| We get a fully rounded sense of Shylock too, a sense of a mind at work and even play of a sort on the stage. |
| Michael Radford has made a dutiful film of Shakespeare's play to house a star turn from Al Pacino as Shylock. |
| While his Shylock is somewhat broad for the small screen, it provides a tantalising glimpse of how it might have come across in the theatre. |
| He brings word from Venice that Antonio has defaulted on his loan to Shylock, and needs Bassanio's help. |
| Shylock engineers a position where he can punish his enemies on their own terms and his merciless resolve to take what is his is articulated with pained eloquence. |
| Himself a usurer, Shakespeare must have known how much he had invested in Shylock. |
