So I decided to do something a bit different with this post.
It's always good to mix things up a bit now and then...
I wanted to do a collab with one of my classmates Chrissie Dalkan, who's blog is based on books.
For those of you who don't know, I'm a literature student, so Chrissie and I decided that I'll do a BOOK review for her blog on one of my favorites, The Great Gatsby, and that she would do a review on the FILM version of The Great Gatsby for my blog.
Here's Chrissie Dalkan's review..Enjoy!
Unlike a lot of movies made from books, The Great Gatsby movie is very similar to the original story, well at least this latest remake is. I would say this 2013 remake is the best of its six shabbiest on screen recreations. There are times when dialogue is taken directly from the book.
The Great Gatsby tells the story of millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbor Nick Carraway. Nick relates his wild encounter with Gatsby in the 1920s. The entire movie is woven around what it takes to achieve the American dream The style of the movie is as classic as the book (although it includes the use of 3-D), however, it is a movie that can drown you or lose you along the way, mostly because of the director Luhrmann’s frenzied, elaborate technique. On the other hand, this style is probably what makes the movie vibrant and alive.
The thing about this movie is that you’ll love it if you like Luhrmann’s style, but you’ll hate it if you hate his style. He turns the story into an epic melodrama of real and unreal. For me, the movie was bittersweet, because although the storyline remains true, the theatrics and music make no sense. In this movie, the era is quite important to the story – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby explores the Jazz Age or the 1920s, a time when jazz music represented a cultural movement. The era the story is set in is what influences the themes – decadence, resistance to change, social upheaval and rampant excess. It describes the ‘anything goes’ era that occurred in America after World War I. However, the Great Gatsby movie featured the sounds of Kanye West, Jay-Z, Fergie and Beyonce, amongst others. I heard pop and rap and a lot of other influences, when really, the entire story cannot be told properly without jazz! The entire story is written around the Jazz Era, without jazz, this story is nothing…for me, this was where it failed.
What saved the movie for me is the superb casting; the actors/actresses, even those in the small roles, were perfect for their roles and really became the characters. Leonardo Di Caprio plays the role of Gatsby with such finesse as though he has indeed become the character. After seeing Di Caprio in this role, I can never imagine anyone else in this role. In the book, Gatsby is so mysterious, that you’d think it would be difficult to embody his character. But Di Caprio gets into Gatsby’s shoes and walks around in them – he makes Gatsby so comprehensible and real to me that although I prefer books to movies, I understood Gatsby’s character better from the movie than the book. Di Caprio shows that Gatsby is really acting the role of the man he wishes he was. We see the calculating gleam in his eyes, the deceptive nature and how pathetic he becomes when his dreams are shattered. Tobey Maguire’s impression of Nick Carraway is also very real – there is this deep melancholy that humanizes his character. Another perfect casting is Carrey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan. Carrey becomes Daisy – she is exactly as I imagined Daisy. Daisy is supposed to have an enchanting charm that Carrey replicates it to its fullest potential. She is flirty, beautiful, and lets her men speak for her. Her entire life falls around her and she just lets it. Of course, you’ll hate Daisy – her character is foolish but at the same time you can’t help but admire how well Carrey Mulligan plays the role.
Therefore, I’d say, what saves this movie is the impeccable casting. However, the soundtracks for this movie do not do the story justice and in my opinion, neither did the director. Including modern hip-hop into a movie that is set right in the center of the Jazz era just undermines the entire storyline. And Luhrmann (the director) tends to dwell too much on creating grandiose landscapes and settings, rather than focusing on the meat of the story.
However, in all honesty, (as I said at the beginning of my critique) the movie has been made six times and Luhrmann’s remake is possibly the best. The thing about The Great Gatsby is that although it makes a classic book, it may not ever make a great movie – so maybe it’s not Luhrmann’s fault. The book lacks any character for you to feel deeply about; Gatsby is delusional, Nick is passive and Daisy is spoilt and rich. When reading the book, one might pretend to be Nick and be fascinated by Daisy’s glamour and Gatsby’s wealth but on screen, that may be difficult to pull off. So I’ll cut director Luhrmann some slack.
But I must say, in my opinion, no one has managed to retell The Great Gatsby on screen successfully yet. Maybe it’s just a story that shouldn't be retold or retouched.
See below for the trailer for the film :
So hope you all enjoyed Chrissie's post,
Click here to see my review of the book version of The Great Gatsby on Chrissie's blog.
Also, click here to see more from Chrissie Dalkan.
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