"The Great Gatsby" Review

Musique - "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise" by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra

Well, I put on my replica 1920s knickers à la Zelda and saw The Great Gatsby today (in 2D, of course). After I read that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s granddaughter and Charles Scribner’s great-grandson enjoyed and approved of the film, I decided I was just being too picky, and so I went to check it out for myself.

I liked Charles Scribner III’s quote, “. . . it must be judged on its own plane as a distinct recreation in another medium, a parallel universe so to say.” And that is exactly what I decided to do. I decided to just push to the side my reservations about how it should have been made and see it for what it was—a new reimagining of a classic. If you look at The Great Gatsby as a story of obsession, excess, not knowing what you really want, and dangerous carelessness, then this movie really did do a great job of portraying that. Never mind the changes from the book or the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad soundtrack (nothing could possibly change my mind about that damn soundtrack—not even the argument that hip hop is the new jazz, which I totally agree with, and I loves me some hip hop, but it doesn’t belong in a movie set in the 1920s, neither do Florence and the Machine or Lana del Rey, etc.). I do realize what a hypocrite I must sound like since I freely admit to adoring Moulin Rouge and enjoying its soundtrack. While I do find that era fascinating and I have a great interest in Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, I totally wasn’t offended by the inclusion of Christina Aguilera, David Bowie, and Fatboy Slim songs in the soundtrack. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald is my favorite author and the 1920s is my favorite decade, so I’m a little overly protective of them. Okay, rant over. Besides, there were a few snippets of real 20s music here and there (although they were later 20s music, not from 1922, in which year the book is set).

I will say this for the movie—the cast was simply amazing. Carey Mulligan was as beautiful, delicate, and flawed as you could possibly want in a Daisy and Leonardo di Caprio was probably my favorite Gatsby so far (and this is saying something coming from someone who used to despise him—all the way up until Inception). Elizabeth Debicki made a very pretty Jordan, although I wish her part had been bigger. Tobey Maguire was a great Nick—awkward in all the right places and a fine voice of reason. Joel Edgerton was an excellent Tom, very upper class and better-than-thou. I was really hoping to be impressed by Isla Fisher as Myrtle. And I was, certainly—I just wished there had been more of her. Of course, anything Jason Clarke does is fantastic. He really brought George’s grief and desperate revenge to life. The costumes, jewelry, sets, and cars were beyond brilliant. I hope when I die, there’s a part of Heaven that looks just like this movie.

Even with all that praise, I still maintain that the movie would have been eight million times better if a) they’d made Daisy a brunette and Jordan a blonde like they are in the book; b) they filled the film with era appropriate music (and yes, I admit this is coming from a person whose iPod contains over 350 songs from the 20s and 30s and clearly enjoys that kind of music) ; and c) 3D was not even an option (seriously, do you want to see Myrtle get viciously hit and mangled in 3D, you sick fuck?). I am vehemently, across-the-board anti-3D (except for Captain EO, which is excellent).

Alas, Baz Luhrmann didn’t consult me when making his film and so my vision and his vision had some distinct differences. I tried to look past those differences, but in the end, his film just left me feeling meh. I like films to transport me to another time and another place; I like to feel like I’m in the 1920s when I see a movie set in that time period. But this movie didn’t make feel like I was in the 20s; I felt like I was watching a very fake representation of the 20s. Which I so very obviously was—nothing about Baz Luhrmann’s movies are real, they are spectacles. But the spectacle he created in this movie in no way even compares to how I imagine the story when I read the book. My Great Gatsby is the cat’s fucking meow. ;)

Gatsby's American Dream

Musique - "Why We Fight" by Gatsby's American Dream

As I've said before, I don't plan to see The Great Gatsby in the theaters. The soundtrack is the most horrifying and blasphemous thing about the movie to me, but also the switching of Daisy's and Jordan's hair colors is offensive (Carey Mulligan is an adorable brunette), and finally, as has been recently pointed out to me, the anachronistic fashions. I had forgotten that although it was published in 1925, The Great Gatsby was set in 1922, and women's fashions at that time were very different from those featured in the movie (although the movie fashions are what most people think about when they think about the 20s).

But last night, I had a dream that I did go see The Great Gatsby in the theater. And there was no horrible modern day soundtrack (except for very brief periods when a character was introduced to the screen) Because of this, I was able to enjoy the movie. :)

In my dream, there was also an added character of a truck driver played by John Turturro who had it in for Gatsby and at one point there is a vicious beating scene between the two that was more reminiscent of a Scorsese movie than a Luhrmann one. For some reason in my dream, I didn't get mad at this liberty taken with one of my favorite books.

In any case, the dream showed me that perhaps I can be less aggro in my disapproval of this movie and maybe I don't need to take myself so seriously. Sure, it wasn't done the way I want it to be done, but maybe I can suspend my judgments until I see it. Not that I'm sold on seeing it in the theater yet, but we'll see. One good thing coming out of this movie is the plethora of 20s inspired fashions that are coming out and will continue to come out this year. I will definitely be grateful for those for years to come because even after the "fad" passes, I'll still be rocking them. :)

Why I Will NOT Be Seeing "The Great Gatsby"

Musique - "Always" by Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra

Despite the great cast and the gorgeous art deco promos, I will not be seeing the upcoming The Great Gatsby movie. The main reason is because I cannot abide by what Baz Luhrmann has done with F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece. I loved Moulin Rouge, but I hated Romeo + Juliet. I get it that his style involves taking something old and makes it his own, but when he fucks with my favorite works, I get pissed. And F. Scott Fitzgerald being my favorite writer and the 1920s being my favorite decade, I honestly can't bear to watch a Gatsby movie that features modern music and can be viewed in 3D. I can totally understand that people are pumped to see this stylized version of Gatsby and so I watched the trailer for this movie a couple of times (a couple of months apart), just to give it a fair chance. But each time, I just got so angry at Luhrmann's treatment of this wonderful story and the horrible, horrible music accompanying it. So, why on earth would I subject myself to two hours of being angry at another person's art? Not gonna do it.

One thing that irritates me about Gatsby movies in general (perhaps just the last three) is the insistence that Daisy is a blonde and Jordan is a brunette. Hello, did any of you read the book?? In the book, there are two clear descriptions that Daisy is a brunette:

• A damp streak of hair lay like a dash of blue paint across her cheek . . .
• . . . and once he kissed her dark, shining hair.

And there is at least one clear description of Jordan being a blonde:

• The lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair . . .

It's such a silly thing to be bothered by, but it's one of my pet peeves about movies based on books. Wigs and hair dye are not hard to come by. It is extremely easy to make actors and actresses look like the characters they're playing as described in the book.

Another reason I won't be seeing the movie is that nothing compares to the movies in my own head when I read Fitzgerald's stories. I mean, I've seen the 1974 Gatsby and I didn't hate it, but I didn't particularly care for it either. And I actually kinda liked the 2000 TV movie version. But yeah, none of these films do this book justice in my opinion. Perhaps if someone like Martin Scorsese did Gatsby, I'd see it, but for now, I've decided to avoid any and all movies based on Fitzgerald's work. I much prefer my own imagined movies.

But you never know, I might decide to check it out when it comes out on DVD. That way I won't bother a theater full of people with shouts of "This is horsehit!" or "That didn't happen!" And hey, maybe it won't be as bad as I think it will. It certainly looks pretty. Maybe I'll watch it on mute. ;)