The Great Gatsby, the Movie

     Okay, one more post about film adaptions of books, and then I promise I'll resume blogging about actual books.

     The Great Gatsby hit theaters with a whirlwind of pomp and fancy advertisements. With vibrant trailers and a star-studded cast, the movie was sold as an exciting summer blockbuster, and not so much as a film adaption of an American classic.

     I remember watching TV with my mom when an ad for The Great Gatsby came on. This was before the movie was in theaters, and I commented that I wanted to see it when it came out.

     "It looks very...stylish," my mom said, saying the last word with a tone of harsh skepticism.

     And she was right. The movie was very stylish. The graphics were fantastic, the party scenes were glittery and colorful, and the wardrobe was amazing. And really, whats more stylish than Leonardo DiCaprio in a dapper 1920s style suit?

     But unlike Anna Karenina, in which the stylishness and beauty of the film took away from the integrity of the story, I think the stylishness and pomp surrounding The Great Gatsby actually, in an almost ironic way, reinforces some of the themes of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel.

     I mean really, if you think about it, Gatsby would love this movie. Everything about Gatsby is stylish. His extravagant parties, his mansion, his canary yellow car. The movie's star-studded cast, the visual effects, the fact that the movie can be seen in 3-D, and the ridiculous amount of advertising, would all be right up Gatsby's alley. So whether this was purposeful or not, the movie itself seems to symbolize everything Fitzgerald was trying to say about the 1920s, the superficiality, the flashiness, the preoccupation with everything new and colorful and stylish.

     So overall, I thought this movie was very successful. The cast was absolutely wonderful, Daisy's dresses were to die for, the plot moved at a decent speed, and the visuals were stunning (please note, however, that I did not see Gatsby in 3-D).

     But, as much as I liked the movie, it still was not perfect.

    The first issue I had was the music.

     WHAT WAS UP WITH ALL THE RAPPING?

     Okay, okay. I understand. They needed party music, right? They needed something edgy, music that would capture the corruption and flashiness of the 1920s. And sure, rapping is perfect for that, right? But it's completely unrealistic!

     If we traveled back in time to the 1920s and asked someone what he thought of "rap music," he  would furrow his brow and say, "Wrap music? How do you wrap music around things?"

     It didn't exist back then!

     What's wrong with jazzy flapper music?  The lyrics of the rap songs were very fitting for the movie, but it just seemed so incongruous with what was taking place on the screen. There was a blaring disconnect between the music and the movie itself that was at times very distracting.

     But enough about the music.

     Overall, I thought the actors did a wonderful job portraying their characters. However, I did feel that Tom Buchanan and Jordan Baker's characters were not quite rounded out enough. As my friend pointed out, Tom wasn't unlikeable enough. In the book, he was painted as a slightly cruel misogynist, but that did not come across very well in the movie. The scene where he slaps Myrtle, for instance, was too dramatized. It made it seem as if that act of violence was out of character for Tom, rather than something that happened frequently.

     As for Jordan, there was an important scene in the front half of the novel where Nick and Jordan were talking while out driving, and Jordan is characterized as being as reckless and superficial as Daisy and Tom eventually prove to be. In the grand scheme of things, it isn't that most important moment in the book, but it did give an important insight into Jordan's character. This scene was missing from the movie, and I think that because it was missing, Jordan's character was not fully fleshed out, and her purpose in the movie seems somewhat irrelevant other than as a plot device. Her relationship with Nick is hardly even addressed.

    For the most part, though, I think The Great Gatsby is a very good adaption of the novel and definitely worth seeing. I can say with nearly one hundred percent certainty that Jay Gatsby himself would approve.