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| By: Gabriel Roderick |
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Before I can even start the review of Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby you must first listen to this song that set's the scene. Gatsby is "No Church In The Wild"
Alright shall we begin Old Sport?
This movie opens up a little different then the book, where it's Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) reflecting on that fateful summer of meeting and getting to know Mr. Jay Gatsby (Leonardo Di'Caprio).
The casting of this movie could not be more spot on from the descriptions of the book. I think we could all agree that Lurhmann hit the nail on the head, casting Maguire as Nick Carraway, Di'Caprio as Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, and Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan.
I like his approach of filming the book with Nick giving us the narrative and story telling perspective of what happened but it also foreshadowed the events of the movie very earlier, as it shows up his folder of "mental issues" (That's as far as I'll go with that). So very little surprise is left for those who haven't read the book.
Any time Di'Caprio's characters story is told from the narrative from the beginning of the film that can tend to spell bad news for our main guy!
No more spoilers I promise!
I think I'll start with a few things that bugged me about the film.
For one the film is more centered around Nick Carraway dealing with the world rather than Gatsby. I feel their relationship is so rushed and in 2 hours that sums up 3 months of their friendship?
No sorry that doesn't work for me!
I like the idea of having Nick tell us a story but stop making it all about you, the book is titled, the Great Gatsby after all!
The other thing that bugged me about the film was it's run time. It's nearly 2 and a half hours and begins to drag near the the middle! Which is surprisings seeing as if they were going to spend that much time on the movie they could have spent more time developing more detailed relationships.
This method of speeding through detailed events is used as a quick narrative by Nick and some clips of events. I liked and hated that idea seeing as you had 2 hours for the film! I like it because it adds some historical events and accuracy as if Nick was really there! However Nick quickly brushes through it as rushing to catch up to the interesting parts!
However even though the story drags midway it quickly speeds up for the last half hour giving us no real mourning time or time to digest what had taken place. I left with anger as Nick's closing monologue essentially destroyed the characters that he had just built through the story.
NOW shall we Old Sport talk about the good times?
Yes?
Okay so the acting of this film as I said early was amazing!
The cast fits and acts the part so well I feel like I was transported to the 1920s and actually attending one of Gatsby's gorgeous parties. Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) gives such a villain role it's not even funny. Though for the time period is he really the bad guy?
Is Gatsby?
Once you find out everything and Gatsby's true story though he lies can you feel sorry for someone that lied for love? His intentions always seem good to him and Nick but can they be?
They even had humorous moments just for you, puns and even sex jokes. They are in the book and Luzhrmann brings them to life for you in case you missed them!
This was a book that made you question who is wrong and who is right, who is flawed and who is perfect.
Luzhrmann couldn't have done a better job!
When you have such a gorgeous cast to watch usually you don't notice the scenery. But this film's scenery looks as good as the cast.
The city is painted as if it was 1920s, the cars, the clothes, the skies, the ground, the homes! Everything gives this a 1920s feel. Gatsby's parties are the highlight of the time era, and look visual stunning, demonstrating music, dancing, and the overall party scene do to bootlegging is just spectacular.
To add dramatic effects to the film when something is troubling a character or is about the character specific, they focus on the character and nothing else. Which is like a book and that page is for the character.
Except one thing however that SHOULDN'T fit the story is the music. Well classical, jazzy time period appropriate music is sued in the film it's combined with modern HipHop music.
With the jazz era would we have these elaborate hiphop music and scenes?
Probably not!
However Jay-Z was brought in to make this possible, every song that was in the film fit the scene. It's a funny twist because you have musicians playing the time period music.
Then bam combined with that is modern music that adds a modern twist to the movie. Just like Luzhrmann's other film Romeo and Juliet.
Like I said normally this doesn't work but with themes in the book that carry over to modern times. Anyone can relate to what Nick felt like bumping fancy's with New York's socialites.
Something big that Luzhrmann misses the mark on is the overall theme of alcohol depleting American society and trying everyone into flawed creatures. Nick gives minor hits in the beginning of the film like his folder, and the fact that he tells us the second time he get's drunk.
As Nick tells us the story he's seemingly sober, however during the actually story it begs the question is anyone sober? It's not that Luzhrmann misses the mark it's the fact that he leaves it up to the viewers to figure out the message Nick is trying to give you. Or is he?
Not that there ever will be a sequel but the way the movie is filmed it left room to make one, or for Nick to try to adjust to a new life. Since in the book Nick discussed that he, Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby could not adapt to the life they tried so hard to live.
Our Honest View gives The Great Gatsby 8.9/10. This movie is a great interpretation of the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It has it's flaws just like the character's portrayed in the film. Looks of questions arise after watching this movie and I was hoping that they'd be answered seeing as this is a interpretation from the book that originally posed these questions.
+ Narrative
+ Scenery
+ Cast
+ Jay Z
- Runtime
- Missed Themes
- No Room For Mourning.
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