The Ghastly Gatsby
“Gatsby? What Gatsby?” gasped Daisy Buchanan in the recent blockbuster movie based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby.
Meet Jay Gatsby. Played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Gatsby is a wealthy man who lives in East Egg in New York during the Roaring Twenties. He throws lavish parties every weekend, but no one has met Gatsby or knows who he truly is. All the wealthy individuals of New York simply go to his parties to dance, drink, and have a good time.
Nick Carraway, the narrator of the movie, is Gatsby’s new next-door neighbor. Nick lives in a small cottage that is dwarfed by Gatsby’s mansion, and doesn’t make very much money as a bond seller. Nick becomes good friends with Gatsby after attending one of his extraordinary parties.
Then there is Tom and Daisy Buchanan, a married couple who live in West Egg, the “old money” side of Long Island. Tom and Daisy have a poor relationship since Tom cheats on Daisy with his white-trash mistress, Myrtle.
As Nick slowly unravels the truth about Gatsby, he realizes that his past is quite complicated. The real reason why Gatsby holds the extravagant parties is because he wants to win back his old love, Daisy.
When Gatsby had left for WWI, Daisy made the decision to marry Tom. Wanting to win Daisy back, Gatsby becomes fabulously wealthy by bootlegging and makes himself popular with his parties, believing he will eventually run into Daisy and that she will leave Tom. However, what Gatsby does not realize throughout the story is that one cannot repeat the past.
At CVHS, The Great Gatsby is a very popular novel and an absolute must-read. Many who enjoyed reading The Great Gatsby will most likely be disappointed, for they will experience the heartache of watching a great novel get torn apart by Hollywood.
Not only were significant parts of the book replaced or removed in the movie, but viewers were also witnesses to a soundtrack and set of costumes that did not accurately represent the time period of the story. This Hollywood version of “The Great Gatsby” would have horrified the Americans of the 1920s.
I would like to say that I enjoyed the special effects and how the film was directed, but even those weren’t done well either. The movie seemed as if it was on some sort of hyperactive drug. Camera angles changed every few seconds while fireworks and confetti burst at random times. It could have given someone a seizure.
It wasn’t too awful (at least the main part of the story wasn’t changed), and the movie’s saving grace was the actors. DiCaprio was amazing in his role of Gatsby.
For those that haven’t read the book, the movie will be very enjoyable. For those that have, you still have to go, but don’t expect much.
