william shakespeare merchant of venice portrays 16th century venice . al pacino play shylock and a jewish loan shark who plot revenge on a catholic that have look down on him . the movie be a slow moving plot in the beginning that build up throughout the two plus hour . the film give a very good and believe appearance to it character and especially pacino . when hear that pacino play a jew one might think that it would not work look at pacino previous mobster type movie role . nonetheless it work very well and credit must be give to the costume designer and director of the film . the look of all the character fit well with the time period the play take place in . the costume look like the renaissance appearance one might envision to be . the film portray a very anti semitic vibe . from the first minute to the last it be show how the catholic try to take advantage of the jew in every way they can and even to the point of keep them lock away in ghetto and not allow them to regular job . in comparison to the passion of the christ and another recent film that people believe to be very anti semitic and merchant of venice make passion look like a jewish holiday . the film show how the jew and or at least shylock want revenge for the mistreatment that the jew receive . the location shot also seem very timely and the scenery be at time very beautiful or very ugly depend on the scene of the film and make it just that much more realistic . show the beautiful and the ugly can also be see a anti semitic because the ugly be usually show around the jew and the beautiful around the catholic . although the film clearly attempt to have a serious aura certain part do add a bit of humor to the act . the oh so serious trial between shylock and antonio ( iron ) add a bit of humor when portia ( collins ) and nerissa ( goldenhersh ) come into the trial and decide who will be the victor and the defeat . that in itself might not be funny and but see it that they be woman dress up in disguise a men one might find it to be pretty amuse . the whole cross dress scene and as compelling a it be could have probably be even more memorable have the make up artist and director michael radford take notice that the two woman still look like woman and could easily be recognize . the director also could have see into the fact that the woman be speak through their regular voice instead of try to sound like men and which in part take away from the scene but doesn not kill it entirely . overall the film get a positive .