"It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment." ~ Chapter 6, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
People, you think you understand the book enough to criticize Luhrmann's movie? Let me begin this review within that heart-breaking note from chapter 6 while I'm telling people how I respect Baz Luhrmann's look at the novel by Scott Fitzgerald. If you've got your own way to dip yourself in the story about Gatsby, this director certainly got his own. And there's no doubt that Baz Luhrmann is a great name because of his own power of expressional adjustment.
Following are 4 main reasons which enable me to vote 10 stars for The Great Gatsby 2013.
1. Music --- I don't know why many people dislike the OST of this movie. I've been listening to Young and Beautiful (L. D. Rey) and Happy Together (Filter) and Back To Black (Beyonce feat Andre)... everyday. For me the music here is quite an intelligent touch to make me feel that the story of Gatsby could absolutely happen in any summer, any era. It's a smart way to link the man named Gatsby of 1920s to every man who was, or who is, or who is going to be 30-year-old. In the novel, Nick Carraway told us many times about this detail, that they - Nick and Gatsby, and Tom Buchanan - were at the same age, 30 year old.
Book, chapter 7: "What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon," cried Daisy, "and the day after that, and the next thirty years?"
2. Cast --- Jay DiCaprio or Leo Gatsby, which name is right? I can't believe if someone else could ever be more brilliant than Leonardo playing Gatsby. And Carey Mulligan is the most beautiful Daisy. I like the whole cast. Tobey Maguire, I totally like him in this movie. There're many bad comments about Luhrmann's choice for Nick Carraway, I can't get their underestimation. Definitely Tobey shows us the real Nick who participated through out the story with an appearance that looks younger than men at his age. I think Tobey, with kind-of-naive eyes and efforts, successfully embodies the best character of Nick. Let's discuss the detail again: men at around 30-year-old. People spend much time drawing the portrait of Gatsby but not many ones can imagine the right picture of Nick, even me. Thanks to Baz Luhrmann, now I remember the eyes of Tobey, the eyes of Nick, and the eyes after the glassed of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.
Book, chapter 2: "But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground."
3. Sreenplay --- I won't tell much because I don't want this review to be a big spoiler. The only thing I can't help writing about is the green light. Yes, the glamorous green light from Daisy's. You see it at the beginning. It's Baz Luhrman who knows how Gatsby was haunted by that green light. I'm a woman and I don't know much about a man's psychical motivation that leads him to dos and don'ts, but now I can imagine more exhaustively the deceiving hope of Gatsby. And the answer for the question "Why Gatsby is great?" may come clearly: it's his primitive love raised by the idea that once a green light is visible you can take it, you will take it at any price. Well, inspired by this I got a wish that every woman could seed such green light into a man to make him as great as Gatsby. And I know Luhrmann's sreenplay makes me love the novel much more.
Book, the end: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning---- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
4. The 3D era --- Everything looks more splendid, more "real". But the best impression showed up right at the beginning: the old W. Bros logo dimming out and the introduction in 3D comes, then... the green light appeared! I think about an Oscar statue for best production design. Much appreciate to see a modern film being designed that way in praise of the immortality of a literary classic like The Great Gatsby.
Book, chapter 1: "If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament"--it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness..."
People, you think you understand the book enough to criticize Luhrmann's movie? Let me begin this review within that heart-breaking note from chapter 6 while I'm telling people how I respect Baz Luhrmann's look at the novel by Scott Fitzgerald. If you've got your own way to dip yourself in the story about Gatsby, this director certainly got his own. And there's no doubt that Baz Luhrmann is a great name because of his own power of expressional adjustment.
Following are 4 main reasons which enable me to vote 10 stars for The Great Gatsby 2013.
1. Music --- I don't know why many people dislike the OST of this movie. I've been listening to Young and Beautiful (L. D. Rey) and Happy Together (Filter) and Back To Black (Beyonce feat Andre)... everyday. For me the music here is quite an intelligent touch to make me feel that the story of Gatsby could absolutely happen in any summer, any era. It's a smart way to link the man named Gatsby of 1920s to every man who was, or who is, or who is going to be 30-year-old. In the novel, Nick Carraway told us many times about this detail, that they - Nick and Gatsby, and Tom Buchanan - were at the same age, 30 year old.
Book, chapter 7: "What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon," cried Daisy, "and the day after that, and the next thirty years?"
2. Cast --- Jay DiCaprio or Leo Gatsby, which name is right? I can't believe if someone else could ever be more brilliant than Leonardo playing Gatsby. And Carey Mulligan is the most beautiful Daisy. I like the whole cast. Tobey Maguire, I totally like him in this movie. There're many bad comments about Luhrmann's choice for Nick Carraway, I can't get their underestimation. Definitely Tobey shows us the real Nick who participated through out the story with an appearance that looks younger than men at his age. I think Tobey, with kind-of-naive eyes and efforts, successfully embodies the best character of Nick. Let's discuss the detail again: men at around 30-year-old. People spend much time drawing the portrait of Gatsby but not many ones can imagine the right picture of Nick, even me. Thanks to Baz Luhrmann, now I remember the eyes of Tobey, the eyes of Nick, and the eyes after the glassed of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.
Book, chapter 2: "But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground."
3. Sreenplay --- I won't tell much because I don't want this review to be a big spoiler. The only thing I can't help writing about is the green light. Yes, the glamorous green light from Daisy's. You see it at the beginning. It's Baz Luhrman who knows how Gatsby was haunted by that green light. I'm a woman and I don't know much about a man's psychical motivation that leads him to dos and don'ts, but now I can imagine more exhaustively the deceiving hope of Gatsby. And the answer for the question "Why Gatsby is great?" may come clearly: it's his primitive love raised by the idea that once a green light is visible you can take it, you will take it at any price. Well, inspired by this I got a wish that every woman could seed such green light into a man to make him as great as Gatsby. And I know Luhrmann's sreenplay makes me love the novel much more.
Book, the end: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning---- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
4. The 3D era --- Everything looks more splendid, more "real". But the best impression showed up right at the beginning: the old W. Bros logo dimming out and the introduction in 3D comes, then... the green light appeared! I think about an Oscar statue for best production design. Much appreciate to see a modern film being designed that way in praise of the immortality of a literary classic like The Great Gatsby.
Book, chapter 1: "If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament"--it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness..."