An Operatic ' Gatsby '

The cast

One would never accuse Baz Luhrmann of having too much good taste. From Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, we know the director loves to film his subjects with a larger than life, frenetic, all-or-nothing style, full of excess. His characters live their lives on the edge of a precipice, willing to do anything for love. It should therefore come as no surprise that his latest film, The Great Gatsby, has much the same energy as his previous outings. F. Scott Fitzgerald may be rolling over in his grave, but Luhrmann's interpretation of a nearly 90 year old novel gives the story a vibrance and immediacy that helps keep it fresh for 21st Century cinema audiences.

Daisy and Gatsby, with the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg watching over them like God.

The book was published in 1925 and there have been many previously filmed versions of the Fitzgerald book, which some claim is The Great American Novel. In 1926 a silent Gatsby was filmed with Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson and William Powell. This appears to be a ' lost ' film. In 1949, Paramount Pictures turned Gatsby into a noir drama with Alan Ladd {Shane} as the mysterious man, Betty Field as his love Daisy, Macdonald Carey {of daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives fame} as Gatsby's only true friend Nick Carraway, Ruth Hussey as Jordan Baker , Barry Sullivan as Daisy's husband Tom and Shelley Winters as the ill-fated Myrtle, Tom's lower class mistress. This version was kept out of circulation for decades, presumably because Paramount wanted movie lovers to only see their 1974 version with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. The 1949 version has turned up recently on YouTube in a truly awful print. That pretty much left the field open for the Redford/Farrow version, made amid plenty of media pomp and circumstance, but which left most viewers cold. The ' 74 version, which I have seen plenty of times, has it's pleasures; the period detail, costumes, sets and music, are all first rate, it also contained several quality performances; specifically from Bruce Dern, Karen Black, Sam Waterston and Scott Wilson. Redford's Gatsby and Farrow's Daisy were okay, but the supporting cast was impeccable. 

Poster for the 1949 Alan Ladd noir-ish version

This new, hip-hopped, 3D'ed version gets alot of the feel of the Roaring 20's -bootleg gin and flappers- right. I was doubtful going in if the music would fit the milieu, however Luhrmann has chosen wisely to keep most of the modern music to the party scenes, which are spectacular. The use of Rhapsody in Blue, though historically inaccurate { the movie is set in 1922, Gershwin's masterpiece wasn't written and performed until 1924}, it fits well into the picture, coming as it does with the first intro of DiCaprio's Gatsby. Luhrmann's trademark rapid-fire editing and camerawork is also more subdued here and the images of New York City are, at times, truly breathtaking. Surely one cannot fault the physical production.  

The performances range from good to fair to poor. On the good side there is Leonardo DiCaprio as millionaire Jay Gatsby. DiCaprio brings a initial hesitancy to Gatsby that feels right; this is a man for whom making a positive impression is everything, due to his dirt poor upbringing. DiCaprio's use of the term "old sport ", is delivered with just the right amount of uncertainess; it doesn't sound quite right coming out of his mouth and it shouldn't. The out of control, violent side of Gatsby's nature is also frighteningly brought to life. Leo makes a fine Jay Gatsby, for who repeating the past is essential. I would go further and say Gatsby is not so much about repeating the past, but about erasing the bad parts of that past; substituting one's own version of it. Carey Mulligan brings a more down to earth quality than I had seen in previous incarnations. Not flighty, Mulligan brings a melancholy to Daisy I had not anticipated. Her Daisy, through a good hour or so, has one of the saddest expression on her face I have ever witnessed. Tobey Maguire's Nick Carraway was, at first, hard for me to take, but the actor seemed to get more comfortable with the part as the movie progressed. An interesting thing I noticed was Maguire's resembles to the book's author, Fitzgerald. Opening the film in an asylum {which is not in the book}, from which Nick narrates the entire movie, brings a touch of Fitzgerald, who spent time in the 1930's in such places brought on by his alcoholism, to the proceedings.  

Nick and Jordan party hardy, 20's-style

Newcomer Elizabeth Debicki brings the right amount of sexy, slinky, sassy elegance to the part of golf pro Jordan Baker, Nick's part-time girlfriend and good friend of Daisy's. One of the weakest parts of this new version are the characters of Tom Buchanan, Daisy's brutish husband, and his mistress Myrtle. Isla Fisher brings a jazz baby vivacity to Myrtle, what with her Brooklyn accented, Clara Bow-look and her low-life {in today's parlance, trailer trash} sister and their friends. Unfortunately, Ms. Fisher has just a scant amount of screen time, with no interaction with her garage-owning husband, who she appears to loathe, but since Luhrmann doesn't give us any of Myrtle's story, and if one hasn't read the book, one can only assume.                            

Party girl, Myrtle

                                                                                                                                                           Joel Edgerton's Tom is a different problem altogether. If I were to point to one glaring weakness in both the movie and it's actors it would be Edgerton, for he shows us only one side of Tom; the racist, misogynistic, privileged, to-the-manor-born white man. It is true Tom is such a man, but as Bruce Dern aptly showed us in the 1974 version, there was much more to Tom than control and money and oppression. Edgerton's Tom is all bluster with no subtlety or shading. Edgerton misses Buchanan's smug arrogance; consequently, Tom becomes more of a bore than a threat to Gatsby and Daisy's chance for happiness. What Daisy saw in him and why she married him in the first place is hard to fathom.

Director Lurhmann get's Isla Fisher in his sights

  Baz Luhrmann's films are stylized, operatic, over-the-top affairs. Like a box of over-stuffed chocolates, one is never quite sure what to expect until that first bite is taken and I admit I went to this movie expecting to love it or hate it, for Luhrmann's films, unlike most filmmakers, leaves room no middle ground. He doesn't play it safe. He is the Ken Russell of the 21st Century; a mad dreamer, who has a strong visual sense with a unique, some might say outrageous, view. Luhmann is also the cinema's current romantic. In this age of hip cynicism, where most people have seen it all or done it all { or feel that they have, which amounts to the same thing }, Luhrmann dares to give us romantics who cannot be separated, yet also cannot be together, except in death; his Romeo and Juliet surrounded by gang warfare and the peer pressure of doing what that crowd expects; Sabine and Christian, the ill-fated lovers torn apart by bad luck and circumstance in Moulin Rouge!, and now Gatsby. I recommend that you go and see this Gatsby, in a theater and in 3D. It may not please everyone {it has the critics divided right down the middle}, but it will not bore you. Like it's maker, Gatsby the movie and Gatsby the man is a risk taker and that alone has it's rewards.

                                                                                                        Sources: Wikipedia;
               The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Crazy Sundays : F, Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood by Aaron Latham; The Great Gatsby - 1974