant of venice yesterday and give it the ol' viddying whilst i was smoking joints all afternoon. i didn't have high hopes really, and to be honest i expected old will would bore me to tears and i'd be back playing halflife2 before shylock would even get close to his pound of flesh. i read the play in grade 10, i think it was, so it's not like i was entirely in suspense as to what would happen, but i was really pleasantly surprised by the execution.

the definite high point of the entire deal was pacino as shylock... one of the most perfect casting choices i can even imagine, really. think 16th-century scarface. and really pacino's playing of the role reminded me of no-one more than scarface, oddly enough. which made me think of the extremely underrated role of the tragic villain. i mean, no matter how many times we see scarface gun people down and snort up slopes of snow, we can't help but root for him. cos he's just doing what he can in a corrupt world, right?

which i think was one of the most interesting ways to handle the anti-Semitism of the original text. because shylock is one hell of a nasty jewish motherfucker... but what else does he have to do? pacino's interpretations of shylock's monologues really brought out the fact that shakespeare never really intended his play to be an anti-Semitic one. shylock gets screwed over, time and again ... his people are forced to live in a locked-up little ghetto guarded by christians, he has to wear a little red hat when he leaves the ghetto to show he's a jew ... he gets spat upon and mocked and on and on and on ... and yet he even seems sincere when he offers gentleman antonio a loan without interest, on pain of losing a big ol' chunk of flesh. but then his daughter gets stolen by one of antonio's homeboys, and his money gets stolen with her, and generally he gets pissed off, and decides he's gonna kill poor antonio cos he ain't got the money.

the merchant of venice is no more anti-semitic than scarface is anti-cuban. tony montana doesn't murder people cos he's cuban... he murders people because he's human, and wants what humans want... success, fulfilment, happiness, all of the above. yet he can't get them because he's an unwashed and unwanted cuban refugee. same with shylock ... shylock isn't a mean motherfucker because he's jewish... he's a mean motherfucker because although he's human, his essential humanity is denied because he's jewish. and since neither scarface nor shylock are able to achieve success in nice socially-acceptable ways, they have to resort to shady business... being cocaine and usury, respectively. and the same society that thrives on the commodities they provide seeks to condemn them both. thus, they are tragic villains.

so yeah, suffice to say it was an awesome movie, and i'd recommend it, whether or not you like old will. which also got me thinking to why i hated shakespeare in high school... it's because it's not a book, it's not supposed to be read, it's supposed to be interpreted, by talented actors. and whether it's a film version, or a staged version, that's the only way you can really grok the text in its fullness. so instead of reading plays in english classes in high school, i think that each english class in high school should mount low-budget community theatre productions. haha. and look like idiots! yes. so.... the moral of today's story is: idiots are sweet.

c'est tout.