The Great Gatsby, 2013 style
I went to see The Great Gatsby last night at I guess what is called the "second run" theatre. It now costs $3.75 to see a film there. It used to be one dollar. Sigh. But that's better than $8.00.
This was a hip-hop, CGI-enhanced, visually stunning version of the story. Except for a few additions, it was faithful to the book. Let me say first that while I think Gatsby is a great American novel, it's not in my opinion (and I have an M.A. in English) THE great American novel. I put it in the top ten, definitely, but not top one. I give that honor to Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, which bears a lot of similarity to Gatsby--narrative structure, for one, with a self-loathing narrator who orbits around the main character who is very powerful and ruthless. Maybe because I live in the South, and maybe because I think politics is the life-blood of this country, I put Men first. Then Huckleberry Finn, then Mockingbird. Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, and Grapes of Wrath have to go in there. Maybe Gatsby in top five. There are lots of them I haven't read, too, so I am not the expert on this.
Secondly, in terms of the book, like all books written by men, the women are, to use my husband's words "about stupid." Could there be a more worthless character than Daisy? Definitely she is unworthy of whatever obsessive love Gatsby has for her. Jordan is a blank and Mrs. Wilson a whore.
First, the positives: It was faithful to the book. DiCaprio was spot on, except he overdid it at the tea party where Daisy shows up. It looked great. I didn't have a problem with the way the story was framed, with Nick being in rehab and writing about his life with Gatsby.
The negatives: Way too much CGI; it almost made me nauseous in places, and I don't think it added anything. I am indifferent to the hip-hop. I would have rather heard jazz; it was the jazz age, after all. Why go to such lengths to get the '20s look when you use 2013 music? That seemed like either a way to kiss up to the young people or to just provide an energy that the story doesn't have in itself, since it's a rather slow-moving story.
My conclusion: Interesting. Definitely worth seeing, at least for $3.75.
This was a hip-hop, CGI-enhanced, visually stunning version of the story. Except for a few additions, it was faithful to the book. Let me say first that while I think Gatsby is a great American novel, it's not in my opinion (and I have an M.A. in English) THE great American novel. I put it in the top ten, definitely, but not top one. I give that honor to Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, which bears a lot of similarity to Gatsby--narrative structure, for one, with a self-loathing narrator who orbits around the main character who is very powerful and ruthless. Maybe because I live in the South, and maybe because I think politics is the life-blood of this country, I put Men first. Then Huckleberry Finn, then Mockingbird. Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, and Grapes of Wrath have to go in there. Maybe Gatsby in top five. There are lots of them I haven't read, too, so I am not the expert on this.
Secondly, in terms of the book, like all books written by men, the women are, to use my husband's words "about stupid." Could there be a more worthless character than Daisy? Definitely she is unworthy of whatever obsessive love Gatsby has for her. Jordan is a blank and Mrs. Wilson a whore.
First, the positives: It was faithful to the book. DiCaprio was spot on, except he overdid it at the tea party where Daisy shows up. It looked great. I didn't have a problem with the way the story was framed, with Nick being in rehab and writing about his life with Gatsby.
The negatives: Way too much CGI; it almost made me nauseous in places, and I don't think it added anything. I am indifferent to the hip-hop. I would have rather heard jazz; it was the jazz age, after all. Why go to such lengths to get the '20s look when you use 2013 music? That seemed like either a way to kiss up to the young people or to just provide an energy that the story doesn't have in itself, since it's a rather slow-moving story.
My conclusion: Interesting. Definitely worth seeing, at least for $3.75.
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